It all came down to the democrats meddling in the market to make housing “affordable” for those who intrinsically should NOT be homeowners. One aspect was artificially depressing interest rates leading to massive speculative investment. No matter how you slice it, it was democrat malfeasance.
Another, of course, was Bush pushing a program where tax dollars would be used to assist those people who couldn't afford them.
In Bush's June 17, 2002 speech, he also called for the creation of the American Dream Down Payment Fund.
And so here are some of the ways to address the issue. First, the single greatest barrier to first time homeownership is a high downpayment. It is really hard for many, many, low income families to make the high downpayment. And so that's why I propose and urge Congress to fully fund the American Dream Downpayment Fund. This will use money, taxpayers' money to help a qualified, low income buyer make a downpayment. And that's important.