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What happens when housing prices go down?

clmarohn.substack.com

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Re: What happens when housing prices go down?

#172

This article is a mess. From the third paragraph: > What happens when prices actually start to fall? Because that’s not just a hypothetical. It’s already happening in places like Phoenix, Atlanta, Miami, Dallas... Then two paragraphs later > In The Atlantic, Rogé Karma recently pointed out that housing prices are rising fastest in the very cities once seen as escapes from high-cost coasts, places like Phoenix and Dal…

Also no discussion of interest rates - I bought my house just a few years ago at just under 3%, today I would be paying more than 6% - I couldn't afford the payments if I refinanced. I believe that interest rates are the primary driver of less construction: people who want to buy can't afford to unless they downsize.

The whole point of high interest rates is to get your economy unaddicted to cheap money and force economic efficiency.

This is why Trump is so angry about high interest rates and has threatened to fire powell again and again over it.

Re: What happens when housing prices go down?

#173
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. They moved their operations to the south where they don’t have to worry about unions or those pesky worker’s right. I experienced this first hand when I worked for a Korean company that supplied parts to Hyundai and Kia. They sent line workers from Detroit to train people in Alabama. My coworkers in Alabama just could not believe the Detroit folks when they talked about how much money they earned. We were being…

Sounds like an improvement TBH. The quality of life improves for people in Alabama, and the company can pay people less. Sort of like the economic argument for offshoring people. The only people losing are the people in Detroit.

> The only people losing are the people in Detroit.

I mean, that's a lot of people.

Also, the company doesn't pay people less all around. They pay workers less. The c-suite still makes more, and shareholders, who never did any work for the company whatsoever, get paid more. Car manufacturers haven't substantially lowered prices in years; so there are people paying more to get a car made by people making less.

Re: What happens when housing prices go down?

#174
post #81

The whole article is a mess of basic misunderstanding and conflation of cause and effect and reasoning from a price change instead of understanding what caused it. > When prices actually go down, builders get nervous, lenders get cautious, financing dries up, and projects disappear. No, it depends on the causes that drove the prices down. Some of those will get builders nervous, while others will make them giddy. > N…

Permits and licensing is a huge factor, most of the southeast didn't even have licensing boards until the late 90s. If you wanted to build a house you could just do it. Now it's functionally impossible unless you are capitalized enough to spend a considerable amount of time and money on the permitting and approvals process.

One of the reasons there's so much gentrification is that it's much easier for builders to take a falling down house and replace 99.99% of it than to get approvals for completely new construction.

Re: What happens when housing prices go down?

#176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't think of anything?

People are debating different solutions, with different problems being advanced that need solving. You make it sound like you have a solution and that it is straight forward. So, what is it? OR perhaps you are actually saying that things are (largely) working well, so there's no major course adjustment necessary.

Oh, I'm not saying anything except that we should a disregard a temporarily panicking market if there is a course of action that is going to be largely beneficial. The article is implying that a plan for affordable housing was working and then the market reacted negatively. The impression given was that this would be a devastating blow to this plan, and my comment was just 'let them freak out, they will get over it'.

Re: What happens when housing prices go down?

#177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What to do with the people who would rather rent than own?

Let them rent. There are many good reasons why someone would want to rent. Limiting the number of homes one can own spreads it out.

How can they rent when there is practically zero supply of rental units because we've now made it illegal to own multiple properties?

Re: What happens when housing prices go down?

#178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

no, you just strip NIMBY's of their power. I frankly don't give a shit about grandma's opinion if the owner of the land wants to put a highrise there.

Why do you care whether it's a developer or the city building it, then

Because a developer is never too big to fail, it can't issue bonds and it will be outcompeted if it can't manage costs.

I am not against cities building, but where I live in California the excessive zoning, permitting and delays are at the core of the problem.

Re: What happens when housing prices go down?

#179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the experience for everyone becomes worse in a multitude of ways. your analogy requires the assumption that the stadium is already "at capacity" for the maximum comfortable number of seats 99% of American municipalities are nowhere even close to this capacity.

Taylor Swift (and other super stars) don't play shows in 99% of American municipalities. Companies want top talent for their workforce. They naturally will set up shop where they have easiest access to this talent (hence why you get industry hubs in different locales). The companies move to the spots for workers, and the works move to those spots for the jobs.

Yep, and these changes take place for reasons. For example, California and the Bay area have had 40 years of opportunity to make it easier to build, and ample people willing to pay.

There's an alternative world where SF and San Jose look like Singapore or Hong Kong, and policy is one of the big differences

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