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Baby boomers are making it harder for millennials to buy homes

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Re: Baby boomers are making it harder for millennials to buy homes

#61

I'm going to sound like a broken record here but there are policy and other decisions being made in the Bay Area that are restricting the housing supply and driving up the price of existing housing. You don't have to be a bystander in this process, you can help lobby for more supply. A list of propositions and legislation to support (SF, Brisbane, Mountain View, the CA state legislature) can be found here: https://ne…

Not all cities must be made into overpopulated ant colonies. People love SF as it is, and if you increase density it would be not SF, it would be something else. If you like dense cities - there are plenty of them - LA, SD, NY...

Re: Baby boomers are making it harder for millennials to buy homes

#62

I'm going to sound like a broken record here but there are policy and other decisions being made in the Bay Area that are restricting the housing supply and driving up the price of existing housing. You don't have to be a bystander in this process, you can help lobby for more supply. A list of propositions and legislation to support (SF, Brisbane, Mountain View, the CA state legislature) can be found here: https://ne…

Not all cities must be made into overpopulated ant colonies. People love SF as it is, and if you increase density it would be not SF, it would be something else. If you like dense cities - there are plenty of them - LA, SD, NY...

It's funny, I live in SD and many say the same thing. "We don't want to increase density, we like that it feels like a small city. It's a privilege to live here, if you can't afford it too bad."

Something's got to give somewhere.

Re: Baby boomers are making it harder for millennials to buy homes

#63

The flip side of this is that as the baby boomers pass, there's going to be a glut of retirement home communities available - and with my generation probably never being able to retire, that's going to be an interesting market.

Like others, I disagree.

First things first, you have actual nursing homes. Folks generally aren't living there by choice: They are there because they need a good amount of medical care. Some would be better off with assisted living (which is too expensive for most folks) or a nurse visiting a home a few times a day (which isn't nearly as common in the US).

Those last options will still exist for folks that have money: I think the home nurse will become more common if the US winds up going toward single-payer healthcare. Again, though, these are in place for folk's medical needs. Our generation might not be able to retire for leisure, but we'll still get sick.

The very last sort of retirement community is the non-medical sort. Many of these are simply apartments that cater towards older folks, though a few likely have a kitchen and/or activity areas. In indiana, these generally offered quiet spaces (no children) and discounted apartments if you met the age requirements. I truly don't see these sorts of things going out of style, even if folks are working instead of being in retirement.

Re: Baby boomers are making it harder for millennials to buy homes

#64

I'm going to sound like a broken record here but there are policy and other decisions being made in the Bay Area that are restricting the housing supply and driving up the price of existing housing. You don't have to be a bystander in this process, you can help lobby for more supply. A list of propositions and legislation to support (SF, Brisbane, Mountain View, the CA state legislature) can be found here: https://ne…

Not all cities must be made into overpopulated ant colonies. People love SF as it is, and if you increase density it would be not SF, it would be something else. If you like dense cities - there are plenty of them - LA, SD, NY...

Exactly my thought. If you like sky scrapers, WHY NOT move the startup capital to LA? Is there any real reason it has to be SF?

Re: Baby boomers are making it harder for millennials to buy homes

#65

I'm going to sound like a broken record here but there are policy and other decisions being made in the Bay Area that are restricting the housing supply and driving up the price of existing housing. You don't have to be a bystander in this process, you can help lobby for more supply. A list of propositions and legislation to support (SF, Brisbane, Mountain View, the CA state legislature) can be found here: https://ne…

Perhaps you can't afford to live in the Bay Area. Live elsewhere.

Re: Baby boomers are making it harder for millennials to buy homes

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not all cities must be made into overpopulated ant colonies. People love SF as it is, and if you increase density it would be not SF, it would be something else. If you like dense cities - there are plenty of them - LA, SD, NY...

It's funny, I live in SD and many say the same thing. "We don't want to increase density, we like that it feels like a small city. It's a privilege to live here, if you can't afford it too bad." Something's got to give somewhere.

A city is not obligated to densify. The give is that people start to move to places they can afford to live instead of complaining about what hasn't been handed to them.

Re: Baby boomers are making it harder for millennials to buy homes

#68
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The question I have has several parts, but fundamentally I wonder if the housing supply could even be increased enough to materially affect housing prices. Not saying that the housing supply isn't excessively restricted, but how much can restrictions be decreased and how much difference would it make? An analogy is building freeways to relieve traffic congestion. What regularly happens is that additional roads or add…

> fundamentally I wonder if the housing supply could even be increased enough to materially affect housing prices. Yes, it can; SF built 5,000 units last year, a record, and rents and owner move-in evictions finally declined. At the very least, building more housing can prevent further large price rises. > BTW this is what's happening here in Portland OR, where a building boom has been going on for years. The area po…

In eastern europe, we have Paneláky " rel="nofollow">https://www.google.cz/search?q=sidli%C5%A1t%C4%9B&source=lnm... and the housing prices are low in the panel houses and much higher everywhere else (though no-where nere US levels). You can even buy an apartment in a panel house an hour and a halfs drive outside of prague for $5000USD https://www.sreality.cz/hledani/prodej/byty/ustecky-kraj,lib...

Re: Baby boomers are making it harder for millennials to buy homes

#69
post #27

Not really the Baby Boomers fault, but bad decisions made over the past 30/40 years are coming to fruit. Right now only a hand full of cities have 'real' jobs and those cities have strict zoning laws (and NIMBY). So young people in the US, if they want to make any real $ need to move to those cities, otherwise all they will have are 'mcjobs'. I would not be surprised to see slums like the type seen in many poor count…

"Not really the Baby Boomers fault"

No shit. This article is the 1% dodging pitchforks.

Re: Baby boomers are making it harder for millennials to buy homes

#70
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Leave wealth building for bitcoin and Apple stock and companies that make mascara. The flip side of this - people then complain that we have 25 different high-tech varieties of boner pills while the developing world is dealing with antibiotic-resistant infections and malaria. Despite the SV Founder Changing The World rhetoric, most people are in business to get paid. People go where the money is. If you declare tha…

Yup. That is the problem right here in the real world. Don't disagree a bit. We've seen what happens with price controls, rent controls, government subsidies and mandates. That's why I say I see the problem, not the answer. But I'm pretty sure we can do better than we are right now. Policies discouraging wealth accumulation through living quarters might be a good start.

Have you ever read much about land value taxation? I think​ a well-implemented LVT could do a lot to help with these problems -- though I'm no expert, it seems a lot of economists rate it favourably.
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