I personally think the issue isn’t really homeownership per se, but homeownership as an investment. The biggest long term difference I see between my life here

I personally think the issue isn’t really homeownership per se, but homeownership as an investment. The biggest long term difference I see between my life here in Japan and in San Francisco is that people here view their homes as a place to live in, and that there’s no shortage of options of places to buy - but don’t expect a profit on it unless you’re within 5 minutes from the most coveted stations. Otherwise, you buy because it’s better value than renting, and so I see that my Japanese friends can be young, middle class, and still benefit from the economies of scale of living in the largest city on Earth. Meanwhile countless people are excluded from San Francisco’s business nexus because it’s just too expensive to justify. Meanwhile my landlord had already bought over 10 properties to rent and had accumulated otherworldly wealth from the fact that he was born 30 years before me. Many of my friends have virtually 0 prospects of ever reaching home ownership in a major American city, and so long as everyone’s home values rises indefinitely, it’s only going to become more unattainable. COVID has changed the calculation, but I still think cities will remain economically dominant into the future.