The main problem with that solution is that most young-ish people know that if they ever want to own a house, they need to get into the game early so they can b

The main problem with that solution is that most young-ish people know that if they ever want to own a house, they need to get into the game early so they can build equity. Besides that, rentals are often way too expensive (matching or exceeding a mortgage payment in big cities) without providing a similar amount of value: - Can’t do what you like to the interior, like painting walls. - Not built with the same sort of layout homes have. For examples, loads of three bed/three bath rentals meant to be split by roommates, but not many with a nice room for a home office. - Often does not provide an important amenity (like AC). - Almost definitely less space. - Likely less peaceful, especially if noise insulation between units is poor. (Getting bothered by a neighbor is a lot easier.) If we want to attract the type of people who want to buy a home to instead rent for the long term, those aspects need to become better. Apartments need to be more desirable than houses. And that means the folks building apartments and the apartment management companies need to offer a lot more for less. And since apartment buildings are also investments, that will never happen, because the ultimate goal is profit. I feel like in both cases, it comes back to the fact that property is an investment. It doesn’t make sense for anyone to loose value on an investment, which means there is an inherent pressure to make prices go up over time