I wrote an article here: about - who caused the housing boom and crisis.

There are many factors which led to the booming prices. In the UK, a large % of this represented the fundamental disequilibrium between supply and demand. But, it was also helped by:

• Increased availability of unconventional mortgages
• A strong social desire to get on the property ladder at all costs
• The reluctance of the Government to increase supply sufficiently
• A reluctance of the MPC to give any importance to a booming housing market, focusing narrowly on CPI inflation.

The fall in house prices is a combination of declining affordability but, also the real crisis in the mortgage industry sparked by the US subprime crisis. It is this lack of affordable mortgages which is having the biggest bearing on house prices in the UK.

There are other factors suggested as well such as greed, estate agents and poor financial regulation.

• Who caused the housing boom and crisis.