In the financial crisis of 2008, DH worked for a home builder (not in the trades, he was the director of security). We live in Canada, and as I understand it, this all hit North America hardest, although very little of the Western world was left unscathed. The first thing they did was try to cut "overhead" And all "non-essential" departments were eliminated, including security.
The company lost money in amounts I will never see cumulatively in 100 lifetimes, and the executive vice president committed suicide.
However... prior to all this happening , real estate prices were at their highest on record and had been rising fast. See where I am going with this? They tanked almost overnight.
We struggled, but managed. DH found another position at about half the pay, but because we still rented a property that had been owned by the company he had worked for, our discounted rent continued to be honoured - and in our province, as long as you are still a tenant, even if the lease has ended (virtually all LLs have new tenants sign for the first year, then go "month to month" from then on, but tenancy is secure except under very specific situations) the maximum annual rent increases are tightly restricted.
Anything above the legislated limit must be specifically applied for to the province, and more importantly, justified. It is an expectation that LLs must adequately maintain properties - they may be penalized for not doing so - therefore routine maintenance, including larger expenses like replacing a furnace/boiler, appliance or roof, is not justification for an "out of scope" increase. In addition, a landlord may not charge any more than one month's rent as a deposit, which will be used as the last month's rent when the tenant ends the tenancy with 60 days' notice, must pay interest to the tenant on the deposit, cannot charge "application" fees, and may not refuse pets unless there are specific issues like safety (aggressiveness) or damage caused by the animal.
Now we have moved... we live in what was, for nearly a century, the centre of the automotive manufacturing "world" not fact, but you wouldn't know that by speaking to anyone who has worked in the industry . We are in a border city, and our "other half" across the river, being American, saw even worse effect from plant and supplier closures than we did.
When finances tanked, 2 out of the 3 major manufacturers either closed up shop or cut production massively. Unemployment in the automotive sector was in excess of 35%, people faced foreclosure at record rates, property values plummeted, rental stock disappeared when families who lost their houses had to find a place to live, and those who kept their homes couldn't sell them - they could barely find someone to hand over the titles to them, as, in many cases, the outstanding value of the mortgage exceeded the current value of the house.
We moved here after that all happened, but when unemployment was still in excess of 10%, the highest in the country. However, because of the housing price drop, we managed to find a beautiful big house to rent at a price that, in most other cities in the province, would be so far out of reach as to be a pipe dream. The house is 280 sq m and we pay the Canadian equivalent of £665 monthly - our LL wanted to leave the city, but couldn't sell when the value of her house dropped. We aren't overly concerned about our tenancy - she owns one other house that she rents. The tenant there has been there for 19 years, we've been here for 5 now.
However... housing prices in the largest city in Canada continue to rise at insane rates. They bobbled briefly with the financial crisis, but recovered and continue to climb. The prediction is that it will not last, and will start to level or drop, but it hasn't been seen. Other major cities all over the continent show the same pattern - New York, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Montreal...
I say all of this, because logic states that something, I can't pretend to guess what it will be, is eventually going to pop that bubble. It may be financially linked, or related to security, but it will happen.
This is simply not sustainable.