Quote from: K-Dog on Jul 03, 2024, 12:39 AMModel it in equations and see what happens with different policies.

One policy I would like to see is limiting the legal length of residential property mortgages to 20 years.

After WWII, the typical mortgage was 15 years and the price of a home 3X the average annual salary.  Today, mortgages are 30 years, and the price is 5X an average annual salary.  A Generation is usually about 20 years, the Boomers for instance were born between 1946-1964.

Shortening the length of time reduces the risk of your financial circumstances being significantly changed in either direction and makes the length of time you might own a home closer to how long you are paying it off.  Climbing the ladder and getting richer, you want to move to a more luxurious home, getting laid off and having to take a lower paid job you need to downsize.

This would limit the risk of people buying more house than they can really afford, when you take into account all the crap that can happen in an economy and people's lives over 30 years.

Next policy that is important is if the Private Sector builders are not building Starter Homes for first time buyers, the Goobermint should be building them.

Builders say the combination of land, labor, and material costs makes affordable homes impossible, and only more expensive models offer enough of a profit margin.

Not building them at all is simply not a viable option.  It just results in homelessness.    If it has to be subsidized, so be it.  Capitalism doesn't provide a viable means of making a profit from building affordable houses.  The Builders themselves say this.

These two policy changes IMHO would go a long way toward resolving the homeless crisis.

https://archive.curbed.com/2018/4/10/17219786/buying-a-house-mortgage-government-gi-bill

RE