[ro_sharp]

I don’t know why we call having a mortgage “ownership”: it’s not. Across the western world mortgages are getting larger and longer relative to income.

More people are in more significant debt bondage than in the past, that’s not an improvement.

The proportion of owned outright homes has been declining in the western world for 30 years.

[Dalewyn]

Because you legally own your property.

So long as you make your payments on time, the lienholder cannot confiscate your property to make the pie whole. The money might be theirs, but the property is yours.

[robjan]

Depends on the jurisdiction but they are often within their rights to call the loan especially if it goes into negative equity.