Exactly. Rent would need to be high enough to cover taxes, insurance, maintenance. But somewhere along the line, landlords decided that it also had to cover financing: Rent had to pay the mortgage on top of everything else.

Things get pretty stupid when financing is involved. The interest I'm being charged will buy the bank two homes along with my own, and fucking everybody has, is, or will be paying a mortgage, either directly to a bank, or via a landlord.

I think the solution is an owner-occupancy property tax credit that holds a resident's property tax where it is, accompanied by a massive property tax hike that only applies to properties the owner doesn't use as their primary residence. I think that landlords would fight tooth and nail to convert their tenants into "buyers" by offering private mortgages or land contracts instead of rental agreements.