A bargain is not a bargain if its price falls down the track. If the price does fall, the bargain then becomes a liability, and the owner's of that bargain will simply go into zero spending mode. What's zero spending mode? It's the opposite to when people were buying up cars, holidays, etc, on the news that their homes appreciated faster than they earned money.
So if we get a reversal in house prices, then all those big ticket purchases that were bought on the equity of their homes will no longer be 'something for nothing'. That means that all those things must be paid back the traditional way, something westerners do not want to understand.
