Real estate might not always be the best investment, but it's the only type of investment that the vast majority of the poor and middle class can effectively ma

Real estate might not always be the best investment, but it's the only type of investment that the vast majority of the poor and middle class can effectively make. In what other context would a bank ever lend a penniless college graduate $500,000? If these mortgages did not exist, think how long people would have to save their pennies to afford a home - probably most of their lives. That's how things used to be in the US, back before these mortgages were put in place after the great depression. It depresses me how little we all seem to remember about the New Deal. I think being born into wealth must inflict a certain blindness to the difficulties of others.