As I see it, the main problem with housing is the cost of private homes not financing. $300k or more is a lot of money and there is no way someone making the median wage in the state of Maryland (about $50k) can afford even at low interest rates (currently about 4%) That means that this person must come up with $60k down and then make payments of about $1,150 in installments plus taxes, insurance etc. This literally means one paycheck away from homelessness regardless of how this purchase is financed. Not to mention the fact that if housing market fluctuates, that house can easily go underwater and then foreclosure may be the only rational decision.
Of course, if you consider an alternative - such as cooperative ownership - a situation will look very different. Based on my own experience, I was able to get a 4 bedroom apartment for one time membership fee of $1,000 and about $600 per month maintenance fees which also covered repairs. That is about $550 a month savings, which I could invest and earn 3% interest (based on TIAA CREF "guaranteed" rate). In other words, housing does not have be an investment vehicle but simply a shelter. That would avoid the main problem with housing - high price, and also insulate housing from market fluctuations.
I may add that the same problem exists in health care. Insurance is only a part of the problem, and not the worst one. The worst part is the high price of health care, which is a result of private for-profit service delivery (just as private home ownership is).
The bottom line - what we need to socialize is not financing, or at least not only financing, but the service delivery itself - cooperative housing is a form of socialization and public or cooperatively owned clinic is also a form of socialization.
-- Wojtek
"An anarchist is a neoliberal without money."