Now, in 2008, the median home value was roughly $225K.
Yes, some bought at a peak, but the typical guy didn’t.
My bro in law lives in the Phoenix area. I looked up his neighborhood on Zillow almost two years ago and a fascinating thing was apparent. Almost all the homes were valued at the $425k to $475K range, except about 7 of the homes were in the $235 to $275k range. I looked up the details and found one thing in common with all of the “cheap” homes: They had recently sold for that price.
Those 7 homes were showing the REAL value of all the homes in the neighborhood. :)
The whole analysis is completely bogus, both overly rosy (leaving out state and local taxes) and overly dire, since the “typical Joe” raising two kids alone probably rents or owns a cheap starter home, rather than owning a median priced home.
I know more people that re-fied than didn’t. Most at the max that they could wring out of their equity, meaning that they actually have a mortgage based on 2006 or 2007 appraisals.