levels of a few years ago. One reason is that no one wants to lend money to riskier borrowers as before. It might prevent the next housing bubble, which is a good thing. But it also impedes economic growth too.

Also, building automation might do something similar. Lots of building automation technology is in the pipeline.

It will soon be possible to build large buildings with automated quadcopters, etc.

people believed all the "housing can never go down" propaganda and borrowed obscene amounts of money to hop on the free money gravy train

Problem is that if housing always goes up faster than inflation, the next generation gets priced out of the market in just a few short years, leading to an implosion in the market as the number of buyers collapses.

Housing had to go down sometime, it was mathematically inevitable. Unfortunately we have a nation of innumerates who can't resist the idea of getting something for nothing.

prices would rise. Even those who feared they might not be able to afford a house believed -- or were led to believe -- that even if they got in trouble down the road, they could sell their house and walk away with equity. When prices fell, they were left holding a bag, as were investors who bough pooled mortgages believing the principle was not at risk because of ever increasing housing prices.

Bursting that belief is probably why housing will never return to past levels.