Ok, so I agree –
buyers, as a whole, are more qualified than those from 08, but I have to scream every time I hear about the number of cash buyers in this market.
Make no mistake, there are a lot of people who BORROW the cash from various lenders.
For example, here is a ‘regular person’ (who sells cosmetics for a living) who borrowed cash from Better, a lender: https://www.npr.org/2021/12/06/1061896221/everyday-people-can-buy-a-house-with-cash-with-this-new-type-of-loan
Of course, NAR and the real-estate lobby likes to say that everyone offering cash actually has a pile of it sitting around and nobody actually uses these types of cash-offer loans.