Six months to housing hell

For the past decade, US homeowners have been truly blessed. Profits have risen, interest rates have gone down and homeowners can sit back designing features for their holiday mansions. Paradise gained. But will it become paradise lost?

For the past decade, homeowners in the United States have been living in "Housing Heaven". In this heavenly place, profits are always made; prices only go up; interest rates only go down; developers keep building, marketing, and selling megabuck, luxurious spa-like residences, that are all sold pre-construction; property speculators always make money, and pyramid their purchases into owning many properties to flip for a quick profit; and, second-homes are not an expensive luxury, but a wise investment for retirement.

If you really needed to make ends meet while living in this so-called Housing Heaven, all you had to do was buy a vacation home, rental property, or second-home and proceed to "install your own ATM on the side of your financed house" with your bank's help, of course. Who needs to work, when you can simply go to the bank and rob your own house? It's easier than robbing the bank! Living this way is fine in Housing Heaven, but not down here on earth. Here's why.

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