Consider this: It's become normalized for people to buy houses/condos with large amounts of inflating debt. Because you're indebted, you can't simply sell wha

Consider this: It's become normalized for people to buy houses/condos with large amounts of inflating debt. Because you're indebted, you can't simply sell what you've bought for any less than you owe, eat the loss and walk away, as you might do with something you flat out own. You'd still owe your lender, with interest. I'd argue that this game creates a significant incentive for people to hold onto a housing units and pass debt onto renters, that it turns would-be owner-occupants into virtual speculators/landlords. I say "virtual" because they are really just tenants of their lenders (banks), and many of them aren't really in it for the "win", they're just in it by coercion, in it for the "not loss". This whole scheme, and many others like it, artificially restricts supply and inflates prices.