I agree with you when it comes to a mortgage or real-estate only really being worth what it will actively sell for. Real estate by at large isn'r really liquid. I've known a lot of young people who are too quick to take out huge loans and get into "house flipping" only to realize that they're now playing a risky waiting game of when they'll have enough equity to match the cost of fees to actually sell the house combined with the assumption that they'll be able to sell it.
However, as someone who's lived in a large urban area with public housing - I can confidently say that the only real benefit public housing has is reducing the price of high end real-estate in close proximity and increasing petty crime in the area.
Source - lived in the South End neighborhood of Boston proper.
