Current government policy is favoring homeowners over renters, according to former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, and that buying homes should be about shelter, rather than investment.
Paulson made the remarks during a recent panel discussion at the Brookings Institution covering lessons from the financial crisis of the last decade. Michael Barr, a former Treasury staffer and current professor of public policy at the University of Michigan said during the discussion, “Our politics in Washington right now are pushing us toward a set of steps that will make the financial system riskier and make it harder for individual households, and they are putting taxpayers at risk more than they should be," MarketWatch reports.
“I remember thinking the American Dream was you could come to this country and, based upon your hard work and abilities, you could achieve great success. Suddenly, the American Dream became about homeownership and homes morphed from becoming shelter to becoming an investment vehicle,” he said. “What’s going to be done to change it?” Paulson asked the panel. So far, U.S. regulators have shied away from trying to control mortgage lending.
