My parents weren't too bad, but all my friend's households were insane.

. ;-)On a more serious note, in answer to your thesis, This article just came out:"Roughly 43 million American households have opted to rent rather than buy their homes because of convenience, cost or both." https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/311/topics/59...

Problems 1-3 above are all being evidenced by the soaring savings rate of US households. 

Several household materials were evaluated for the capacity to block bacterial and viral aerosols.

You can skip mortgage payments for October and November (You'll already have your investment back before you get started)Exciting new videosThe sooner you start, the sooner you'll start saving moneyYou CANNOT add a friend or family member outside of your household to this membership due to the discount.Our goal is to teach, share and help people attain their goals by using this financial tool properly, the correct way as taught in our program, so that they can take charge of their finances and change their own financial future.

My guess is it was historically a shared driveway, and each household veered off and parked in their separate back yards. 

Here is what my standard lease that I picked up from the internet and use with my rentals:(2) Repairs that Tenant will Pay Entirely: Tenant will pay Landlord or any contractor Landlorddirects Tenant to pay the entire cost to repair:(a) a condition caused by Tenant, an occupant, a member of Tenant’s family, or a guest orinvitee of Tenant (a failure to timely report an item in need of repair or the failure toproperly maintain an item may cause damage for which Tenant may be responsible);......Appears it includes failure to timely report as a cause to make tenant pay.I also have a Maintenance Addendum that I got online that includes: Immediately notify Agent of any evidence of a water leak or excessive moisture or standing waterImmediately notify Agent of the presence of mold, mildew, or similar growth in the Premises after you have attempted to remove it using common household cleaning solutions or anti-microbial productsImmediately notify Agent of any malfunction of any part of the heating, ventilation, air conditioning, plumbing, or laundry systemsImmediately notify Agent of any inoperable doors or windowsOn looking at it now, it does not state what the remediation would be if the tenant does not adhere to this. 

On top of that, he's been through something like 6 or 7 recessions where he might have seen the value of a lower minimum monthly payment over the lower rate: households have monthly budgets (not 15 year budgets...), the ones calling him for a fire sale listing back in '89 (S&L crisis) or '01 (dot com bubble) were the ones with the higher monthly payments, not the ones with the higher interest rate.

We only give $10K exemption for a house and $2500 for one vehicle, and $2K for household goods. 

Our combined earnings in my household was a very healthy 6 figures last year; I thought the stimulus money was for those whose income was less than $75K.