Food for thought

It amazes me how much attention is paid to home values. Not that that's a bad thing; I think we should keep close tabs on our investments, and our homes are in many cases our biggest one. Funny, though, looking back to my first home, the value rose and fell 3 times during my course of ownership and I knew little about it. I can't really say I even cared much. It never dawned on me that it might have been a good idea to discontinue paying for it when the value dipped. I also never thought of short-sales, nor did I ever wince about gloom-and-doom that "may last forever." Those were simpler times, I'd agree. But the bottom line is, this isn't the first time that home values have ebbed. In my lifetime, and I'm 50 years of age, I've seen several cycles in my 27 years in this business. I hold steadfast to the theory that this is the first time there was a downturn that was complicated by funky financing which put many in homes that shouldn't have been in them to begin with (as I've said many times, homeownership is a priveledge, not a right) and speculative buyers who entered the market for a way to make big profits because they were coming off a stock market crash and needed a new easy way to maintain their haughty lifestyle. Those are the two biggest foils to the housing market. It's not that it hasn't happened before, there are just a few new influences involved. I'd like for some people that value their home as the place they live and raise their family to say that there is as much value in that as there is in the investment value of the property. Come on, say it. I know this is a diversion and I know it's somewhat off topic, but aren't there any "warm fuzzies" about homeownership that at least equalize (if not outweigh) our temporary woes? Am I the only one  here who's been critical of those wanting to push the plunger and instead trying to get people to learn to respect their property?