Earlier quoted context omitted.
Adding leverage to the housing market probably isn't a net good thing. Especially when you have a mismatch between demand for desirable housing and the available supply. It is interesting that when you look at the US, some of our most expensive markets (housing, healthcare, education) have tight regulations on supply and federal policy response focused on subsidizing buyers (rather than addressing the structural supp…
> Adding leverage to the housing market probably isn't a net good thing. The leverage part isn't necessarily a good thing as it increases house prices to some extent (how much, I don't know). But what would be an alternative? Even if buying a house all-cash was the only choice, a house would still be very expensive because it does take a lot of real materials and labor. If we complain today that raising a 20% down pa…
If we start with the question "how do we affordably house the most people possible", I'd think we end up with something like "the state owns the housing stock and leases it out on a long-term basis with very tight (and obviously political-third-rail) restrictions on pricing and allocation".