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

Priced out of home ownership

bbc.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 1001 posts

Re: Priced out of home ownership

#11

Post by rr808 »

I always assumed when the baby boomers retired there would be a flood of big family houses coming up for sale.

I see it in my parents that they're pretty comfortable staying in the family house as long as possible, I'm happy with this. It is made a lot easier by the fact that prices keep going up so staying in a house that is oversized financially is rewarding.

I'd like to think it'll all come to and end one day as the spiral reverses, but I've been wrong for so long now I'm losing faith.

Re: Priced out of home ownership

#12

Post by lucidguppy »

vouaobrasil wrote: post #2

Where possible, states should build more tiny house communities, or have land where putting up a tiny house is legal and pain-free. There should also be a law prohibiting a person from owning more than one of them, except for temporary periods of moving out of one and into another. (The same should hold for regular houses, too.) Effectively, land is a different sort of commodity than most others: it is truly finite,…

How about developing the "missing middle" in urban development.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_middle_housing

Efficient and healthy land use for housing was solved in the 1900s - we don't need tiny homes.

Re: Priced out of home ownership

#13

Post by artemonster »

andrewstuart wrote: post #5

Society in UK, USA, AUS,Canada has been destroyed by housing as a financial instrument instead of……. housing. And politicians love every dollar of price increase. There’s the homeowners and the renters/serfs and nothing in between. Dead society, nothing to aim for or live for.

tbh I am so angry about this I dont even know with whom to be angry with in the first place. we just "got" here and everyone is just waving hands, especially politicians, that promise to fix housing crisis since 2000 and nothing happens, it just gets worse. I think some heads need to fly, french revolution style and that needs to be this violent in order for elites to be afraid again, idk what else can help.

Re: Priced out of home ownership

#14

Post by schnitzelstoat »

lucidguppy wrote: post #12
vouaobrasil wrote: post #2

Where possible, states should build more tiny house communities, or have land where putting up a tiny house is legal and pain-free. There should also be a law prohibiting a person from owning more than one of them, except for temporary periods of moving out of one and into another. (The same should hold for regular houses, too.) Effectively, land is a different sort of commodity than most others: it is truly finite,…

How about developing the "missing middle" in urban development. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_middle_housing Efficient and healthy land use for housing was solved in the 1900s - we don't need tiny homes.

Yeah, American houses are massive compared to what we have in Europe and often have large amounts of space around the house too.

In England, row housing is quite common and that seems a good compromise between density and comfort.

I live in an apartment block in Spain and it's quite a lot worse than even row housing due to noise from neighbours, lack of parking etc.

It's okay for young people, but it'll be hard to raise a family in, which is probably partly why we have such low birth rates here.

Re: Priced out of home ownership

#15

Post by JonChesterfield »

The UK made renting property a lot less lucrative a few years ago. Something about the tax position of letting mortgaged property. That meant landlords sold their houses - which I believe was broadly the point - and thus there are fewer places to rent and the cost of renting has increased to the new point of stability.

I think this probably has decreased house prices to some extent, but people are really insanely reluctant to sell a house for less than they bought it for so lots will wait for years before accepting the change.

It's probably good times to be buying an ex-rental to live in and getting better as mortgage rates fall.

Re: Priced out of home ownership

#16

Post by omnibrain »

rr808 wrote: post #11

I always assumed when the baby boomers retired there would be a flood of big family houses coming up for sale. I see it in my parents that they're pretty comfortable staying in the family house as long as possible, I'm happy with this. It is made a lot easier by the fact that prices keep going up so staying in a house that is oversized financially is rewarding. I'd like to think it'll all come to and end one day as t…

> I've been wrong for so long now I'm losing faith

There is a saying: „The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent.“

Re: Priced out of home ownership

#17

Post by JonChesterfield »

artemonster wrote: post #13
andrewstuart wrote: post #5

Society in UK, USA, AUS,Canada has been destroyed by housing as a financial instrument instead of……. housing. And politicians love every dollar of price increase. There’s the homeowners and the renters/serfs and nothing in between. Dead society, nothing to aim for or live for.

tbh I am so angry about this I dont even know with whom to be angry with in the first place. we just "got" here and everyone is just waving hands, especially politicians, that promise to fix housing crisis since 2000 and nothing happens, it just gets worse. I think some heads need to fly, french revolution style and that needs to be this violent in order for elites to be afraid again, idk what else can help.

The leaders of violent revolutions aren't especially likely to govern with more skill or empathy than those they overthrew. The selection criteria of charismatic and violent isn't very well aligned with benevolent rule afterwards.

Re: Priced out of home ownership

#18

Post by dustincoates »

JonChesterfield wrote: post #15

The UK made renting property a lot less lucrative a few years ago. Something about the tax position of letting mortgaged property. That meant landlords sold their houses - which I believe was broadly the point - and thus there are fewer places to rent and the cost of renting has increased to the new point of stability. I think this probably has decreased house prices to some extent, but people are really insanely rel…

A similar thing has happened in France, where the government has restricted the rental of less energy efficient dwellings[0]. This is generally a good thing for the environment, but it has already had an effect on rental prices as those apartments are now taken off the market.

The exact impact is a little hard to work out, because, at least in Paris, it's also coincided with apartment owners wanting to hold on to empty apartments to rent them for the Olympics rather than to locals.

0: https://www.connexionfrance.com/practical/timetable-for-new-....

Re: Priced out of home ownership

#19

Post by roenxi »

I think it is a mistake to write an entire article without talking about supply and demand. Demographics are one of the lest surprising things in statistics, they can sometimes be predicted decades out from an effect arriving. Housing construction is similarly easy to observe.

I'd personally bet that there is a gentle imbalance appearing between how much energy the average person can lay claim to vs. how much they need to build and service a house and this is a symptom of the energy squeeze. But it might not be and this article isn't doing much to prove or disprove what the actual problems are because we need more information to make useful observations.

Re: Priced out of home ownership

#20

Post by throw383y8 »

rr808 wrote: post #11

I always assumed when the baby boomers retired there would be a flood of big family houses coming up for sale. I see it in my parents that they're pretty comfortable staying in the family house as long as possible, I'm happy with this. It is made a lot easier by the fact that prices keep going up so staying in a house that is oversized financially is rewarding. I'd like to think it'll all come to and end one day as t…

[flagged]
Post reply on HN