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Investors bought a quarter of US homes sold last year

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Re: Investors bought a quarter of US homes sold last year

#631

Post by sleepdreamy »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #450
sleepdreamy wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate on your last sentence a bit more? Just trying to get a more thorough explanation. I just got my first 30 year mortgage so, trying to make myself feel better I guess.

If you just bought, you don't have a negative real interest rate. Your interest rate is probably 5% or so? The real interest rate is probably 3% or so. That means your REAL interest rate is 2%. When you inevitably get the chance to refinance at below 3% - your REAL interest rate will be negative. The 30-year fixed mortgage is a product that would not exist without a government guarantee on Fannie & Freddie's debt. Ev…

My interest rate is 2.7% - We've been in the house for close to a year now. Renting was going to be 700 more MINUMUM. I couldn't justify not buying but also feel..unsure about everything for obvious reasons.

Re: Investors bought a quarter of US homes sold last year

#632

Post by yunohn »

slg wrote: post #445
missedthecue wrote: post #429

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Resale value is probably one of the number one things car buyers look at when shopping.

No one expects that resale value to go up. No one suggests that the government creates programs to prop up that resale value. People understand that owning a car gives them value and they are fine paying the difference between the purchase price and the resale price for that value. Why should homeownership be different? Why should homeownership not just be free but profitable? It makes no sense other than homeowners…

> No one expects that resale value to go up.

Except until you have a chip supply crunch, and used cars are selling higher than their original buying price.

Re: Investors bought a quarter of US homes sold last year

#633

Post by yunohn »

throwaway_4ever wrote: post #612
notch656a wrote: post #589

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that true if you sell your home yourself? I've never bought a home, but I know I can transfer a title to a vehicle without forfeiting anything beyond the sales tax and the $50 title fee. Is there no way to sell/buy real estate directly like that using cash transactions direct between parties?

No, I misspoke by saying “every single person.” It’s true that direct off-market sales can avoid paying realtors and two parties agree amongst themselves. Depending on jurisdiction it’s around $2k for all the title transfer, notary, and other fees. But this is quite uncommon.

It’s only uncommon because people know they can get higher bids in the open market, and use a broker to facilitate deals. If housing prices weren’t always going up, that could change.

Re: Investors bought a quarter of US homes sold last year

#634

Post by brianwawok »

antisthenes wrote: post #439
brianwawok wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

* It guarantees you do not lose money if the home values around you drop * It gives you a fixed monthly houseing cost. No "10k new roof" or "1k new stove" suprises hit you. * If you are say, saving 50% vs buying, you can put this difference in an index fund. This would over 10 or 20 years potentially give you a LOT of money over buying. Look, buying is mostly great. It's one of the biggest builders of wealth for most…

1. True, but housing prices rarely drop in desirable areas (usually where good jobs and schools are). If, for some reason, you decide to stay in a town with a dying industry, then yes, this is true. 2. So does a fixed-rate mortgage. Even better, refinancing a mortgage during a low-rate period (e.g. 2012, 2020) actually lets you reduce your payment, while contributing more to equity. How often do you have an opportuni…

So say global warming continues. Huge chunks of Cali aren't fit to live in. Salt Lake dries up. What happens to all of those home values?

Home values rising historically is good, but I don't think a clear win through all time. There is no instrinsic reason a house value should rise faster than inflation. You can always build a new house for cost X. Buying existing means that new house supply is too low or too costly.

Re: Investors bought a quarter of US homes sold last year

#635

Post by game_the0ry »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #484
game_the0ry wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was by design - the real estate industry lobbies hard.

In fact, the previous president signed a law removing 1031 exchange for everything except real estate. Coincidentally, the previous president is in the real estate business. https://krscpas.com/the-tax-cuts-and-jobs-act-tcja-and-code-...

That's bad, but not as bad as when the commercial real estate lobby asked for a straight up bail out back in '08.

> In a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, industry organizations have asked that the $200 billion Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF) provide guarantees or financing, or purchase highly rated asset-backed securities collateralized by new or recently originated mortgages.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-commercialproperty-idUSTR...

Re: Investors bought a quarter of US homes sold last year

#636

Post by surfpel »

thepasswordis wrote: post #610
surfpel wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you so much for this beautiful insight. I just purchased a 100 sqft plot of land in the Alaskan wilderness where I will hire 20 employees and start a manufacturing business... oh wait, that's ridiculous. Your argument contributes nothing because it fails to address the real negative consequences of unaffordable housing. After a point (which we most certainly have crossed), it affects society in strongly negativ…

What the heck is so wrong with the Midwest in your mind? Do you seriously think living in Ohio, a couple of hours from the Great Lakes, is equivalent to living on some remote parcel of land in rural Alaska?

You’re missing the forest for the trees.

Re: Investors bought a quarter of US homes sold last year

#637

Post by cosmojg »

sillystuff wrote: post #12

In 2012 I was looking at investing in REITs. One REIT's pitch was that they owned such a large percentage of the rental housing in Tampa Florida, that even though vacancy rates were high, and rents were going down throughout the nation and other areas in the state of Florida, they were able to keep rents high in Tampa. Disgusted, I realized the harm that REITs and private equity are doing to housing markets, and want…

A land value tax would solve this: https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/does-georgism-work-is-...

Re: Investors bought a quarter of US homes sold last year

#638

Post by sleepdreamy »

plonk wrote: post #618
asdff wrote: post #459

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only if you are renting month to month

Is it common to pay for longer periods at a time? Never heard of it.

Yes...usually you sign an agreement for the year in Apartment Complexes for instance. They also raise the price each year and make you sign. I do not miss apartment living

Re: Investors bought a quarter of US homes sold last year

#640

Post by twoodfin »

patrick451 wrote: post #557
twoodfin wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the levels where an LVT is effectively coercive, it’s functionally indistinguishable from rent paid to the government for land you don’t actually own. I expect most citizens would recognize this and any effective LVT would be politically DOA.

The fact that property taxes exist at all, combined with the fact that failure to pay property taxes means the government takes "your" land means you are in fact renting the land from the government. The size of these taxes is irrelevant.

I invite you to make that sale to the American voter.

My point is that Americans who own one or more plots of land definitely do NOT believe they are renting that land from the government. Ownership is, of course, a degree of control and everything is a matter of degree. Meaningful LVT would be a qualitative change in a home- or farm- or business-owner’s degree of control over what they heretofore considered their property, and they’d recognize that.

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