"Should the housing market run on government subsidies and virtually 'free money' in order to prop it up, or should it be allowed to function as a true market?"
Here you are implying that the government shouldn't prop up the property market. But they do, we all know they do, and they will continue to. As for whether it crashes tomorrow, well yeah it might. But as you agree the government is hell bent on making sure it doesn't.
It's the same as the saying "don't fight the fed" with regard to US share markets.
If you are only talking about right here, right now, today. Then my comment doesn't apply to you. But there are many on this forum that have been saying the same thing for over a decade and have been sitting on the sidelines. Meanwhile property has more than doubled, in part thanks to the government who is hell bent on ensuring to doesn't fall.
There, right there, is the benefit.
"there are no rules here except doing things that are bad for us longterm"
This is your opinion, not fact. It very well may become fact, but it currently is not.
My opinion, as I said before (maybe here or another thread) low interest rates are going to put a rocket under all asset prices for some time to come. The greedy will overindulge and get caught out when it turns, the smart will profit from it, the fearful will miss out on life changing capital gain.
