Why did people want a boom in property prices in the past 30 years?

Well, all I know is here in our town in California, we bought our house 20 years ago. We resisted the desire to keep "selling" up. We refinanced 10 yrs ago with a 15 yr mortgage. We looked around and saw all these similar houses selling for 4x what we paid, but still we resisted. Now that the bottom fell out, or the bubble burst or what ever. We will be paid off in 5 yrs at a fraction of the cost, while so many others are paying a very high price, or even filing bankruptcy....Greed is a risk and now that its exploded, people want the govt to help.