Interesting comment, but of course Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were not at the epicenter. That’s just not true. For many years they were far behind the subprime lending of the commercial banks and were eventually pushed into this lending as their market share declined. There’s no need to blame the “special” lenders of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac when plain old banks, their corrupt mortgage originating brethren and risk-blind rating agencies will do just fine.

Already seen that the R150,000 to R300,000 segment of the property market has been booming. Enough to make me think whether I should be investing in lower income houses. The thing is, capital price appreciation reflects access to capital and free cash flow. I don’t think this is then the same market as the R5,000 loans, but I’m not that close to it.