I was doing some research for the day job and came across this article about a panel discussion on the future of GSEs (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac). There are several good quotes contained within, but these two really caught my eye:
But according to White and Booher, it was a broader cultural issue, an unbalanced federal housing policy that stressed homeownership at the expense of rational underwriting. “I believe that the deception of our culture, that money grows on trees, that there can be action and no reaction, is so prevalent that we live in a fantasy world,” White said. “And members of Congress were the ultimate actors there.”
That unbalanced housing policy was prevalent on the operations side as well. "The problem really starts with a culture that’s increasingly looking for something for nothing,” Durkin of Wood Partners explained. “That permeates our housing policy.”
I really do hope my children's generation ends up being smarter than mine or my parents'.
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Befuddled 
A lot of the problem in housing had nothing to do with what we traditionally think of homeownership. In 2005 1/3 of home sales were to people who did not plan to use them as their primary residence. In Miami, 85% of condos fell into that category. If 1/3 of sales nationwide were speculative investments, how high a percentage was that in the bubble states? >50, >75%??? A HUGE problem was that people were getting loans intended for owner-occupants for speculative investments, 0%, 10% down. For a non owner-occupied property you should need > 20% down. The GSE’s should never touch a loan that is not for a home someone plans to use as a primary residence.
This is the quote that needs repeating: “The restructuring of Fannie and Freddie is likely to be a long process.”