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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

#251
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 just experienced something similar to this and it makes me wonder if much of this is just perception. We recently dealt with an out of state builder pushing to have a property that was zoned Neighborhood Commercial to be rezoned to something more flexible so that he could build 49 town homes with 49 parking spots on 5 acres of land. Everybody opposed the rezoning and fought to defeat it. The project would have been…

Without knowing more, it sounds complicated: denser infill housing is good in so many ways. Mixed use, with commercial on the ground floor and housing above is even better in many situations, but not all developers do that kind of thing. So it kind of depends on what the alternatives are and what the housing situation is like where you live. There are places where "the perfect is the enemy of the good" in terms of what gets built.

Commercial is critical for '15 minute neighborhoods': https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2019/9/6/7-rules-for-cre... - but without the density to support local commerce, it's tough to justify it.

But I don't think 15 minute neighborhoods are likely what your angry neighbors had in mind, so most likely just NIMBYism.

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

#252
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…

How does this not play out like Archegos in the end?

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-04-08/archeg...

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

#253

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…

People using "The Great Reset" as a pejorative tend to have their views deeply rooted in right-leaning garbage conspiracy theories. Surely there's a better source for what Black Rock is doing than this person's Twitter thread. > Only the worlds largest asset manager and the leading proponent of The Great Reset. https://twitter.com/APhilosophae/status/1402437638423035906

There was this in the FT [1] just over two weeks ago, "BlackRock bets on UK retirement housing", but it's about investing in building for defined sectors (retirement, student accommodation etc) and also shared ownership: Separately, BlackRock Real Assets is funding the £362m purchase of 3,000 shared-ownership homes by landlord Heylo Housing.

The article was archived shortly after publication [2].

I've not seen anything about buying up existing private homes at a big mark-up, though.

[1] https://www.ft.com/content/0d965c11-936e-4467-b98f-f4d34fae2...

[2] https://archive.is/AgiIg

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

#254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arkansas has a petition going around right now to axe property taxes completely. I believe other states do not have property taxes already as well.

It's a popular notion for the redneck crowd. It never happens because it the math just doesn't work out. State/local revenues boil down to: property taxes, sales/use taxes, excise taxes, fees and income taxes. The big revenue streams are property taxes (schools, towns), sales taxes (county/state), and income taxes (state). Fees mostly sustain individual programs and have limited revenue potential - you can't make a f…

Your language seems a bit elitist, even for me.

Nonetheless, the content of what you said seems reasonable and sound. Thank you for helping me understand this.

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

#255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve ranted about this before but CA Prop 13 not only makes housing a good investment, but one that you’re extremely incentivized to hold onto forever and never move. Two people can be living in houses next to each other valued around 1.5m, and one of them will be paying 1/10th the tax. If anyone wants to buy a house, they have to first be able to afford the property, so the barriers to entry are so much higher for t…

You’re saying that old people should be driven out of their houses because younger, richer people deserve to live in their houses. I’m sure your feelings will change as you get older.

That may have been the case when Prop 13 was sold to the public, but at this point it's mostly being used to accumulate wealth, not keep people on fixed incomes in their lifelong homes. If that was the goal, there is a much better solution - let the elderly accumulate the tax bill against the value of the house, and collect from the estate when they pass.

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

#256

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?

Nah, having views that divorced from reality is crazy, plain and simple. It's also dangerous, as the ongoing insurrection against the US government shows. It's not bigotry to call them out for how outlandish and insane their beliefs are.

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

#257

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…

People using "The Great Reset" as a pejorative tend to have their views deeply rooted in right-leaning garbage conspiracy theories. Surely there's a better source for what Black Rock is doing than this person's Twitter thread. > Only the worlds largest asset manager and the leading proponent of The Great Reset. https://twitter.com/APhilosophae/status/1402437638423035906

What conspiracy? “You’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy.” is something they said.

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

#258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re saying that old people should be driven out of their houses because younger, richer people deserve to live in their houses. I’m sure your feelings will change as you get older.

Someone who owns a house in cali is a milionaire. I am not sure it applies to immigrant who just moved to California.

The old person would have sold the house a long time ago because of the rise of their property tax. They wouldn’t be millionaires. They would have to sell their home for a small gain and then rent for the rest of their lives. And since they are old they have no income so they need to keep moving to cheaper and cheaper apartments.

Sounds like a great way to live a life, just because younger people feel like they deserve to live in their house.

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

#259
post #113
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people say "Well, you're paying more but you can also sell it for more afterwards". But non-homeowners are still paying more for less. That's the argument I am trying to make (poorly)

My rent doesn't change with interest rates.

No, but in 20 years you’ll be paying rent with expensive 2041 dollars while the 30 year fixed rate mortgage is still being paid in cheap 2021 dollars.

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

#260
Yup, post-covid is just like pre-coivd. Private equaity, investors buying up homes, and home prices keep going up. Nothing changed except higher prices and less supply. It goes to show how the media, who since 2012 have been calling housing a bubble and imploring people to sell, have been wrong. I remember someone sold their home in 2012 in the Bay Area for what at the time was a lot ($1.2 million). I bet he regrets it now.
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