Canada bans foreign home buyers for two years • Hacker News Board

Re: Canada bans foreign home buyers for two years

#611

Post by la6472 » Tue, Apr 19, 2022, 6:36 PM UTC

arrosenberg wrote: post #477

la6472 wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing is better than sprawling outwards. Most of the white collar jobs can be done remotely , so commute is not needed. Most of groceries and other stuff can be delivered. A truck doing 100 deliveries is surely less traffic than everyone going to the supermarkets. And most importantly with sprawling outwards citizens can enjoy the outdoors and take care of their health. And even more importantly high density of pop…

> A truck doing 100 deliveries is surely less traffic than everyone going to the supermarkets. And most importantly with sprawling outwards citizens can enjoy the outdoors and take care of their health. No, the lowest traffic solution is having the smallest number of trucks that are needed to serve local markets that a relatively high volume of people can access via walking, biking or mass transit. All that walking,…

City dwellers are not subsidizing anybody. In fact there are certain things the government does for the common good. Like protecting border or extending healthcare. It is the kind of civic planning that determines if a community will be able to support ordinary human aspirations like living a comfortable life in a spread out space or a community is going to pile like ants on top of each other. Of course certain people in the top (elite?) may actually love the second option and would love to see people stuffed in small apartments and live life like mechanical robots so that they can enjoy their life in Malibu beach houses.

Re: Canada bans foreign home buyers for two years

#612

Post by seanmcdirmid » Tue, Apr 19, 2022, 6:36 PM UTC

weeksie wrote: post #588

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #560

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There aren't enough homes _where people want to live_ and you solve that buy building more homes _where people want to live_. You mean, if we had the density of Manhattan or Shanghai, our housing would be as cheap as Manhattan or Shanghai? I'm not sure people would like that (given that those places are more expensive in general). The best example in the states is Houston, but it is horrible sprawl (so housing isn'…

Manhattan (where I live) is extremely underbuilt. Lots of people want to live here! But yes, the implication of a housing abundance agenda is that places will change. I think it's generally underrated exactly how much the cities we know today changed during the 20th century as they grew in population. That said, you don't really need a lot of high rises to drastically increase density. Even row houses and low rise ap…

Don't get me wrong, I'm pro density. However, it seems like they are kind of like building new freeways, which rather than reduce traffic, simply induce more demand. By say taking Seattle and making it 4X dense...I doubt it would become much cheaper...instead it would just become more popular (still, I would love to live in a more dense Seattle, but I don't think I would save money by it).

Re: Canada bans foreign home buyers for two years

#613

Post by bluGill » Tue, Apr 19, 2022, 6:36 PM UTC

randomdata wrote: post #447

bluGill wrote: post #413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see ads for farm auctions that work like that every few weeks living in Iowa. I have no idea why there are regional differences, but I'm not really surprised they exist.

> I have no idea why there are regional differences I'm sure it is multi-faceted, but supply management is a big difference. Notably, diary farmers in some provinces voted to impose a quota price limit in an attempt to make it affordable for new farmers back in the mid-2000s. This means that the amount that quota sells for is the same now as back then, even though the fair market value has at least doubled in the mea…

Makes sense.

For those who don't know, the best farmland in Iowa can go for just over $20k, and as you say can grow more value than anything in Canada. Iowa should be the most valuable cropland in the world - great soil, good climate, great national economy, and relatively flat land. (there are places better in some of the above, but they are lacking in at least one significant way and so the value of their land should be less today.)

Re: Canada bans foreign home buyers for two years

#614

Post by andrewmutz » Tue, Apr 19, 2022, 6:36 PM UTC

cosmiccrisp wrote: post #565

huevosabio wrote: post #493

These are boogieman policies that have zero influence on the root cause. Foreign investors jump into the housing market because the current system ensures that the supply of housing is limited so it is an attractive way to park your wealth. But that is not the root cause. The root cause is the system that is geared to keep houses always appreciating via supply constraints: aggressive zoning, discretionary permitting,…

>The root cause is the system that is geared to keep houses always appreciating via supply constraints: aggressive zoning, discretionary permitting, NIMBYism. I don't agree that this is the root cause. The root cause is the artificial demand on housing created though our mass immigration policy. Canada accepts _at least_ 500,000 people per year through various channels, "temporary" foreign workers, international stud…

Plenty of those immigrants work in the housing industry building houses. Immigration is increasing both the supply and demand of housing.

Re: Canada bans foreign home buyers for two years

#615

Post by 3qz » Tue, Apr 19, 2022, 6:36 PM UTC

bombcar wrote: post #471

3qz wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A fun thought experiment is trying to imagine what career an 18 year old today should work towards if they want to own one of those homes. VC or Onlyfans? How can anyone plan for the future when prices might double between the start and end of a degree? They did for me… I think the only option left is moving away. Everyone in tech is already doing it

Moving away is and always HAS been the response; the only reason Seattle is a hotbed of real estate activity is because of the huge influx of people over the last 30 years, escaping rising Californian prices. Currently Arizona and Texas are seeing influxes, and there are other areas, too. It's not like major cities don't exist except on the coasts.

> It's not like major cities don't exist except on the coasts

Canada is a lot smaller. There are only 2 major English speaking cities, a few smaller cities in the prairies (200k to ~1M ppl) which are still affordable, and some dying rural provinces on the East coast with horrible economies. It’s more like moving to Nebraska when California is unaffordable.

Most people in BC and Ontario have no affordable cities within a few hours drive of their home town. The affordable cities are over a thousand kilometres away. At that point, it’s easier for most people to try moving to a nearby state across the border.

Re: Canada bans foreign home buyers for two years

#616

Post by renewiltord » Tue, Apr 19, 2022, 6:36 PM UTC

bko wrote: post #217

pards wrote: post #98

I'm a homeowner in Toronto and I don't think this will help. They've eliminated a small number of buyers from the market but have added other incentives like a first home buyers tax credit that will only fuel the fire - Australia tried this with tragic results. >> working with provinces and territories to develop and implement a Home Buyers’ Bill of Rights and bring forward a national plan to end blind bidding. Blind…

The question is why does something like blind bidding exist in real estate? It could exist in all sorts of places but doesn't. Imagine blind bidding when interviewing for a job. Write down the number you'd be willing to do the job for. Someone came in with a lower number, please resubmit. These weird market distortions in real estate have underlying causes. A lot of them are based off patchwork rules and regulations…

I wouldn't have a problem with a blind bid if we had second-price auctions.

But that's unlikely. A tiny blog post about this: https://blogs.cornell.edu/info2040/2019/10/22/why-arent-home...

Re: Canada bans foreign home buyers for two years

#617

Post by jlhawn » Tue, Apr 19, 2022, 6:36 PM UTC

huevosabio wrote: post #493

These are boogieman policies that have zero influence on the root cause. Foreign investors jump into the housing market because the current system ensures that the supply of housing is limited so it is an attractive way to park your wealth. But that is not the root cause. The root cause is the system that is geared to keep houses always appreciating via supply constraints: aggressive zoning, discretionary permitting,…

Land Value Tax would solve this.

Re: Canada bans foreign home buyers for two years

#618

Post by quest88 » Tue, Apr 19, 2022, 6:37 PM UTC

cosmiccrisp wrote: post #565

huevosabio wrote: post #493

These are boogieman policies that have zero influence on the root cause. Foreign investors jump into the housing market because the current system ensures that the supply of housing is limited so it is an attractive way to park your wealth. But that is not the root cause. The root cause is the system that is geared to keep houses always appreciating via supply constraints: aggressive zoning, discretionary permitting,…

>The root cause is the system that is geared to keep houses always appreciating via supply constraints: aggressive zoning, discretionary permitting, NIMBYism. I don't agree that this is the root cause. The root cause is the artificial demand on housing created though our mass immigration policy. Canada accepts _at least_ 500,000 people per year through various channels, "temporary" foreign workers, international stud…

So you're saying supply isn't meeting demand. Why isn't supply meeting demand? What's preventing buildings from building more and faster?

Re: Canada bans foreign home buyers for two years

#619

Post by johnnyanmac » Tue, Apr 19, 2022, 6:38 PM UTC

AtlasBarfed wrote: post #580

johnnyanmac wrote: post #530

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>how resistant people are to the idea that housing is expensive because there aren't enough homes for people to live in. I imagine there are enough homes in both America and Canada (they are two of the largest countries after all). But it's all about location. Very few can even afford to move out to the middle of nowhere just to own land. And not many people that can are willing to turn their potentially short commut…

To specifically rail on the "liberal" Bay Area and numerous other "liberal" cities in the US: The NIMBY housing policies and restrictions on building new housing are a massive part of sprawl, and with it the huge amount of excessive carbon emissions from commuting in single passenger cars. A dense city is about the best organization of people for the environment. To get things you need, you travel the furthest distan…

"the simple solution to that is to property tax the shit out of land in the exurbs and suburbs so that urban organization of housing is cheaper than suburban and rural, which is currently the opposite."

You can't really tax people money they don't have. Maybe it'd work in suburbs, but generally (at least in american cities) the more rural areas consist of

1. Farmland owners who likely contribute resources and get tax deductions anyway 2. mid-low income homeowners far from the city who's property cost as a whole pales in comparison to the cities. Either because of mass emmigration (which can be "White Flight" at worst, or simply dwindling resources/income at best in an evolving world) or simply happening to own/inherit land before costs went out of control.

There's not much to squeeze out of these people to begin with. And not exactly any alternative land to offer them that wouldn't be to their massive benefit (Again, this land isn't exactly valuable to begin with, comparatively speaking). Housing struggles to keep up as is and can't really afford this altruistic effort to try and consolidate everyone into a densely packed area.

Re: Canada bans foreign home buyers for two years

#620

Post by specialp » Tue, Apr 19, 2022, 6:38 PM UTC

huevosabio wrote: post #493

These are boogieman policies that have zero influence on the root cause. Foreign investors jump into the housing market because the current system ensures that the supply of housing is limited so it is an attractive way to park your wealth. But that is not the root cause. The root cause is the system that is geared to keep houses always appreciating via supply constraints: aggressive zoning, discretionary permitting,…

It is not just that it is an attractive place to park wealth as far as ROI. It is attractive period because you can park your wealth in an obscured way in a place more fair than where you live.

If you have a lot of money in places like China and Russia or if you have money from graft, it could all be taken away quickly. So these people are very willing to buy something real in a "safer" country, even if it has a negative ROI.

This is not the only problem with housing in general, but it is a contributing factor that does not provide value for people that are looking to actually live somewhere.