The September 6, 2010 Issue  Time Magazine article by Barbara Kiviat, at your newsstand or iPad, asks, "Is buying a house all it's cracked up to be?"   Kiviat covers the history of home ownership from 1900 through today.  Prior to the  credit bubble burst a record 69.2% of families owned their home. It's an interesting article that also acknowledges many of the advantages of home ownership.

Kiviat also attacks some real estate home ownership sacred cows like the mortgage interest deduction. She claims that the  deduction cost the government $80 billion dollars in 2009.  Kiviat ignores the problems that created the bubble burst such as the sub prime mortgages created by the Banks that were offered to almost anyone, and the Derivative Traders on Wall Street who's all consuming greed collapsed the economy in the fall of 2008.  If those events had not occurred, this article would never have been written. 

Also, if Congress had never repealed the Glass Steagall Act in 1999, these problems never could have happened.  A week kneed legislature capitulated to the continual lobbying efforts of the banking interest, led by Phil Gramm,  that brought on the de-regulation that created this mess.
The Glass Steagall Act