David Pierson:

Mike Zhang considered himself serious boyfriend material.

But Zhang, a 28-year-old language tutor and interpreter, couldn't afford an apartment in the capital's scorching property market.

Rather than waste any more time, his girlfriend of more than two years dumped him.

Homeownership has become the ultimate symbol of virility in today's China.

John Bird and John Fortune:

They thought that if they had a bigger mortgage they could get a bigger house. They thought if they had a bigger house, they would be happy. It's pathetic. I've got four houses and I'm not happy.

Nick Timiraos:

A new report estimates that nearly one in five mortgage defaults through the first half of 2009 were "strategic," where borrowers who appeared to have the capacity to pay their mortgages stopped doing so.

One young fish to another:

What the hell is water?

Ruth Simon And James R. Hagerty:

23% of all mortgage borrowers in the US are underwater.

Decius:

Imagine if they all walked.

Ma Nuo, bai jin nu:

I would rather cry in a BMW than smile on the back of my boyfriend's bicycle.