>On 3/8/06, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>> I think the official line on this is more or less correct - that
>>poorer people bought lots of houses in the 1990s and early 2000s,
>>despite high and rising prices. The reason: very low downpayments
>>and innovative" mortgages (less than interest-only, for example). <
>
>Didn't the Clinton administration make a big effort to encourage home
>ownership and congratulate itself on its success?
>--
Yup. Back during the Clinton years, I got a letter from an LBO subscriber in California who worked at a housing agency. They'd just gotten briefed by someone in the admin about how they were encouraging homeownership through 0-5% downpayments. My correspondent thought this was reckless & scary, but little did either of us know at the time that it would become a pervasive national mania.
Doug