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If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund

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Re: If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund

#181

Post by gfodor »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #163
gfodor wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I follow this account and others like it because it allows one to be exposed to things like the idea that COVID leaked from a lab a year ago. Skepticism is warranted in all cases, of course, but I think it's extremely healthy to keep in tune with a variety of subcommunities who are in and of themselves skeptics of many mainstream narratives.

Something else to be skeptical of: skepticism. A good amount of skepticism is great. Questioning everything is belligerent and actually close-minded rather than open.

There's no objective measure for one to define what is a "good amount" of skepticism. The trap of using this as an excuse to shield yourself from people who have a higher level of conspiratorial or counter-consensus thinking than you prefer or have yourself is one worth trying to be mindful of. Claiming there are people who "question everything" is a yellow flag, imo, because that literally doesn't exist, though I know you were speaking hyperbolically. But having the capacity to bucket people into a group who "questions everything" despite the reality such a person literally cannot exist, may mean you are over-weighting this mental model.

Re: If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund

#182

Post by p_j_w »

duxup wrote: post #124
yabones wrote: post #102

Things went off the rails at the end... > Well, the banks are controlled by and in bed with the same cabal buying everything up. You think this will be corrected by market forces when it is a financial and political pincher movement pushed by the same cabal that stole the 2020 election & hid COVID Truth? You are fucked. https://twitter.com/APhilosophae/status/1402449561864577024 IMO, weakens the entire 'thread' and m…

Yeah what the heck happened there. "same cabal" Everything is a grand singular conspiracy to someone these days. Happens on HN too, every few bad news type post has some accusation that whatever outcome was because of a conspiracy.

The crazy thing is that no grand conspiracy is required, this is just a function (and an entirely predictable one) of the ever increasing levels of wealth inequality that we see. No political "pincher" movement required, it's just people with money finding ways to use that money to make more money.

As an aside, this isn't a username I expected to ever see again.

Re: If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund

#183

Post by chki »

world_peace42 wrote: post #168
cortesoft wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think that was disturbing, check out the substack linked to the twitter account. Full on nut job.

I clicked it. Looks like he's a Republican and a Christian (and has pretty standard opinions for that intersection) who likes to write long political essays. Are you sure he's a nut job, or could you possibly just be a bigot?

These are literally two out of the first four paragraphs I read when clicking on that link:

>Dearest Friends & Fellow Americans,

The eminent trial of our Age is upon us. Those whose courage fails them now, who shrink from the fight, and sit idly while the very foundations of our nation collapse should sit in shame; but those that stand boldly by the Constitution deserve the eternal thanks of all mankind. Malignant tyranny, like other pogroms of the past, are no simple feat to overcome; Yet we know also through the trials of history that the greater the force of evil, the more august the achievement.

> The Malignant States, the Federal Government, and the Tech Politburo have avowed to create and enforce a progressive establishment that places Marxist Race Doctrine, Anti-American Sentiment, and Western-averse Cultural and Governmental Practices at the forefront of legal and social policy and have declared that they will fully enchain the American populace to this destructive course.

Edit: I hope that nobody thinks that's still "Christian and Republican", right? Even if you're extremely critical of current developments it's certainly crazy to call those a "pogrom".

Re: If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund

#184

Post by helen___keller »

And here I thought the paranoia surrounding urban real estate prices over the past decade was bad (Remember the countless pieces about foreign investment dollars, induced demand causing gentrification, empty condo buildings, et cetera?)

Now urban money has started spilling out of major urban centers during covid, and demand for space has had a major uptick no less, so the rest of the country is experiencing a fraction of the insane price growth that major cities have seen for two straight decades.

Yeah, it sucks. No, your "evil investment money" thesis is still wrong, or at best misleading. It's essentially supply and demand (added with some inflation and supply shocks), you can either hope demand goes down or your city can plan to add more supply. Those have only ever been the two options.

Re: If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund

#185

Post by rcpt »

davidw wrote: post #125

Here's why investors buy up houses: they know your neighbors will do the dirty work of artificially constraining the housing supply, which makes it a good investment. Here's one who comes right out and explains this: > Meanwhile, local opposition to building is so commonplace and the approval process so cumbersome, time consuming, and expensive, even when a proposed project complies entirely with requirements, approv…

I'd say the tax advantages have a lot to do with it to.

A portfolio of several thousand Prop 13 jackpots is a pretty good situation to be in.

Re: If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund

#186

Post by tachyonbeam »

OJFord wrote: post #137
tachyonbeam wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that we need to stop treating houses as investments, because they're a basic fundamental need everyone has. IMO, the problem could be fixed by having stricter laws prohibiting people who aren't residents from owning homes in another country. The requirement to become a resident is only to live in a country for over 6 months out of the year. Before that, you can just rent. We could also do things like limit th…

So, also make holiday homes also illegal?

Maybe? They are a luxury for the upper middle class, and you could easily rent one the same way you rent an airbnb. Those holiday homes do need to belong to someone though, so I suppose it makes no sense to outright ban own multiple homes, but we could structure it so that resale is more highly taxed, particularly resale after a short time (i.e. people "flipping" properties).

Re: If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund

#187

Post by woodruffw »

world_peace42 wrote: post #168
cortesoft wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think that was disturbing, check out the substack linked to the twitter account. Full on nut job.

I clicked it. Looks like he's a Republican and a Christian (and has pretty standard opinions for that intersection) who likes to write long political essays. Are you sure he's a nut job, or could you possibly just be a bigot?

COVID denialism, election denialism, and “The Great Reset” are high profile crank subjects. Being a conservative Christian doesn’t make you a crank; those things do.

Re: If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund

#188

Post by pydry »

_greim_ wrote: post #142
cosmojg wrote: post #32

If only so many people didn't treat land and houses like investments, there wouldn't be such a disastrous hoarding problem. Henry George's Land Value Tax [1][2] seems like an obvious economic fix that would require a large fraction of the population to change how they think about land and natural resources, but most of them are invested in such a way (i.e. owning multiple houses on multiple parcels of land, often wit…

I recently went down the Geoist/LVT rabbit-hole myself. It strikes me as uniquely appealing across the political spectrum, since it reduces tax on wealth-creation AND redistributes wealth from the rich to the poor. Sadly, this very fact provokes enough superficial resistance to keep it out of the Overton window. Whenever it comes up, shouters on either side have plenty of ammo to blast it, saying things to the effect…

It is kept out of the Overton window because the rich guard nothing more jealously than their unearned income.

It's not like you or I get to decide what goes in the window.

Re: If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund

#189

Post by davidw »

scotuswroteus wrote: post #169
davidw wrote: post #125

Here's why investors buy up houses: they know your neighbors will do the dirty work of artificially constraining the housing supply, which makes it a good investment. Here's one who comes right out and explains this: > Meanwhile, local opposition to building is so commonplace and the approval process so cumbersome, time consuming, and expensive, even when a proposed project complies entirely with requirements, approv…

You lost me at the end. You lack political acumen if you think this is how politics works: " If there's a credible threat to build plenty of housing, they'll move on." The Yimbies supported Mayor Breed. She hasn't changed the political problems in SF that you're (for the most part, accurately) diagnosing here. The problem with most anti-activist government screeds like this is that they lack the same nuance and sophi…

I don't live in San Francisco, and our local YIMBY group is getting things done, thank you very much. We helped nudge our local representatives towards passing HB2001 in Oregon, which will add to the supply of more affordable homes. We've helped get apartments built locally. We speak regularly with our city councilors.

It takes a lot more than being 'highly online' and YIMBY groups are doing that work.

Re: If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund

#190

Post by debacle »

cosmojg wrote: post #32

If only so many people didn't treat land and houses like investments, there wouldn't be such a disastrous hoarding problem. Henry George's Land Value Tax [1][2] seems like an obvious economic fix that would require a large fraction of the population to change how they think about land and natural resources, but most of them are invested in such a way (i.e. owning multiple houses on multiple parcels of land, often wit…

If the population is increasing, then land and, to a lesser extent, housing are investments.
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