Sure you can argue this is how it should be and society would benefit (I’d agree), but it’s not how it is. Housing is scarce and kept scarce by owners through

Sure you can argue this is how it should be and society would benefit (I’d agree), but it’s not how it is. Housing is scarce and kept scarce by owners through NIMBY legislation. That scarcity drives prices up. Plus 30yr fixed rate interest in the US makes it a decent leveraged bet and has weird market effects in addition to that.