Normally when people talk about mixed-use development, they are talking about zoning rules that allow residential and commercial use in close proximity, not necessarily about forced single-family use (although that is also an issue in many places).
Ah I see I misunderstood. FWIW though there's businesses scattered all over my neighborhood and seemingly no zoning rules. Lots of folks, especially the ones on this forum, would probably not live in Atlanta simply because of their perception of the city.
Atlanta has the advantage of being an old city, relative to the US's history of development. It certainly has its own issues with post-WWII development (especially in its sprawly areas), but the older parts have retained lots of the perks of pre-automobile urbanization.
The scary thing is that it's easy to see how something how like this could drive a market boom and bust cycle. I'm imagining a scenario where two iBuyer companies try to outbid each other algorithmically, driving the prices further and further out of reach of people who are looking for a primary home. Tangentially related, I talked to a friend who works on geospatial data for one of the big vacation rental companies,…
> I'm imagining a scenario where two iBuyer companies try to outbid each other algorithmically, driving the prices further and further out of reach of people who are looking for a primary home. But iBuyers are always low-balling. They are bidding under the asking price with an all-cash offer that they hope will make up in speed and ease what it lacks in price. > It's not that uncommon to see nearly entire neighborhoo…
Zillow wasn't pursuing the strategy of a traditional iBuyer, which as you note is to lowball. Zillow thought they were providing a service of market-making and didn't consider the risks (I still don't see why it wasn't obvious to them...). If they offered some discount from the Zestimate, that would have been a lot smarter, but it would have undermined their goal of making a market, as well as undermining the very concept of the Zestimate (if Zillow says my house is worth X, why are they offering me 80% of X?). The alternative would be to appraise each house in person instead of basing the purchase price on the Zestimate, but that wouldn't scale.
There's even lower hanging fruit than that. I have a 6 bedroom house, but local regulations state that I am not allowed to live with more than 2 people unrelated to me. Plenty of parking, tons of people looking for housing, but legally I am forced to keep 3 bedrooms empty.
Agreed. Heck I know several people who prefer to keep their condos/houses empty rather than rent them out at market rate because of 100% tenant friendly city and state laws. Someone can move in and refuse to pay rent, refuse to leave, use your house as a drug den, destroy your property and lots more, and you can do nothing about it. At that point the city is just incentivizing homeowners to contribute to the housing…
A home 2 doors down from myself had been empty since the neighborhood was built in 2016 until 2020 when rental prices in our neighborhood blew through the ceiling.
I always assumed their financial calculus was such that the appreciation alone, on an empty home, was a better prospect to them than what they could've gotten in rent in those earlier years (weighted against upkeep/maintenance vs. leaving the place empty and coming by every 6 weeks to inspect the place -- which is what they were doing). Now that these homes are renting out for nearly 2x the mortgage price they have a tenant. I'm unsurprised to hear that it's commonplace. It's just... upsetting.
> Zillow’s exit from the market strengthens the position of companies like Opendoor or Offerpad, which do something similar Does Opendoor just have better algorithms/models? What factors allow them to have different outcomes from Zillow?
Mostly that they no longer have to compete with Zillow
Likely some stressed out buyers paid for overpriced homes given the sharply rising prices across the market (although completely by their choice), and the sellers probably loved it - but that's already par for the course with the housing market at the moment. Zillow probably didn't help but isn't the sole contributor by any means.
Monetary policy and fiat currency are unequivocally good things. Deflation is what caused the 50 year recession from 1860-1910. Not being able to control inflation leads to mass unemployment.
My comment explains in detail the specific mechanism I'm concerned about in a way that everyone can understand it. Your comment regurgitates something from a textbook that people have on reason to actually trust. I don't have a problem that you disagree with me. I have a problem that it's an argument from authority. Also, I wonder if you're conceding that the Fed steals from the economy in general and gives to the su…
Bitcoin is not a viable currency. It's value is not anywhere near stable enough. It's honestly incredible that you haven't even thought of the very first problem with using bitcoin as a currency. Yes, the rich abuse the current system. They will do the same with any system. Saying "we shouldn't ensure that our currency has predictable value because that would make the rich even richer" is insane when the rich will be richer no matter what you do.
> I have a problem that it's an argument from authority.
https://danluu.com/cocktail-ideas/ you are the developer who thinks building a bridge is easy. Please just admit that you don't understand what you're talking about.
There's even lower hanging fruit than that. I have a 6 bedroom house, but local regulations state that I am not allowed to live with more than 2 people unrelated to me. Plenty of parking, tons of people looking for housing, but legally I am forced to keep 3 bedrooms empty.
Agreed. Heck I know several people who prefer to keep their condos/houses empty rather than rent them out at market rate because of 100% tenant friendly city and state laws. Someone can move in and refuse to pay rent, refuse to leave, use your house as a drug den, destroy your property and lots more, and you can do nothing about it. At that point the city is just incentivizing homeowners to contribute to the housing…
A friend bought a duplex in Berkeley. Due to the tenant-friendly laws there, she will only rent to international university affiliates whose roles/visas will require them to leave after a year or two.
Interestingly, she is very YIMBY and liberal, and even has a PhD in urban planning. But no one wants a forever tenant!
There are absolutely good jobs in every city in America. Entertainment can mean anything...and frankly people should be able to find fun things to do on their own without needing bars, nightclubs, concert venues, etc. I concede that good schools are a major barrier. I'm young and won't be having children anytime soon so I don't think about it much. Where I live, the public schools are pretty rough. It's cheaper to st…
Every city, sure, but cities are expensive. Even cities that used to be affordable, like Portland and Austin. But between the cities? Not much. Some small towns might work if you’re the town lawyer or MD, but a town can only support so many of those. And if you’re an engineer or banker? Not much employment.
Well, you should just lower your standards when it comes to picking a job, too. Maybe you could be a grocery clerk or a gas station attendant?
I thought the Zillow webpage was simply to guesstimate the cost of houses. This whole scenario sounds like they were totally out of their core competency zone.
There's even lower hanging fruit than that. I have a 6 bedroom house, but local regulations state that I am not allowed to live with more than 2 people unrelated to me. Plenty of parking, tons of people looking for housing, but legally I am forced to keep 3 bedrooms empty.
>local regulations state that I am not allowed to live with more than 2 people unrelated to me What? Where is that? It sounds insane and extreme overreach. How can somebody regulate with whom consenting adults choose to live?
If you have a family home, you probably don’t want 8 college students moving into the house next door to you. This was a restriction in my college town. As a student, I didn’t like it, but as a homeowner with a family, I completely understand.