9 April

US houses are less than half the cost of Australian houses, relative to incomes. How do they do it? It's not the market at work. American housing is nationalised, government provides the capital to banks through entities it created called Freddie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae. This means banks can lend at affordable rates, with government control also over prices because Fannie, Freddie and Ginnie determine the size of mortgages they'll buy. It's been in place since 1938. Only massive government intervention can fix Australian housing. Right now nobody has the political balls to do it, everyone just babbling rubbish about 'supply'.