During a campaign appearance in Michigan, Santorum said the housing bubble burst in 2008 because people could no longer afford to pay their mortgages because of high gas prices.If you're wondering why you haven't heard this explanation before, it's because no one else would be dumb enough to espouse it.
"We went into a recession in 2008 because of gasoline prices," Santorum said in Michigan according to Buzzfeed. "The bubble burst in housing because people couldn’t pay their mortgages because of $4 a gallon gasoline."
The price on gasoline was $4 a gallon or higher in June and July of 2008. The Great Recession began more than half a year before this in December 2007, and the housing bubble burst even earlier in the spring of 2006.
Either homeowners were incredibly far-sighted and started cutting back on mortgage payments more than two years in advance of the run-up in gas prices, or Santorum is a boob.