The huge advantages to home ownership aren't an issue, if home ownership is available to all. Obviously you can't have everyone living in San Francisco, and you can't just hand out houses like candy, but it used to be that if you were willing to relocate and hold down a job, you could own a house somewhere in the USA, even on "minimum wage".

That possibility is gone; houses in the Midwest are now a significant fraction of the prices of houses in California.