I agree that at least some people are starting to wake up that a mortgage can be a dead weight around a person's neck and not an asset. YOu have to pay the mortgage at whatever interest rate, fix the house, and you can't always sell it at the price you bought. My parents bought a house 20 years ago for 160,000 and in 2012 they received full ownership after giving the bank 300,000 for it. If I include all the "renovations" my mother has done on it my parents will just break even if they sell the house.

I guess a home is good is you want to be more permanent in a place. My gf insists on paying for half the house, she has saved for it. My last gf owned her own home. It is good that SOME Chinese women do not insist on being given everything on a silver platter and actually contribute to the financial well being of a marriage. Besides, putting half the money in to own half the asset is only fair, right?

Fifty years ago when my grandmother got married, giving birth to eight kids, taking care of the house was her job and she could not work outside of it even if she wanted to. Now, who can have more than two children in China anyway? The times change.