You act like home-ownership isn't an absolutely essential part of the economy, or like driving roughly half the population from their homes is not an undesirable thing?
Of course there are compelling financial products which incentivize home-ownership. It's massively important for homeownership to be possible for as many people as possible.
Homes are extremely expensive, but the down payment really isn't a problem, relative to the time and expense of keeping the damn thing running. The down payment continues to be reasonably proportional to home much money needs to be in place for someone to control the equity at stake.
What you're actually asking for, I think, is for home building to be subsidized, in order to drive down the construction and sale price. Because it's not like home builders are earning 50% margin on these structures, the reason house prices rise is because prices rise.
The reason home interest prices are low are also because prices rise, meaning risk at long timeframes is negligible. The only crucial point is to make a squeeze impossible and you can ride out anything - hence why it's so important for government to back-stop it, because if you can squeeze the US dollar we have bigger problems.
I'm not asking for anything - I'm stating that because of the government, buying housing is artificially propped up and is advantageous as an investment. I would support removing market-warping incentives that make me richer at the expense of others. But for various reasons I seriously doubt that will ever happen, so if you have cash to invest owning property should be some part of your portfolio. Active management takes effort which a lot of people don't want to do - I don't mind it myself - but good cities with healthy rental markets are attractive.
There is a long list of things that the government messes with. As an investor you should keep an eye on the political winds and what is favored for reasons outside of market forces. 1 to 5% boost per year compounds significantly.
Of course there are compelling financial products which incentivize home-ownership. It's massively important for homeownership to be possible for as many people as possible.
Homes are extremely expensive, but the down payment really isn't a problem, relative to the time and expense of keeping the damn thing running. The down payment continues to be reasonably proportional to home much money needs to be in place for someone to control the equity at stake.
What you're actually asking for, I think, is for home building to be subsidized, in order to drive down the construction and sale price. Because it's not like home builders are earning 50% margin on these structures, the reason house prices rise is because prices rise.
The reason home interest prices are low are also because prices rise, meaning risk at long timeframes is negligible. The only crucial point is to make a squeeze impossible and you can ride out anything - hence why it's so important for government to back-stop it, because if you can squeeze the US dollar we have bigger problems.