Housing Central for Americans to Build Wealth

Homeownership is a significant way for low- and middle-class Americans to build material wealth, and to foster social fairness and equity. 

While federal government policy encouraging homeownership is falling out of vogue with industry pundits, columnists Conor Sen and James Greiff explain that the popular narrative floating about that such policy creates a bubble is "a myth, the leading cause of the bubble was private banks making bad loans, mostly to speculators rather than to low-income owner-occupants," and that government policies expanding and promoting homeownership should start fresh by fostering social equity, less debt, and more home building. They write for Bloomberg, "Making these grants conditional on cities building more housing units would be a powerful financial incentive; if a city is willing to increase density and to allow the construction of more multifamily housing, it would receive more federal money in the form of home-equity assistance."

Housing also has benefits that can’t be counted in dollars. Although housing is an important part of the economy and the largest financial asset of most homeowners, it’s also a form of social equity. Good school districts tend to be in communities full of single-family homes with little rental housing, and homeowners often are more involved in local government than renters, giving them the power to structure their communities to suit their interests. Because local control over schools and land use is so entrenched in American society, it will be difficult to give renters anything close to equal opportunity in America without giving them a path toward homeownership.

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