Robert Joseph Bridges

It would seem that a government seeking to display a true populist streak by helping its citizens buy houses would do so in a way to ensure prices as low as possible. For those who are not yet homeowners, how is it populism when recovery makes houses more expensive rather than more affordable?

To make room for a future middle class, policymakers need to abandon the idea that the fortunes of the economy turn on rising home prices rather than the reverse. It’s in everyone’s interest that home values gradually increase. But when housing prices rise faster than middle-class incomes, that’s nobody’s populism and may indeed bring about the end to the cornerstone of middle- class life -- the owner-occupied home.

It would seem that a government seeking to display a true populist streak by helping its citizens buy houses would do so in a way to ensure prices as low as possible. For those who are not yet homeowners, how is it populism when recovery makes houses more expensive rather than more affordable?

To make room for a future middle class, policymakers need to abandon the idea that the fortunes of the economy turn on rising home prices rather than the reverse. It’s in everyone’s interest that home values gradually increase. But when housing prices rise faster than middle-class incomes, that’s nobody’s populism and may indeed bring about the end to the cornerstone of middle- class life -- the owner-occupied home.

Opinion editorial on the topic of single family houses as long term investments, and governmental housing policy

Evaluation of comparative financial returns of housing versus stock investments