1. It's debt. No one can claim otherwise.
2. Whether it is good debt or bad debt depends, like all investments, on the moment in time when you made the investment (median home price at the time, interest rate, quality of neighbourhood at time of purchase versus in the future). For a long time, thanks to steadily increasing house prices, people forgot that a mortgage is a levered investment that carries risk. Now it's evident that there is no free lunch.
3. I agree with Phanuthier that it is does look like someone is talking their book. If the mortgage was this great, pure-as-the-driven-snow debt that ranked above school debt and all others, then there would not be all these mechanisms of gambling on prevailing interest rates through your mortgage. Everyone would be satisfied with their golden investment.
4. I would argue that, as with most debt, people take on mortgage debt at levels higher than what is economically advantageous to them. I'm fortunate enough to make a great salary that places me in the top 15% of earners in the US... but if you looked at house prices, you'd think I was barely in the middle of the pack. The distortion isn't because I'm cheap (really i'm not!), but because homes remain historically expensive. Part of that is the emotional security brought by home ownership, and part of it due to the historical assumption that it is a "safe" investment.
|