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heskey30 t1_itb3b7w wrote

Reply to comment by SportySaturn in Many countries have a "hidden welfare state" for incumbent homeowners, as governments subsidize homeowners through the tax system. The homeownership welfare state is strongest in the US and other Anglophone countries, but weakest in the Scandinavian countries. by smurfyjenkins

Hold on, saying housing should be the number one wealth builder for families is exactly the problem. Prices increasing faster than inflation means housing gets more and more unaffordable indefinitely. It's not sustainable, something is going to break somewhere.

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SportySaturn t1_itc4h0d wrote

I didn't say it should be, I said it is. But also, it's going to be a huge wealth builder for someone, so having that be true for as many people as possible is good thing. We make more and more people, we don't generally make more land, and people need land to live on. Real estate value, on average, will go up based on this principle.

Additionally, real estate value is a store of wealth. It's not just the price going up that makes it a wealth builder, it's that you pay off the mortgage, own it, and it holds value. You can borrow against it's value in troubled times. It's valuable. We want lots of people to be able to access that value.

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