Ibon wrote:The private ownership of your own home is an American hallmark. Most Europeans for example are renters.
But the trend on all fronts that has lead to the erosion of the middle class will one day hit the housing market with increased institutional buyers of rental properties. It has already started.
Ireland & the UK are exceptions to that rule, but we are seeing a major shift in recent years.
It started about 20 years ago when it started to become clear that baby boomer pensions were at risk of under performing so a significant number of people started buying up houses and renting them out with the plan to sell when they retire "my house is my pension". When these houses come back onto the market, professional landlords are the main buyers.
Now we're seeing whole property portfolios being traded between bigger and more institutional investors.
A trend from individual home owners to institutional portfolios in the space of a generation, a trend that is likely to gather pace as many of the small time landlords retire.
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.:Anonymous
Our whole economy is based on planned obsolescence.
Hungrymoggy "I am now predicting that Europe will NUKE ITSELF sometime in the first week of January"