Housing Fever Can Work Both Ways

THE boom and bust in the housing market was a dual social epidemic. First, there was an epidemic of positive thinking that led to high expectations for long-term home price appreciation — and for the economy, too. Then, after 2005, an epidemic of negative thinking discouraged many people from buying a house or from spending in general, and kept many employers from hiring.

We would all like to think that our economy makes more sense than that, and, in some ways, it does.

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