And they vote...
Indeed, a greedy game of hot potato. Everyone new that the debt was improperly collateralized (to put it gently). They just didn’t intend to get caught holding it.
In cases like this the home buyers were just complete idiots. In other cases, they too hoped to get out from under the hot potato before the buzzer sounded.
I’ve been in the flipping business for four years and never bought a house based on appreciation, although I did only factor in a 10% correction. I’m about dead even on the two I’m holding and have rented out.
My niche is distressed property that has serious but fixable problems. I can usually get them for about 50% of final value, drop another 10% into them and sell for a good profit. I’m pretty much dead in the water now though, as I’ve been forced to rent them out, thus losing the liquidity of my capital.
I saw a lot of what I could only characterize as gambling out in the market though.