Housing is shelter, but it is also an asset class. That fact is often forgotten in the conversation about nosebleed home prices and what to do about them, particularly in the US. Photograph: Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Housing is shelter, but it is also an asset class. That fact is often forgotten in the conversation about nosebleed home prices and what to do about them, particularly in the US.
From rent freezes (on the populist left) to rezoning and deregulation (the “abundance” left) to a proposal for government-backed 50-year mortgages (Trump’s latest), everyone has thoughts. But if you don’t start by looking at the systemic changes in the market that turned homes into a tradeable asset, you can’t begin to fix the broader problem.
It is a problem that will be high on the midterm election agenda, and one that dovetails with another poli
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