HOMEOWNERSHIP IS AFFORDABLE HOUSING

Publicly-subsidized rental apartments account for the vast majority of public spending on affordable housing.  This emphasis is puzzling when you consider the tremendous financial benefits of homeownership, both to individual households and to the community.  Homeownership often is the most affordable housing – to families and to the public sector.  Spending $20,000 to help a family make a down-payment on a house they can otherwise afford to buy certainly beats spending tens of thousands each year to keep the same family in a subsidized rental that they will never own or want to own.  In many instances, monthly payments to own a home are less than the rent on an (often smaller) apartment, and, unlike rent, which climbs with inflation, mortgage payments are largely fixed, meaning that while everything else gets more expensive, housing costs remain stable.