I endorse a simpler explanation.
There would have been no financial meltdown without massive overbuilding of single family homes and zero down payment mortgages.
Massive overbuilding and high risk mortgages were based on absurd home values, which doubled in five years.
Then, mix in the $10 trillion mortgage security market, which was built on the economic concept that home prices had not gone down for 75 years.
Few people recognized the risk that home prices could decline dramatically.
And no one - to my knowledge - recognized the risk that millions of people would walk away from their mortgages when their home values went under water.
****Massive overbuilding and high risk mortgages were based on absurd home values, which doubled in five years.***
Fox reporting that Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac will be dissolved - along with 30-year mortgages.
US is the only country that has 30-year mortgages. Must be related to family farms and post WWII returning vets.
Today, families break up and move around - homes are not ‘permanent’ residences. Makes sense to have 10 year financing - much like autos - with a low interest. After 30 years a $100K house has cost $300K.