Treating housing as an investment is a horrible mistake.
It's an expensive durable good, policy should be focused on making it cheaper over time.
(while maintaining or increasing suitability/utility, not by letting it decay)
It's an expensive durable good, policy should be focused on making it cheaper over time.
(while maintaining or increasing suitability/utility, not by letting it decay)
In terms of policy I totally agree, but as an individual, nothing has done more for my personal wealth than my real estate transactions. Of course, a lot of that is my location, but in general, real estate (much like stock) goes up.
My argument is that treating housing as an investment drives costs up over time and that at a policy level we should not seek to do that, we should seek to lower the cost of housing (while maintaining quality and so on).