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US housing market hit a ‘significant slowdown’ in recent weeks, Redfin CEO says

marketwatch.com

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Re: US housing market hit a ‘significant slowdown’ in recent weeks, Redfin CEO says

#81

Misleading label from HN - article is amp from Market Watch, not actually google.com. Ideally, HN would point at the original. Personally, my phone Adblock prevents google from spying on my traffic in general, but these cached amp links get tracked by google.

Yes. Url changed from https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.marketwatch.com/amp/story/g....

Submitters: please don't post those! It's important that readers see what domain a story is coming from.

Re: US housing market hit a ‘significant slowdown’ in recent weeks, Redfin CEO says

#82
post #11

The article title needs punctuation.

We changed the title from "Housing hit unexpected slowdown Shares of Redfin drop 20%".

Submitters: please don't rewrite titles like that. If an article title is neither misleading nor linkbait, the site guidelines ask you not to change it.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: US housing market hit a ‘significant slowdown’ in recent weeks, Redfin CEO says

#83
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sure my ancestral home is somewhere on Mayfair. I demand access to an affordable London flat thereabouts! Also if you're talking about the Bay Area, much of the real estate pricing there is driven by the anti-development tendencies of the owners of ancestral homes, either lining their own pockets or pushing some misguided political wheelbarrow (especially in SF). In that sense it's largely self inflicted. In o…

> Pretty sure my ancestral home is somewhere on Mayfair. I demand access to an affordable London flat thereabouts! We’d better get around to ceding Manhattan back to the Lenape, too.

Maybe I chose poor words. Ancestral meaning “where my mother/father and grandparents, nieces, nefews etc live.

I come from a city in England called Coventry. Family ties are what keep most of the population in place- perhaps “familial” is a better word.

The idea of not being able to live close to family is distressing to many of my fellow city dwellers.

You can argue the semantics of how valuable such a thing is. You can even argue that the entire family unit should probably move somewhere cheaper, or that commuting to see your mum isn’t all that bad. But honestly; it would take a lot for me to revisit the idea that I am not able to live amongst my family. Even if I personally did not choose to.

Re: US housing market hit a ‘significant slowdown’ in recent weeks, Redfin CEO says

#84
post #41
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is all true, but the mortgage interest deduction should be $0, particularly in the rich cities that refuse to let enough homes get built and fix things like zoning. It's an awful distortion that's a handout to the wealthy to the penalty of renters (generally less well off)

I'm a homeowner and I think it's an absolute crime my mortgage interest is tax deductible yet rent isn't. If we believe, at a philosophical level, that interest payments should be tax deductible, ok, then make ALL interest paid tax deductible - credit cards, personal loans, auto loans, payday loans, etc. It's shameful. That being said, with the new tax bill, 90+% of both owners and renters will be taking the standard…

The entire (expressly stared) reason to make mortgage interest deductable was to encourage more home ownership.

You may disagree that that’s a desirable policy goal (and I might agree with you), but comparing it to some other payment that isn’t deductable misses the point entirely. Especially rent. Congress wanted to create an economic dis-incentive to being a renter and push people to own the homes they live in.

Re: US housing market hit a ‘significant slowdown’ in recent weeks, Redfin CEO says

#85
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, flippers aren’t taking conventional housing loans on the properties they are flipping. They are getting short term lines of credit instead because they don’t expect to have the house for more than a few months.

I'm not sure what kind of flippers you are referring, but usually there are no loans. Cash purchases - 100% for the entire value of the property. Source: my parents are prof. flippers.

How many properties at a time can you flip with just cash? You also need to consider the cost of renovating the property, even professional builders need financing for those kinds of things. I guess you could do it out of pocket if the scale was small enough.

Re: US housing market hit a ‘significant slowdown’ in recent weeks, Redfin CEO says

#86
post #23
post #2

At some point you hit the cap of what people can possibly spend. Depressed earnings in all but a tiny sector, and incredibly inflated house prices. Perpetual growth is unsustainable in this manner, but is expected by investors. I hope the market corrects. Not for my sake (I live in Sweden and have no US desires) but for those who hope to have a life and family near their ancestral home. I am not preaching to the choi…

> At some point you hit the cap of what people can possibly spend. Local population can be priced out if external buyers (ie, foreign cash) can pick up the slack / drive up demand. Foreign investment is likely why case-shiller is so high since mid-2000s.

Meh... even in super hot markets like Vancouver, foreign purchases were 10% of transactions. And a lot of it was in the very expensive houses. It’s locals who are driving most of the price appreciations (and flippers).

Re: US housing market hit a ‘significant slowdown’ in recent weeks, Redfin CEO says

#87
post #9
post #8

Just today (in Austin) I saw a banner by the road outside a bank offering "100% financing" for homebuyers. If banks breathlessly pitching to lend buyers the entirety of a home's price is not a sign of an overheated debt-led housing market, I don't know what is.

It gets worse than that, https://www.lendingtree.com/home/mortgage/interest-only-mort...

Is this the first you’re hearing of an interest only mortgage? They have been very popular in Southern California for a couple of decades. The theory is that it allows the speculator / owner to get a much more expensive home and just pay the interest for 3 to 10 years. Then sell and reap the massive appreciation. Except of course when the market goes the other way and you’re underwater and then whoops! the payment flips to fully amortized (interest and principal) and you can’t afford it.

Welcome to 2007! But don’t worry you’ll be unemployed in another year too!

Re: US housing market hit a ‘significant slowdown’ in recent weeks, Redfin CEO says

#88
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some states do permit tax deductions for rent. Indiana, New Jersey, and possibly others.

California has a (very small) tax credit for renters.

I believe it's only for lower income renters.

Re: US housing market hit a ‘significant slowdown’ in recent weeks, Redfin CEO says

#89
post #76
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, 75% of rent can be used. It is called "market rent", according to Fannie Mae. Remaining 25% is used for Vacancies, etc. In California markets, rental properties are not profitable, when you consider 20% downpayment, 75% rent, etc. There are 4 kinds of buyers in this market: 1. First home buyers: renters becoming buyers. 2. Second home buyers: thanks to the appreciation of their primary residence, people have bou…

Things I learned from Donald Trump: In most markets, rental properties are not profitable. Almost all of the profit comes when you sell the building, from appreciation. If you're breaking even on a rental, you're actually ahead of the game.

Heck, it doesn't really even have to appreciate... If the rental is done right you are having someone paying off the mortgage. It's just deferred income. I'm stuck with a rental where I used to live. I am under by $70 / month with the rent I'm giving but that parlays into $550 being paid a month on my principal by the renter. $550 for $70 isn't bad return. I'm not selling it because it's 3 years from paid off and it's in a slow mover location (would be on the market for 6-8 months). So I'm just waiting until I'm making $550 a month instead of the bank. Or I could sell it and get the sale price out of it once it's paid off. Which would be 18 years to make $120k on 15k.

I probbably should have sold it long ago but $70/month is like internet.

Re: US housing market hit a ‘significant slowdown’ in recent weeks, Redfin CEO says

#90
post #81

Misleading label from HN - article is amp from Market Watch, not actually google.com. Ideally, HN would point at the original. Personally, my phone Adblock prevents google from spying on my traffic in general, but these cached amp links get tracked by google.

Yes. Url changed from https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.marketwatch.com/amp/story/g... . Submitters: please don't post those! It's important that readers see what domain a story is coming from.

dang, Why doesn't HN simply warn submitters to not use AMP urls or reject them outright?
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