Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How the Path to Home Ownership Runs Through Mexico

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 74 posts

Re: How the Path to Home Ownership Runs Through Mexico

#31

Post by a2tech »

user-one1 wrote: post #25
harambae wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not that I endorse spreading America's housing problems to the world, but many countries in southeast asia and africa will effectively allow you to get away with renewing your visa every 6 months in perpetuity. I knew one guy whose only legal requirement was to leave the country twice a year, for a day, in order to come back for another 6 months. But he didn't even do this - he went one step lazier and hired someone…

You can get a residence permit in Uruguay just with your birth certificate and your passport. Then you need to prove that you have the means to sustain yourself and that's it, no more requirements for moving here. Also, no taxes on software exports ;)

Whats the land buying situation like and pricing? A lot of countries have weird rules around foreigners buying property.

Re: How the Path to Home Ownership Runs Through Mexico

#32

Post by nine_zeros »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #28
hellohowareu wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would want to analyze the inverse in order to see the issue from at least two different sides: How does it benefit local Mexicans? For example, having additional money in their economy: in the hands of tourist businesses, services businesses, industrial product (vehicle?) sales, grocery sales, etc. Additionally, how does it affect the culture? For example, I'm a 100% remote software engineer. I love talking about B…

>How does it benefit local Mexicans? Let me flip the script on you. How did rich Arabs, Asians and Russians buying US, London, Vancouver, etc. realestate benefit the average American/local? How much of their investment money ended up in the Average Joe's pocket? How much was his life improved from that added money? If you answer me this, I will eat my own hair. I'm tired of this trope that real estate economic coloni…

The economic benefit is only realized when the international buyers of the property actually live in the country they buy into. Their presence in the country allows more businesses to prop up, creating jobs and a higher standard of living.

The reason why Russian and Asian wealth hasn't been great for America is because America allows investment but not residence but other countries are allowing both.

Re: How the Path to Home Ownership Runs Through Mexico

#33

Post by substation13 »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #28
hellohowareu wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would want to analyze the inverse in order to see the issue from at least two different sides: How does it benefit local Mexicans? For example, having additional money in their economy: in the hands of tourist businesses, services businesses, industrial product (vehicle?) sales, grocery sales, etc. Additionally, how does it affect the culture? For example, I'm a 100% remote software engineer. I love talking about B…

>How does it benefit local Mexicans? Let me flip the script on you. How did rich Arabs, Asians and Russians buying US, London, Vancouver, etc. realestate benefit the average American/local? How much of their investment money ended up in the Average Joe's pocket? How much was his life improved from that added money? If you answer me this, I will eat my own hair. I'm tired of this trope that real estate economic coloni…

I suppose the difference is if the person actually lives in and contributes to the community or not.

Many properties bought by Asians and Russians in tier 1 western cities (London and Toronto are the obvious examples) are not even lived in; they are simply places to store wealth since the home regime isn't trusted.

Re: How the Path to Home Ownership Runs Through Mexico

#34

Post by [deleted] »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #28
hellohowareu wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would want to analyze the inverse in order to see the issue from at least two different sides: How does it benefit local Mexicans? For example, having additional money in their economy: in the hands of tourist businesses, services businesses, industrial product (vehicle?) sales, grocery sales, etc. Additionally, how does it affect the culture? For example, I'm a 100% remote software engineer. I love talking about B…

>How does it benefit local Mexicans? Let me flip the script on you. How did rich Arabs, Asians and Russians buying US, London, Vancouver, etc. realestate benefit the average American/local? How much of their investment money ended up in the Average Joe's pocket? How much was his life improved from that added money? If you answer me this, I will eat my own hair. I'm tired of this trope that real estate economic coloni…

[deleted]

Re: How the Path to Home Ownership Runs Through Mexico

#35

Post by paulryanrogers »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #23
drchopchop wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Extremely easy. You just have to navigate a maze of foreign visa requirements, have a large amount of money, no need to work, learn a foreign language, get your partner/dependents to agree, and be separated from all your existing friends/family. Why don't more people do it?

You are somewhat overblowing the situation. Mexican financial solvency requirements are fairly low to get temporary or permanent residency. I applied for and received permanent residency for our entire family with 12 months of statements of a reasonably sized 401k. Portugal’s D7 visa requires $9k/year in passive income for a single person, $18k for a family of four (these numbers are likely lower now with the EUR app…

> I applied for and received permanent residency for our entire family with 12 months of statements of a reasonably sized 401k.

How common is it for folks to have almost half a million in the bank?!

Re: How the Path to Home Ownership Runs Through Mexico

#36

Post by throwaway0a5e »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #28
hellohowareu wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would want to analyze the inverse in order to see the issue from at least two different sides: How does it benefit local Mexicans? For example, having additional money in their economy: in the hands of tourist businesses, services businesses, industrial product (vehicle?) sales, grocery sales, etc. Additionally, how does it affect the culture? For example, I'm a 100% remote software engineer. I love talking about B…

>How does it benefit local Mexicans? Let me flip the script on you. How did rich Arabs, Asians and Russians buying US, London, Vancouver, etc. realestate benefit the average American/local? How much of their investment money ended up in the Average Joe's pocket? How much was his life improved from that added money? If you answer me this, I will eat my own hair. I'm tired of this trope that real estate economic coloni…

How is this any different when some rich tech bro from CA cashes out and buys acreage and a McMansion an hour out of Dallas or some stock broker does the same in Florida?

Re: How the Path to Home Ownership Runs Through Mexico

#37

Post by AinderS »

kmeisthax wrote: post #6
nine_zeros wrote: post #2

Since the pandemic I have claimed that a lot of Americans will discover the power of the dollar soon, when they realize that a better QoL is just a passport and a flight away. The current inflation, rate hikes and the tug of war between buyers and sellers will only expedite this knowledge. The common person in America just cannot win in this casino.

Unfortunately American passports are not guaranteed immigration vehicles. Even countries with very close economic ties[0] and no language barrier are still a challenge to get labor market access into; and I can totally see that blossoming into full-on NIMBYism-but-for-people if this were to become mainstream. [0] EU excluded, mostly because the EU was very adamant on tying trade liberalization to immigration liberali…

> the EU was very adamant on tying trade liberalization to immigration liberalization.

Why was this the case? Do you have more background information on it? I've heard little about this, except the end result of free movement within the EU.

Re: How the Path to Home Ownership Runs Through Mexico

#38

Post by user-one1 »

a2tech wrote: post #31
user-one1 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can get a residence permit in Uruguay just with your birth certificate and your passport. Then you need to prove that you have the means to sustain yourself and that's it, no more requirements for moving here. Also, no taxes on software exports ;)

Whats the land buying situation like and pricing? A lot of countries have weird rules around foreigners buying property.

As far as I know, anyone can buy land/properties here. I think the only restriction is that foreigners are not allowed to buy land up to 30km from the border or something like that. Prices are way cheaper than in the US but probably more expensive than other south american countries.

Re: How the Path to Home Ownership Runs Through Mexico

#39

Post by nine_zeros »

watwut wrote: post #30
Green_man wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Housing isn't finite, if Americans are willing to spend money to increase the value of Mexican housing, Mexican builders/government can build more housing to take advantage of the increased demand. I don't see much reason why any country would need to ban foreign investment, especially when supply is artificially constrained by unjustifiable regulation (true of western US and Canada, no idea if true of Mexico)

How come that such building boom did not happened in America in the first place? It is not like America would lack land.

America lacks the legal system to allow newer and denser construction

Re: How the Path to Home Ownership Runs Through Mexico

#40

Post by colpabar »

nine_zeros wrote: post #32
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>How does it benefit local Mexicans? Let me flip the script on you. How did rich Arabs, Asians and Russians buying US, London, Vancouver, etc. realestate benefit the average American/local? How much of their investment money ended up in the Average Joe's pocket? How much was his life improved from that added money? If you answer me this, I will eat my own hair. I'm tired of this trope that real estate economic coloni…

The economic benefit is only realized when the international buyers of the property actually live in the country they buy into. Their presence in the country allows more businesses to prop up, creating jobs and a higher standard of living. The reason why Russian and Asian wealth hasn't been great for America is because America allows investment but not residence but other countries are allowing both.

Does it though? A few years ago, google opened an office in a relatively boring area of my small city, which is on the border of an area with a lot of low-income residents. Now, that place is full of nice restaurants and super expensive high rise apartment buildings. It's a nice place now.

But you know who I never ever see there anymore? The people that were living there before google came!

Post reply on HN