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US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes

reuters.com

311–320 of 1001 posts

Re: US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes

#312

The key word here is "Wall Street". And this statement is playing off a popular misconception around corporate investors buying up American houses. There has been a bit of a panic around "Investors buying up all the property!!!" With people often citing Black Rock and Blackstone as the main culprits. But most of the "investors" buying up property are individuals purchasing investment properties. Here's an article on…

Also, the headline on HN is downright wrong.

"US will ban Wall Street investors" != "Trump says he will ban Wall Street investments..."

This a Truth Social post from the President. It doesn't mean it has happened, will happen or will happen in the form that either Trump says it will or is being implied here.

This is a very difficult issue to properly address for lots of legal/logistical reasons. For example - many legitimate homeowners have their homes registered as LLCs and most home legislation is governed by states.

Re: US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes

#313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Controversial, but for affordability reasons, there even should be a cap on how many homes an individual can own for rentals. For the sanity in the housing market, members of society need to be driven to participate in other business activities for income/revenue, not rentals.

Why would this help affordability? If you restrict who can operate rentals, that will inevitably shrink the supply of rentals, which will raise rents.

Would it not also lower house prices, causing would-be renters to buy instead, reducing demand for rentals?

Re: US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes

#314
post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I propose two changes to (try) and broadly solve this: - Additional property tax if you do not live in your home fulltime. This includes vacation homes. - First time, US Citizen, non-corporate homebuyers can get a loan at the federal interest rate. If I were to try and buy the condo I rent, due to interest rates, taxes, and HOA's I would be paying $1000 more per month. At the end of my mortgage I would given the enti…

Property taxes are directly and immediately translate into higher rent. Making rent more expensive doesn't make ownership cheaper, just makes it more attractive relative to renting.

Property taxes do not directly translate into rent, the % of the tax that is on the land value of the property can't be passed on, because the supply of land is inelastic.

https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/does-georgism-work-part-2-c...

Re: US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes

#315
post #260

The key word here is "Wall Street". And this statement is playing off a popular misconception around corporate investors buying up American houses. There has been a bit of a panic around "Investors buying up all the property!!!" With people often citing Black Rock and Blackstone as the main culprits. But most of the "investors" buying up property are individuals purchasing investment properties. Here's an article on…

I propose two changes to (try) and broadly solve this: - Additional property tax if you do not live in your home fulltime. This includes vacation homes. - First time, US Citizen, non-corporate homebuyers can get a loan at the federal interest rate. If I were to try and buy the condo I rent, due to interest rates, taxes, and HOA's I would be paying $1000 more per month. At the end of my mortgage I would given the enti…

1) Is already how things work. Every single municipality I've ever seen in the US offers an owner-occupancy tax abatement.

2) Would just inflate home prices.

Re: US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes

#316
People want the value of their house to go up after they buy it, but stay low before they buy it. This is all nonsense. If people in an area keep breeding, housing costs will go up. It's that simple. Increasing housing prices are actually one of the only checks that keep humans from overbreeding and ruining large swaths of desirable places to live.

Re: US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes

#317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The title of the article - "3 companies own nearly 38,000 metro Atlanta homes"

There are well over a million homes in the metro Atlanta area. If the top three owners have less than 4% of a market, need if they act in a completely coordinated manner they have approximately zero market power.

Yes if the market is for rice, but illiquid assets are an entirely different market which can be crazy warped by a few important participants.

Re: US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes

#319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

each person can only own one property. You're going to need some exceptions. What happens when someone dies and leaves their house to their kids? What if someone's home is temporarily unlivable (say due to a fire or flood which requires extensive renovation) -- do they have to live on the streets? And that's not even addressing the obvious question of what happens to tenants if there are no landlords. The problem is…

I think my suggestion would unlock a lot of supply, without expanding our cities or adding to urban sprawl. Keep in mind, about half of all adults are married, so each couple can own two properties. One to live in, one to rent. I imagine we could figure out some way to handle inheritance, perhaps we could give somebody 12 months to decide which house the want to keep, and which to sell.

[deleted]

Re: US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes

#320
post #265
post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I propose two changes to (try) and broadly solve this: - Additional property tax if you do not live in your home fulltime. This includes vacation homes. - First time, US Citizen, non-corporate homebuyers can get a loan at the federal interest rate. If I were to try and buy the condo I rent, due to interest rates, taxes, and HOA's I would be paying $1000 more per month. At the end of my mortgage I would given the enti…

That sounds nice, but I think that increased tax will just be passed down as higher rent.

Long term these non-occupants will sell as other properties are being purchased by x-renters.
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