A family borrowing too much is their problem, banks not doing their jobs is a national problem which should not be rewarded by bailouts, but by jail time and bankruptcies.
It's not credit card debt, even if you go bankrupt the bank can still collect the debt by evicting you. So it's not the same as loaning someone money for consumables.
Banks price foreclosure and delinquency rates into their interest rates. In 2007/2008 this didn't work because the banks themselves were over-leveraged.
But it doesn't change the fundamental aspect of this that a bank can be quite happy to give you a loan you don't have a high chance of paying back. If they charge you high enough interest rates it's free money for them.
This is only true under assumption that house prices won't decline.
That's because they aren't. It's not their responsibility to figure out their own credit risk in relation to other loans that are packaged up in CDSes by banks and given triple A ratings by rating firms and sold on the market.
It started with the banker that sold a mortgage while knowing the people couldn't afford it, and continued with other firms packaging it up all nice and shiny until the whole financial system collapsed. There is no way consumers (normal every day people) are responsible for this mess.
What if interest rates go up and my monthly repayment goes up by 10-15%? What if I lose my job tomorrow and it will take me 6 months to find a new role? These and similar are common sense questions a consumer should ask himself/herself before taking out a loan. I am not going to put 100% of the blame on the bankers. You don't need a degree in economics to be able to ask these simple common sense questions and make a judgement on whether it's a good idea to take out that loan.
That's personal responsibility, different from being responsible for the global economy. A dangerous game based on credit and loans was being played by banks and financial firms, but the people getting a mortgage where the poker chips not the poker players.
I'm not from the US, the crisis in 2008 hit my hometown (in Europe) hard. Do you expect me to (partly) blame US homeowners for this?
Why wasn't it up to the people to know they couldn't afford it? Have we really absolved personal responsibility this much?
If you're getting a mortgage it's time to start acting like an adult already.