The big bad wolf huffed, and puffed, and blew the little pig's house down. But the little pig didn't run away. Actually, the little pig gladly thanked the big bad wolf, because he had been trying to sell his house for a long, long time. Now, instead of having to lower the price of his house in order to sell it, the little pig could collect insurance; at least he would get something out of the wreck. The little piggy's neighbors also thanked the wolf since that meant that there was one less competing house for sale in the neighborhood.

How did the housing crisis happen? Who was involved? Real estate agents. They encouraged low-income families to buy houses when they knew that they didn't have near enough money to. Lenders. They provided the funds so that unqualified applicants could still buy homes. Home builders. They used different incentives to persuade buyers. All of these businesses were striking players in the housing crisis drama.

Real estate agents showed properties and worked to put buyers in touch with lenders. They dealt with the people that wanted to see deals close so they could generate fees. Their biggest mistake was directing people into homes that they couldn't afford. This little error caused many families to rush to lenders who they believed would solve their problems.

Lenders provided the loans so that these low-income families could buy the house they wanted without much regard to if they could make the payments. They offered people risky mortgages such as optional-payment loans. Many lenders didn't even require the borrower to verify their job status, income, or assets since they were passing the risk along.

Home builders used different attractive qualities to entice buyers. They raised the desire for home owners to buy houses by offering them a variety of incentives such as financing. In general home builders have their jobs on a tipping scale. On one side is all of the home owners and on the other side are the amount of customers the home builders have. The more home owners there are, the less customers they have because not many people who own homes want to buy another one. Although, as the amount of homeowners decreases (which it is due to the housing crisis) more people want to buy houses which puts home builders back in business.