A rental unit apartment building in the East Village neighborhood of New York, US, on Tuesday, July … [+]
There’s a pendulum for everything over time. What’s good and bad for you seem to alternate. Dark chocolate’s bad, then good, and now (sadly) bad again, at least according to an analysis by Consumer Reports.
If all of life is subject to alternative whims of advice, then no surprise that housing is. Be a renter. No, own your own home. Oops, sorry, you can’t afford it; be a renter. Wait, government will step in and make it possible though various ways — own. Oops, sorry, too expensive, we’re not building enough, uh … maybe you want to be part of the “smart crowd,” yeah, that’s it, part of the smart crowd and rent, you wily Millennian or Gen-Zer.
The US government has pushed home ownership as almost part of a national destiny for more than a century, as an article in Pacific Standard explained years ago. Private industry also pushed it because of all the money to be made in mortgages, legal fees, insurance, and other services. Occasionally the house market crashes for one reason or another (like rising mortgage rates and inconceivably high prices), and then the advice is for people who can’t afford their…
