Timing is everything. In 2008 the housing market in the United States crashed. One year later I became engaged, graduated from college, and got married. My then-fiance and I spent the summer of 2009 planning our wedding and considering in which neighborhood we might like to find an apartment. We were both in our early 20s, both recent college grads, and both living with our parents; we hadn’t even considered buying a house. Then the government told us they’d give us 8k if we did. So we started to look.