Here is the shocking truth.

The price of a home in the US was $374,900 in 2022 and the median home price was $322,600. Half the homes in the US go for less than $322,600 and are affordable to most Americans if they have the downpayment.

A fair criticism would be that when Sanders and Warren pushed for banking regulation that increased the downpayment requirements for people buying housing to make the banking sector safer, they push many "younger buyers" out of the market, making it very hard for young people to buy that first home. Government regulation has benefits, but they come with costs. In this case, home buying for young families has been deferred by 4 years. Doesn't sound like much, but that represents millions of buyers.

So, the issue in most of America is not affordability of the mortgage, but saving up for the downpayment. That is where "private equity" and other investors come in... they have the cash to buy homes, but are you aware that when investors buy homes it depresses home values in the US.

Investors see homes as "investments" are very sensitive to returns, while homebuyers see properties as "homes". We have been unable to buy a property in California for around 5 years, because homebuyers keep outbidding us. So, I think your thesis is flawed.

It gets worse, the population in the US is slowng and there are increasingly areas where there are no people to buy homes. In the future, we may become like Japan, where home values around the country are falling except in major urban areas that seem more capable of maintaining their population.

That is one reason why the "housing stock" in the US shrinking. There are to few places where building homes is profitable and in those few place, there is often not enough land to build new homes. Quite a paradox.

I would make the opposite argument you did. If you want a home and can afford one, buy it. But it is not going to be the great investment it once was unless you live somewhere where land is limited and the population is growing.