Interesting Take on the Housing Market Downturn

Rent is not “throwing money away” anymore than buying food at the grocery store is “throwing money away” since you didn’t plant your own garden and raise your own livestock. Shelter is something you consume; it’s not an investment. Bailing out homeowners is rewarding the people who treated housing as an investment and not a consumption good…
—Rob Horning

I’ve never heard anyone talk about housing as a consumption good. I’m not quite sure what I think (says the renter, who strongly desires a place of his own to piddle in and around.)