As a real estate appraiser's wife/assistant, to me it seems obvious that this relates to the current housing crisis in many ways.
 
We know of otherwise sound persons in the trades and of wise enough age and resources who have had to quit building a structure to completion because costs had increased to more than they could afford. And builders who sit with premium houses they have construction financing on which they are unable to sell.
 
Also, it relates to financing a home in that if you don't calculate the costs of the building -- including the mortgage costs (which are your "building expenses" spread out over time, of course) and whether you can afford to finish it (the payments), you will look like a fool later when you can't afford to finish (the payments). Those who made low begining payments were laying the foundation -- and that's about all before the rates were set to go up. How could they not have counted the cost of higher interest rates and whether they had sufficient funds to finish the payments???
 
Back in 1999 when I bought my first home in the Tampa Bay area, I knew of several people my age buying into massive new housing developments on the outskirts of the area. I had visions of these neighborhoods within neighborhoods being vastly vacant and abandoned like a ghost-town. Not sure why but partly because they were too far out for an easy commute (now even more meaningful with the price of gas) and partly due to some financial and/or national disaster. I was not a watcher at that time (was dating a mostly non-practicing muslim) and didn't rediscover Christianity until a couple of years later.
 
As a side note, when I was 16 and beginning to understand that most things run on some sort of cycle, I remember "knowing" that 2006-2012 would be a very troublesome time and voicing this to my mother who had a very strong faith. Today, I know what is meant by the verse about family against family as the (former Catholic) mother who firmly planted the seeds of Christian (Presby/Methodist) beliefs in me discredits the Bible blatently in front of all. Too much TV.
 
--Angelique