We have a huge government and university job base that keeps us out of any rollercoaster ride you see in Phoenix and other cities. 

I'm actually selling a couple of mine for that exact reason, take care of some debt with the free money the government is printing.

The downsides here are high prices and low availability of multifamily homes in my area (new england), the loss of mortgage payments going instead to renting in the meantime (around 15k/year) as well as whispers of government stepping into the multifamily space causing some concern.3) FHA on a Condo: This is a compromise between the two: Lower cost of entry (~100K or so depending on the conditions), HOA is akin to rent but I still get to put money into building equity.

You must of missed the highly publisized massive looting and riots over the summer in Philadelphia, which creating massive flight of residents to move to the suburbs reversing the move to a complete halt to the move back into the urban cities, the city government is strangleheld in all the cities referenced above for this completely.

If the government is going to say "you're not allowed to evict people", then how the hell can a landlord allow someone that's 'iffy' to lease? 

I am not a fan of overreaching government intervention, but anytime someone has a business that is responsible for others people's deposit, there should at least be some oversight.One major problem here in the Boise area is that landlords and property managers do not compensate for tenants so each place requires a new application fee and probably their own credit check. 

You will not get as great of terms because these are not government backed loans (Fannie/Freddie) but as long as the numbers work people will lend on it.Hope this helps and good luck. 

Consider this; in less than eleven days, President Biden issued over 50 Executive Orders, including; rejoining the World Health Organization, rejoining the Paris Accords (on climate control), ordering the Federal government on a “war-time” commitment to expand vaccinations, restoring collective bargaining rights, promoting $15 per hour for all federal employees, ordering all infrastructure contracts go to American companies, lifting the ban on transgenders in the military, dissolving the Muslim ban on travelers to the United States, classifying Vladimar Putin’s Russia as a “hostile foreign power,” extending the U.S.

But is time a motivating factor as well for the federal government or just having a good, clean, simple, transaction?

The government wants their cut unfortunately.