Today’s housing market is vastly different than the bubble market of 12 years ago. Here are four key differences. 1. Home prices have reached 2006 levels in many markets across the country, but given that 12 years have passed, prices should actually be much higher based on inflation alone. 2. Mortgage standards are far more stringent than in the years leading up to the crash. While it’s true that lending institutions are starting to ease standards, today’s buyers are more qualified than a decade ago. 3. Foreclosure numbers are much lower than they were before the housing boom. In 2009, at the depth of the crash, there were 566,180 foreclosures on the market. Today there are 76,480. 4. Housing affordability is dramatically different today. According to CoreLogic, this year’s inflation-adjusted mortgage payments are much lower than the pre-crisis peak. Mortgage rates are lower too, averaging 6.7 percent in 2006 versus 4.4 percent in March 2018.