Nor was it just Democrat administrations pumping up the market.
President George H. Bush amended the charters of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to declare they had an obligation to facilitate the financing of ‘affordable’ housing for low-income families.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development set goals, at first that 30 pc of mortgage deals should be in this category, later amended to a massive 55 pc.
This insanity reached a climax with President George W. Bush’s American Dream Down Payment Initiative. This provided federal funds to those who had not saved anything. It would even cover their legal costs.
Eventually, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac owned or effectively guaranteed more than half of the $12 trillion mortgage market — real money. Then the bubble burst, as bubbles always do.
After soaring irresistibly until 2005/6, house prices fell like a spent rocket. Banks went for repossession orders. But that only spurred on the slump in house prices. Three million homes were subject to these orders.