I believe that another scenario is that so many people have lost their jobs, they had to do something..so they went in the house building business...hence too many houses and not enough people to buy them...hence...supply and demand.
Also...greedy CEOS....they rolled the dice on sub-prime loans ...the loans went down the tubes...the banks and
lending institutions lost their arses...The past CEOS now sit in the tropics somewhere enjoying life
while many people suffer from their bad decisions.
Wrong. The construction industry is what it always has been. Except for the very large guys (which even then it still affects them greatly), the industry comes and goes as the value of houses goes up, and the inflation goes down (or doesn't rise as quickly).
The problem wasn't with the number of houses, but the sizes. People were trying to live beyond their means at all levels. An upper middle class family of 4 doesn't need a 4500 square foot new house to live. And unless they actually have the money they shouldn't go for it. For the same reason that a lower class person shouldn't try to get a smaller house under a sub prime loan.
People got burnt all the way around*. Hopefully they'll have learned from it.
*That is except for the biggest companies in home production and sales. A lot of them like Toll, Ryan, and Pulte had a bad habit of putting up a house that should have cost $300 to build, for $200, and selling them for $600 to $1,500. They'll take a hit to their enormous profit margins, but not much else.