As the title suggests,
Simply why? All western nations agree that food needs to be subsidized, because even if it would be cheaper to pareto optimize it and rely on imports, some weird instability might ruin the whole system or force military intervention into the third world.
A home is a bedrock of civilization, and I have no idea why the same logic can not be applied here.
This is not an anti-capitalist post per se, there are tons of industry where speculation and market dynamics come in handy, various technology sectors for example, from biotech to telecommunications… but why use the same logic on an essential thing like houses.
“Yeah but the fatcats make money on homes”
Sure, but they have myriad of other options for the same activity.