re: Why were house prices going up like crazy during the housing bubble?

NINJA loans were being handed out. (No Income, No Job Applicant)

You could literally be on welfare, go in, claims you made $100k a year, get approved for a $400k mortgage, pay interest only for five years.

The problem came when those five years were up, and the price of the house had dropped, and the payment quadrupled.

My own experience - we bought our first house in 2003. We were looking at homes in the $175k range, because that's what we could afford. We were approved for $600k.

How many people got those approvals back and upped their budget without thinking about it. That $175k house, we were happy to sell for $152k in 2009.