Homeownership In Israel: The Social Costs of Middle-Class Debt

What motivates people to make home purchases that seem imprudent in narrowly economic terms, and how does the salience of homeownership debt shape political struggles for social justice? To answer these questions I draw on my fieldwork among homebuyers in Israel in the wake of the 2011 housing protests. I find that homebuyers’ reliance on credit compels them to operate as investors despite th…