Already addressed them being paid off via forced principal pay down. And rent inflation is not relevant because rent is obviously not a good investment, either. However, if your mortgage is $1500/month and your rent is $1000/month, say, and you invest that $500/month somewhere else after 30 years you could buy that same house anyway. I live in a house, it beats an apartment, but I'm under no illusions that it's an investment, it's not, it's a very expensive roof over my head.And a person could if they wanted buy a house with money otherwise saved or they could continue to rent with money they have theoretically saved by not living a live of home ownership. Again this is not for me. I have a house because I want a house, not because it's a good investment.No argument here, trickledown has been a bit screw job. It's a miracle that people still believe in it.
We've just been through a period with a lot of anomalies, one of which is that house payments were much, much higher than rent on comparable properties, due to the housing bubble. That's changing- it has to. Prices are not yet in line with incomes in the traditional pre-bubble sense, at all.
You missed my point wrt the price of payments vs rent entirely. Once a fixed rate mortgage is in place, payments never go up. If rent & wages go up at the same rate, then the rent/investment ratio never changes for renters. Payment/investment ratio can change radically for the better for homeowners over the period of decades, however. The payment remains a fixed dollar amount, so a higher % of income can be used for investment as time goes on. Both scenarios depend on the relative vicissitudes of life, with the homeowner scenario having fewer variables & requiring less financial savvy than the rent/investment scenario. Obviously, anybody can invest/save more if they hold housing costs low.
Your paragraph #3 is a bit incorrect. When you say they need more upfront...not really true. Many lenders still have 0 down options...USDA and VA are 0 down...FHA is 3.5% down...Home Path is 3% down...unless you meant something else?
and interest rates are the lowest theyve ever been.
I offered that young families need more upfront because they set their sights higher, realizing that a modest "starter home" may end up as a trap because of current downward pressures on prices. People who bought 5-7 years ago are in no position to move up today, other things like employment remaining equal. First time buyers realize that they may well have zero to negative equity in 5-7 years, locking them in to whatever house they buy today.
FHA & VA loans can't possibly clear away the current backlog, because they're picky about the condition of the house. Owners who are not paying, waiting for the axe to fall aren't doing upkeep, at all, and that currently can go on for years. Lots of what's coming onto the market qualifies as fixer uppers which require conventional financing.
The whole thing about low interest rates is deceptive, imho, because most people buy on the basis of monthly payments, which is also how most houses are sold. Rates are super low today for one reason- to prop up the price. Rates won't stay that way forever, meaning it'll be easy for today's buyers to get stuck in a "can't sell" situation in the mid term if prices remain stagnant or decline further, because they have no equity and potential buyers would have to pay more to buy. The pool of potential buyers will shrink. It all boils down to the idea that if you pay too much, you're stuck with the place for many years, regardless of interest rates. That's how we got to where we are today. Plan accordingly.