Bucky, as a matter of fact, yes, we did close on our house! Just this evening! Gosh, it feels good to be a homeowner again!
Of course, now we have to face the moving part of it! Ack!
The crazy inflation in house prices never happened down here in Houston, so you didn't have people trying to ride the escalator. I've heard that out many places (especially southern California) people would buy a house that they couldn't make the payments on, but as the price of houses went up, they'd count on taking a loan on the equity to make the payments.