This gets into a vicious cycle. Given that lots of people are effectively paid to borrow money, that boosts the money people can bid on a house, and so that its

This gets into a vicious cycle. Given that lots of people are effectively paid to borrow money, that boosts the money people can bid on a house, and so that itself pushes up the prices. Low-interest rates on mortgages are a huge boon for sellers since the buyers have access to more money, and thus they can pay more. So, for the buyers, the "get paid" part only works if they flip a house and become sellers before the cycle bubbles and bursts. Meanwhile, buyers who want to get a house just to live in it for the rest of their lives are having to pay much higher prices, and it has nothing to do with real supply and demand. Cut out all the speculators/investors/flippers and the situation would be very different. Maybe we shouldn't even continue the premise that a person who doesn't live at a property can "own" it.