"The obvious question is who is to blame? The Dems or repubs? Bush or Obama? Those who walked away from their mortgage and foreclosed? Myself for buying when the market was abnormally high?"

You want the truth? All of them is the correct answer. There are a few more players that had a hand in the mess as well. The snow ball was started down the hill in 1989 when the Clinton Administration pushed hard for a lessening of regulations that allowed Fannie and Freddie to guarantee loans that were higher risk. This was passed in a bi-partisan vote in Congress as every politician liked the idea. Along the way many other things happended to get us where we are today but that was the start of the mess.