We all want more housing but zoning laws and NIMBYs prevent us from building proper urban housing. Yet there’s nothing stopping someone from building a 6bd/4ba house in my neighborhood and renting the whole thing out for $1600/rm.
Priced out of home ownership
121–130 of 1001 posts
Re: Priced out of home ownership
#122None of the measures mentioned in the article — lower interest rates, lower transaction fees, down payment subsidies — will lower costs. Every one of them will raise prices. You can only fix this with supply: build homes.
There’s another way to fix it. You can regulate financial speculators. In the US 1/4 of all US homes are owned by financial institutions. I doubt it’s very different in Europe unless they are regulated. This situation ensures only the rich can own a home as buyers are competing against hedge funds.
Pretty sure that stat is incorrect. There were years in which 1/4 of available supply was bought by investors but that doesn't mean they ever owned 1/4 of homes. And they don't buy and sit on them. They renovated and rented or sold them. That's perfectly fine.
Re: Priced out of home ownership
#123Why doesn't the government build and sell housing at a small profit? Here in Dubai, the largest housing construction companies are or were government owned. It's one of the ways the government can have zero income tax despite oil being less than 1% of its economy.
My only thought is that it's political, and some voters don't want their houses to lose value.
Re: Priced out of home ownership
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is bait, I'm flagging this.
This wasn't bait. Really depends on the country where you are living. In Germany it is totally fair to rent. Has is ups and downs.. To bad it's flagged now. :-(
The article is about the US market, not Germany. To say "idk why you'd want to own a home in the US" is completely absurd.
Re: Priced out of home ownership
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
There’s another way to fix it. You can regulate financial speculators. In the US 1/4 of all US homes are owned by financial institutions. I doubt it’s very different in Europe unless they are regulated. This situation ensures only the rich can own a home as buyers are competing against hedge funds.
Yes, the “just build houses” contingent seems unaware that people (and as Mitt Romney famously said, “corporations are people too”) can own more than one house. Supply is certainly an issue, but inequality is as well.
Mitt Romney was not talking corporate personhood. He meant corporations are run by human beings.
Re: Priced out of home ownership
#126[dupe]
Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40489250
Re: Priced out of home ownership
#127I never really bothered much before to check previous articles on the same topic by the same reporter. It's interesting that there was an article from this same reporter in November 2019 discussing US tech giants investing in housing (https://www.bbc.com/news/business-50295130). Then, there was another article about housing prices in April 2022 (https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60921223) and 2023 (https://www.bbc.com/news/business-64178954), and another in October 2023 (https://www.bbc.com/news/business-67152845), and then one in January 2024 (https://www.bbc.com/news/business-68035274). I just never really thought about looking at previous articles by the same reporter before.
I look forward to an article when housing prices retreat rather than increase.
Re: Priced out of home ownership
#128[flagged]
Re: Priced out of home ownership
#129In a lot of ways this is a problem creating itself. The reason Home Ownership is desirable is that the pricing of houses go up faster then both inflation and depreciation caused by wear decreases the utility value of a dwelling, and the reason that houses are expensive is that the state actors are invested enough in this cycle to make sure it never really breaks. In a real functional market there would be no real ben…
You talk about demand for home ownership as if it is entirely induced via economics rather than inherently valuable. I don’t understand why? There are reasons why home ownership is desirable neglecting economics entirely. Owning a home gives you more control over the space you live in, in terms of the ability to customize the space.
Re: Priced out of home ownership
#130The problem is pretty easy to fix. 50-70% of homes (Depends on Area) are owned by people over 58-70 (Baby Boomers). They don't have good senior apartment/living options. Make more senior housing and provide incentives for them to sell their homes. There are so few available affordable senior apartment options. It's really saddening. Most places have 5-10 year waiting lists, if the waiting list is open at all. Fixing…
Handouts to the homeowners does not feel like the right call here
Are you sure you a replying to the correct place? No one talked about handouts, just about building more senior style housing.
Seniors can pay for that, especially after selling a house.