alt Hacker News> also hurts many families borrowing power and net worth
This is part of the crux, isn't it? It's a backbone of families' wealth and positioned as an investment. So there seems to be no winning: either choke off the young trying to buy or crack the nest egg of the old
See also: Bitcoin and the like (wild value fluctuations are the hallmark of a good currency)
Related article of interest: https://archinect.com/news/article/150496266/is-this-swiss-h...
> either choke off the young trying to buy or crack the nest egg of the old
The simple fact is, housing can either be affordable xor an investment[0].
Affordable means the prices are flat relative to inflation, which makes it a terrible investment. If it's a good investment, that means the price is going up faster than inflation, which quickly makes it unaffordable.
[0] I want to be clear that I'm referring to housing as an investment to mean buying a house purely for profit purposes, ie, to flip or to rent out. Buying a house to live in, rather than renting the house you live in, can be considered an "investment", but I mean to explicitly exclude that usage of "investment" in this comment.