Flashback: Rep. Frank Says Housing Not in Bubble, Pledges To Further Push Home Ownership

Frank: You’re not going to see the collapse that you see when people talk about a bubble'

In a 2005 speech on the House floor, then-Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said critics of rising housing prices were wrong and that there was no bubble: 

“This is a very important resolution, particularly at this time, because we have, I think, an excessive degree of concern right now about home ownership and its role in the economy. Obviously speculation is never a good thing, but those who argue that housing prices are now at the point of a bubble seem to me to be missing a very important point. Unlike previous examples we have had where substantial, excessive inflation in prices later caused some problems, we are talking here about an entity, home ownership, homes, where there is not the degree of leverage we have seen elsewhere. This is not a dot-com situation, we have problems with people having invested in business plans in which there was no reality, people building fiber optic cable for which there was no need. Homes that are occupied may see an ebb and flow in the price at a certain percentage level, but you’re not going to see the collapse that you see when people talk about a bubble. So those of us, on our committee in particular, will continue to push for home ownership.”