The housing collapse that precipitated a worldwide financial crisis in 2008 seems to have caught most people by surprise. But in a prescient 2005 report, Metropolis 2020, a local planning group, expressed concern over questionable mortgage practices that allowed "families to buy homes which in years past were out of their price range." The report went on to predict widespread foreclosures and stagnant house prices. "We were looking at numbers that looked too good to be true, and nobody seemed worried about them," says Nancy Firfer, the former president of Glenview who was one of three directors of the study, called Homes for a Changing Region. "It’s sad that nobody listened to us then."