The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression
An interesting contrast in this whole debate is Japan, where homes actually depreciate slowly over 20-30 years while the underlying land much more moderately appreciates vs homes in the West [0]. This makes apartments quite cheap, even in popular cities, and the rate of homelessness is quite low [1].<p>There are small towns trying to sell empty houses for super cheap, though possibly you have to pay to bring them up to code, I am not sure on the details. 
More recently, renovation has started to become popular [2]. I guess that helps with costs and is more eco-friendly.<p>I'm not sure if this way of doing it is better but it makes sense to me that the house itself, like a car, should lose value as it ages and its parts will require more servicing and replacement.<p>[0] <a href="https://www.rethinktokyo.com/2018/06/06/depreciate-limited-life-span-japanese-home/1527843245" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.rethinktokyo.com/2018/06/06/depreciate-limited-l...</a><p>[1] <a href="https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/homelessness-by-country" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/homelessn...</a><p>[2] <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/nov/16/japan-reusable-housing-revolution" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/nov/16/japan-reusabl...</a>