Exacerbating the problem is that as home prices have decreased, many lenders have increased the down-payment amount required to obtain a mortgage loan.
Those who learn how to manage money during this time will learn to build the savings required to make a downpayment on a future home, buy cars without the help of a lease or high-interest loan and eventually afford the joys that real financial freedom offers, such as frequent vacations or early retirement.
It cannot just be assumed that most people who during the housing boom bought homes with adjustable-rate mortgages, or mortgages with prepayment penalties, or mortgages that required a low or even no downpayment, were fools or victims of fraud.