I could have bought a home when I started my current or previous job, but did not largely because the rent / own calcuation pointed to rent and all the warning lights were flashing red that it was a bubble. There was also a sense that I might move again within 2-5 years, but plenty of other people looking at that short horizon also bought (and if you bought in 2004 and sold in 2006, it even paid off).

I'll be mighty pissed off if we choose policies that bail out existing owners at the expense of first time homebuyers or people who got out of the market during the bubble.

Note that both parties are guilty here -- the GOP too has come up with a number of proposals designed to do nothing but prop up home values in the short term.