The effect on others of a collapse in the housing bubble isn't just that their houses decline in value. In fact this is the least of the effects. Far worse will be a tightening of credit for everyone, responsible individuals and corporations and irresponsible ones, those with top drawer  credit ratings and those without, thanks to the presence of billions in bad debt on the ledgers of financial institutions.  Business credit has been readily available for the last few years, but business investment hasn't been slow, in part because our provincial governments have been working assiduously to increase business costs and decrease business investment. Just think of what will happen when business credit isn't readily available.