Cameron's Home-Buying Bungle | Cato Institute

Cameron's Home-Buying Bungle | Cato Institute: "Borrowing a sizable amount of money can easily make a family vulnerable to unexpected unemployment or income shocks, especially after paying a large deposit on a new house. In the aftermath of the financial crisis, Americans who saw their houses foreclosed learned this the hard way.

Moreover, because the costs of selling a piece of real estate are substantial, home ownership also creates a disincentive to labor mobility, tying people to places that may not have the best economic opportunities a decade or two from now. It may not be a coincidence that Spain, with a home ownership rate of 80%, suffers from 25% unemployment."

"In the end, the more important question seems whether people have access to affordable, convenient, good-quality housing. If that’s not the case, a reasonable government policy ought to encourage growth in the supply of the physical housing units, thereby making them more affordable both to renters and home buyers."

"This includes not only scrapping various land-use restrictions, but also urban-planning regulations that currently make it difficult to put up tall residential buildings."