system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Right before the mortgage crises, why were Americans taking out housing loans they knew they would be unable to afford?

I remember back in 2006, I was bagging groceries as a high school and I had teachers who were buying housing in the $700k range when they were only making 40k a year.
gpt
People were under the impression that a bank simply wouldn't give you a loan if they didn't think you would pay it back. Since they got loans they naively assumed that meant that they would be able to afford it. Banks were encouraging people to take out these loans while persuading them they could afford it all.