Mortgages are leverage, but unlike traditional financial leverage not subject to margin calls. Normally high leverage is risky in trading, because small perturb

Mortgages are leverage, but unlike traditional financial leverage not subject to margin calls. Normally high leverage is risky in trading, because small perturbations in price can force liquidations. However with a traditional mortgage, as long as you keep making payments you cannot be forced to sell. (In fact it's even better, you can always re-finance when rates improve, whereas the bank cannot raise rates on you when they worsen.) Therefore all you care about is the return to the asset over the long-run. And absent maybe a once-in-a-century depression, there's no way a single family home will decline in price over 20+ years.