>> That doesn't work for residential, because single-family homes don't usually make money, so residential homebuyers don't typically have ~$200,000-$2,000,000

>> That doesn't work for residential, because single-family homes don't usually make money, so residential homebuyers don't typically have ~$200,000-$2,000,000 in cash at the end of the 30 year period Before the US government got involved, the typical real estate loan was a 5 or 10 year balloon loan that had to be refinanced at the end of the loan period. Large part of them were interest only. So that's exactly the way it used to work. That blew up during the Great Depression. Then the government stepped in and started subsidizing loans which is where we're at now, the mortgage market in the US is very different than in say Canada or Europe.