It's almost as if Republicans have been pushing homeownership as if it were some sort of investment rather than a potential anchor to hang around your neck when you need to move to where the work is.

"Pushing homeownership" is of course a proxy for "pushing mortgages." They could give a fuck whether or not the home even exists, so long as you're borrowing as much as you can for it.

The gift wrapped presents that our government gives the mortgage industry (30 year fixed mortgage and mortgage interest deduction, e.g.) probably should be rescinded. Both of those were instituted to ostensibly help consumers purchase homes, but the real effect is to shovel money away from the government and into the industry's coffers. Every dime I get to deduct from my taxes due to my interest payments is a dime that some poor bastard needs to get taxed to make up for it. Considering on the top 1/3 of mortgagees even qualify for this deduction, it's clearly not a help-the-poor-get-homes type of policy.

It would be really difficult to phase it out at this point (because so many people mortgage all the way to their borrowing limit), but I'm all for it. It's regressive, and benefits one particular industry at the expense of everyone else. There are many good reasons to buy a house at a particular time and place in life, but we should stop peddling the fantasy that home ownership should be striven for as soon as possible.