> Only ~9% of mortgages in the US are variable-rate mortgages
At the start sure. But if you have a 2 year fixed rate and then it switches to variable, then you have a variable mortagege for 90% of your 20 year mortgage.
> People love to blame corporations and "foreign investors" for bidding up the price of housing.
They 100% play a significant role on the problem.
> Canada has banned that in various ways multiple times in the past few years and it has had no noticeable impact on the price of housing.
Not in any way that fundamentally changes the status quo, certainly not to reverse it, and also housing has been in a downspiral of accesibility for 70 years, 3 local laws in Canada is not gonna fix it.
> just like anyone else who has their heads screwed on straight, don't overpay
Housing is a need, overpaying or homelessness is a real junction for a sizeble part of the population.
Look at singapore, they are more capitalist than the US and has banned private landlords. Their results speak for themselves, cheaper mortgages, more space per person, shorter commutes, possibilities for larger families to find enough space.
If you prefer to have a building "for billionaries" empty like New York does instead of close to 0% homelessness then thats your choice, but do not pretend it is to help hard working people be rewarded for their labour. Landlords are a remenant of aristocracy, a way for rich tophs to keep living large from their estate. Adam Smith called them parasites for a reason, they are a negative GDP engine.