10 years that shook America's finances

Year 2006: Growing home prices create "bubble"

• The year 2006 sees the peak of the housing bubble, with the median existing home price climbing to $221,900, more than four times the U.S. median household income at the time, according to the National Association of Realtors. The value of a typical American home climbs 50.4 percent since the beginning of the decade, with some markets such as Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Las Vegas-Paradise, Nev., and Riverside-San Bernadino, Calif., more than doubling.
• Homeowners respond to the run-up in housing prices by drawing record amounts of equity out of their homes through cash-out refinancing, home equity loans and home equity lines of credit. All in all, Americans liquidate $318.3 billion in equity through cash-out refinances in 2006, according to Freddie Mac.
• The rising federal funds rate contributes to rising yields on certificates of deposit, benefiting savers. In September, the average yield for a one-year CD hits 3.89 percent, a multiyear high that's a far cry from today's paltry average yield for one-year CDs of below 1 percent.
• Alan Greenspan, the man largely credited with engineering the housing boom, retires on Jan. 31, ending a reign of more than 18 years as chairman of the Federal Reserve. He is replaced by Ben Bernanke.

-- Claes Bell