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The problem here is that, in general, you don’t get to own multiple houses by being a hard worker. You could be an extremely hard worker, but not make very much money. You could be very lazy and make loads of money. The reality is that the housing market is on a trajectory where most people cannot and will not be able to afford ownership, even for white collar jobs. Wages do not go up quickly for most folks either, so the cost of acquiring a house relative to your income continues to rise. More specifically, say you enter society making $80k in a major city. You’re young, so this is normal. At this point in time, a house is not an option, because a mortgage would require $100k in savings. And if the housing market continues increasing like it has the past few years, that amount keeps going up. For most people, the rate that house prices go up is quicker than the rate they can save towards a down payment. It’s important to note that a quickly accelerating housing market is EXTREMELY beneficial for investors. It creates a feedback loop which makes investments more common, which makes the prices go up further. Spending $400k this year and selling for $500k next year is an excellent investment opportunity. Is it greedy to think that one deserves a home? Likely not. Is it greedy to make some extra money via property investment? Maybe sometimes, maybe not. The point isn’t that property investment is inherently bad, but that property investment is pricing most people out of the housing market. As a hypothetical, would you like to live in a society where homes are not accessible for 90% of people? I personally do not want to live in a society where housing is extremely scarce. That’s a recipe for societal upheaval. If property investment is making the market spiral out of control, which it likely is, it benefits most people to curtail that problem. |