New US homeownership measure puts people first • Hacker News Board

Re: New US homeownership measure puts people first

#91

Post by inigyou » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 1:37 PM UTC

CGMthrowaway wrote: post #57

smallmancontrov wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Health care, housing, and education are the big three drivers of mandatory expenses in most peoples' lives. It's undeniably a little cool that luxuries got cheap, but it's severely un-cool that necessities got expensive. I'm glad to see a focus on pushing statistics to do a better job of reflecting that, but yeah, this is all downstream of structural incentives so fixes are only going to happen through legislative ch…

>this is all downstream of structural incentives You are mostly right and the structural incentives are more related at root to unsustainable national debt than any legislative choice (unless that's what you were referring to)

I don't see how. National debt is just a form of money-printing. And it has to equal private savings.

Re: New US homeownership measure puts people first

#92

Post by inigyou » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 1:38 PM UTC

paxys wrote: post #72

GodelNumbering wrote: post #33

There was a youtube video sometime ago that argued about how life has vastly improved in every single aspect (with numbers about how 'stuff' has gotten universally more affordable), only housing has gotten more expensive relative to income and how that proves we have a better quality of life because of that. It got me thinking that maybe the home ownership, or having a place you can call yours, disproportionately aff…

Not hard to see why that is the case. No amount of flatscreen TVs is going to make up for the lack of food, shelter and medicine.

CPI disagrees.

Re: New US homeownership measure puts people first

#93

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 1:38 PM UTC

bell-cot wrote: post #3

No mention of vacation homes, homeless people, or some other situations - but their new metric appears to treat those properly. (Yes, I saw the reference to dorms, nursing homes, & prisons.)

[deleted]

Re: New US homeownership measure puts people first

#94

Post by rawgabbit » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 1:38 PM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #64

smallmancontrov wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Health care, housing, and education are the big three drivers of mandatory expenses in most peoples' lives. It's undeniably a little cool that luxuries got cheap, but it's severely un-cool that necessities got expensive. I'm glad to see a focus on pushing statistics to do a better job of reflecting that, but yeah, this is all downstream of structural incentives so fixes are only going to happen through legislative ch…

> Health care, housing, and education are the big three drivers of mandatory expenses in most peoples' lives. BLS says housing, transportation, and food are the top 3. Insurance/pensions is #4, but that also includes car and homeowners insurance and retirement contributions. Over the past 50 years, both transportation and food got cheaper. Moreover, clothing actually used to be one of the top categories, but that’s f…

I have a hard time believing healthcare expenses is not in the top three.

Re: New US homeownership measure puts people first

#95

Post by gchamonlive » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 1:38 PM UTC

jenniferhooley wrote: post #88

smallmancontrov wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Health care, housing, and education are the big three drivers of mandatory expenses in most peoples' lives. It's undeniably a little cool that luxuries got cheap, but it's severely un-cool that necessities got expensive. I'm glad to see a focus on pushing statistics to do a better job of reflecting that, but yeah, this is all downstream of structural incentives so fixes are only going to happen through legislative ch…

Or we just wait for automation and robotics to make building housing much cheaper and the free market system to fix things - which 5 years ago I assumed was too far out, but with all the advances in the sector, seems like we might get significantly cheaper building costs within the next 10 years or so.

How about a bit of empathy. People don't have 10 years to wait for necessities, those vulnerable are suffering today

Re: New US homeownership measure puts people first

#96

Post by inigyou » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 1:39 PM UTC

usui wrote: post #83

sarchertech wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of that cheap junk is clothing and food, which now both make up a much lower percentage of total income than they did 100 years ago.

What's the point of being able to spend less on cheap junk if the surplus is eaten up and outspent by important things that inflated during that timespan?

And you don't even have a choice. If junk was expensive and houses were cheap, you could scale your junk consumption. You can't scale your house consumption.

Re: New US homeownership measure puts people first

#97

Post by dfxm12 » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 1:39 PM UTC

eagerpace wrote: post #56

GodelNumbering wrote: post #33

There was a youtube video sometime ago that argued about how life has vastly improved in every single aspect (with numbers about how 'stuff' has gotten universally more affordable), only housing has gotten more expensive relative to income and how that proves we have a better quality of life because of that. It got me thinking that maybe the home ownership, or having a place you can call yours, disproportionately aff…

I love to see metrics that evolve over time. Land is a finite resources, as such it inevitably trends up as the best and easiest locations are consumed. So I think the correlation here has to be understood from that baseline.

That's too simplistic. The best (and maybe even easiest) locations and local population evolve over time as well. Land can be developed in different ways, allowing for different density. Different people buy property for different reasons, which affects its value.

Re: New US homeownership measure puts people first

#98

Post by inigyou » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 1:39 PM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #78

swiftcoder wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not sure how that translates at all into "stuff" being more affordable... I'm pretty sure "stuff" in this context is mostly manufactured goods, and those have fallen in absolute price. Examples abound in the tech sector: even adjusted for inflation, a MacBook Neo is the cheapest Mac ever released, and so on...

Manufactured goods, food, and clothing. Note that we tend to think of these things as not being a big deal, but that’s colored by the fact they’re so cheap. In 1970, a wall mount AC was about $400, when the median family income was under $10,000. Lots of people simply could not afford one. Today, a wall mount AC is still $400, while the median family income is over $80,000. People dismiss the fact that an AC unit has…

Average temperatures were also lower in 1970 and we didn't put as many of the jobs in places where you absolutely needed an AC.

What's average income less average house price? Has that gone up or down?

Re: New US homeownership measure puts people first

#99

Post by whack » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 1:41 PM UTC

> the U.S. homeownership rate is 53 percent

I hope this number drops below 50%. Well below 50%. Maybe then we can finally vote down the NIMBY regulations and NIMBY politicians. And start rapidly expanding our housing supply. Given our current political system, it seems high homeownership rates are the root cause of the housing affordability crisis

Re: New US homeownership measure puts people first

#100

Post by smallmancontrov » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 1:43 PM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #64

smallmancontrov wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Health care, housing, and education are the big three drivers of mandatory expenses in most peoples' lives. It's undeniably a little cool that luxuries got cheap, but it's severely un-cool that necessities got expensive. I'm glad to see a focus on pushing statistics to do a better job of reflecting that, but yeah, this is all downstream of structural incentives so fixes are only going to happen through legislative ch…

> Health care, housing, and education are the big three drivers of mandatory expenses in most peoples' lives. BLS says housing, transportation, and food are the top 3. Insurance/pensions is #4, but that also includes car and homeowners insurance and retirement contributions. Over the past 50 years, both transportation and food got cheaper. Moreover, clothing actually used to be one of the top categories, but that’s f…

I should have said "mandatory expense inflation", yes. There are still some difficult problems the economy is making progress on, but the correct attitude towards those is "keep up the good work" and to focus our attention back on the parts which are robbing us of progress as fast as we make it, where costs soar in excess of wage increases: health care, housing, and education.