man somebody has their tenses totally screwed. It's not headed, it was headed. For total destruction. And that happened. The housing market is totally, has or was totally destroyed. "Extend and pretend" only put some distance between now and the reality in much the same way (but opposite) of a person who makes a positive change in their lives and it takes a while to see the benefits. Or like a gardener who plants  a seed knowing the seed is pretty worthless but the plant in time will bear fruit.

This train hit the wall 3 years ago, it's just taking a while for your car to pile up. It's a very long train. Put another way, previously Humptey Dumptey sat on a wall, Humptey Dumptey had a great fall and all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humptey together again. That was then. The now is the king's horses and men are all trying to shore up the wall, which itself is falling and all they know is what happens when Humptey falls. They think they are smart and have predictive power when anybody can see that walls are fundamentally unstable. Walls can only stand if they have enough doors and windows. Walls exist to keep things from changing. Windows and doors provide a transitional element between what somebody thinks we should have and what we might want to have. If you find the doors and windows you realize there never was a wall at all.

Humpey Dumptey did not sit on a wall. it was more likely a scaffold. Poor Humptey Dumptey believed them when they said he could sit on a wall.

There was no wall. never was atall.