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

1-Euro Houses

1eurohouses.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 196 posts

Re: 1-Euro Houses

#151

Post by cortesoft »

benrbray wrote: post #95
david927 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My feeling is that the pandemic and impending economic collapse will change that. Remember when the 2008 crisis hit, no one was buying but no one was renting either. And a lot of banks with real estate on their books just let it sit there (where it sits today). Once a the credit default domino chain starts to fall, people and organization will need to get liquid. The first stage will see some people jump in on pent-u…

> no one was buying but no one was renting either. As someone who was in eighth grade at the time, can you clarify what you mean by this? Every person either 1) buys property, 2) rents property, 3) goes homeless, or 4) dies. There aren't really any other choices.

5) pack more people into the house and split rent

Re: 1-Euro Houses

#152

Post by throwaway894345 »

ido wrote: post #143
throwaway894345 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is population stagnation a problem across Europe? Why not relax immigration requirements? I’m not an expert, but every time I’ve looked getting into Europe seems ridiculously hard. You basically have to have a company agree to employ you and sponsor your visa application, which (as I understand) entails proving why the company can’t find an E.U. resident to do the same job. Plus the salaries are quite a lot lower tha…

Software just isn't a focus for the German economy, it's more industrial machinery & automotive. And Germany actually has among the highest amount of immigration in the world so not sure why you think they don't let people in. In my experience it is actually easier to move here than to the US (I'm an immigrant). The places where it's a problem are those that people leave, like Bulgaria and Romania. There are basicall…

I was speaking to Europe in general, but good to know about Germany specifically. I was asking about Europe generally because it seems like I’ve heard of a number of European countries struggling with declining populations in recent years, and if it’s a problem throughout the EU, then perhaps the EU would be better off by loosening its immigration requirements.

Re: 1-Euro Houses

#153

Post by philprx »

Assuming plenty of time, not much luxury taste, wanting to ramp up tech skills, limited (but existing) funds

Buy one, establish a hacker space, hold regular events, show the awesome projects you do, try to have community-positive impacts. Do some remote gigs for funding.

At worse you get kicked out because people don't get technology, don't want you around, find out you're not going to be a source of income.

At best, people love what you do, help you renovate because plenty of materials and help can be had in some communities, and you go from homeless to remote tech worker.

Is this a crazy scenario?

Re: 1-Euro Houses

#154

Post by my_username_is_ »

cortesoft wrote: post #150
jefftk wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure what distinction you're getting at? I'm in Somerville Massachusetts, houses are very expensive, and the land is all built out. If you tore down a house, you would not be able to build as large a house in its place, in almost all circumstances. You definitely couldn't build a bigger one. What are you trying to get at with "new houses" versus "new homes"?

You could if you built a multistory apartment complex.

Most housing in Somerville, and lots of the urban northeast, is made up of multistory apartments (sometimes referred to as "three deckers")

Re: 1-Euro Houses

#155

Post by benrbray »

cortesoft wrote: post #151
benrbray wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> no one was buying but no one was renting either. As someone who was in eighth grade at the time, can you clarify what you mean by this? Every person either 1) buys property, 2) rents property, 3) goes homeless, or 4) dies. There aren't really any other choices.

5) pack more people into the house and split rent

Still technically renting, though :)

Re: 1-Euro Houses

#156

Post by mrnobody_67 »

adventured wrote: post #137
bryanlarsen wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or you could just wait. A lot of people have been surprised that the housing market hasn't crashed. Two of the theories are: 1: supply is more elastic than demand. In other words, more sellers took potential listings off the market than buyers stopped looking. 2: governments printing money inflated investor assets like stocks and real estate. If these are true, a backlog of listings from could flood the market next y…

> Or you could just wait. ... 2: governments printing money inflated investor assets like stocks and real estate. Waiting will only help modestly. In the meantime, while you wait, your purchasing power is being destroyed, which is likely to put you in an at-best net break-even scenario on waiting. 2a) Asset prices - such as housing - have been permanently adjusted higher because the real standard of living, the real…

ShadowStats.com tracks the Consumer Price Index according to the old 1980 and 1990 methodologies.... 6% or 10% annually vs. less than 2% under the current CPI index.

Re: 1-Euro Houses

#157

Post by tingletech »

benrbray wrote: post #95
david927 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My feeling is that the pandemic and impending economic collapse will change that. Remember when the 2008 crisis hit, no one was buying but no one was renting either. And a lot of banks with real estate on their books just let it sit there (where it sits today). Once a the credit default domino chain starts to fall, people and organization will need to get liquid. The first stage will see some people jump in on pent-u…

> no one was buying but no one was renting either. As someone who was in eighth grade at the time, can you clarify what you mean by this? Every person either 1) buys property, 2) rents property, 3) goes homeless, or 4) dies. There aren't really any other choices.

from the point of view of the owner of an empty housing unit, if no one is buying and no one is renting then you are just left paying property tax and maintenance on an empty unit.

But, at least in my local market, it would surprise if the banks are sitting on empty units from 2008, as far as I know it all got auctioned off years ago.

This article predicts the covid crisis will center around a new collateralized debt instrument "[after post 2008 banking reform] [d]emand shifted to a similar—and similarly risky—instrument, one that even has a similar name: the CLO, or collateralized loan obligation. A CLO walks and talks like a CDO, but in place of loans made to home buyers are loans made to businesses—specifically, troubled businesses." https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/07/coronav... discussed at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23480680

Re: 1-Euro Houses

#158

Post by Scoundreller »

stef25 wrote: post #109
ido wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of free space! Look at how relatively sparsely populated the area around Berlin is: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Pop_dens... Germany has a very low fertility rate & even immigration isn't enough to make the population grow more than very slowly so if a lot of people moved westwards and into the cities it means a lot of people moved out of the east and the country side. Also almost the enti…

Berlin winters ... mild?

Bigger concern is the long nights in winter (but long days in summer). But plenty of European cities have overcast issues in winter anyway.

All depends where you're coming from. w.r.t weather, I found winters in Toronto less depressing than Paris because Toronto at least had clear skies.

Re: 1-Euro Houses

#159

Post by cortesoft »

my_username_is_ wrote: post #154
cortesoft wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could if you built a multistory apartment complex.

Most housing in Somerville, and lots of the urban northeast, is made up of multistory apartments (sometimes referred to as "three deckers")

You can always build higher!

Re: 1-Euro Houses

#160

Post by cortesoft »

benrbray wrote: post #155
cortesoft wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

5) pack more people into the house and split rent

Still technically renting, though :)

Sure, but it is the same effect on rental demand... one person renting a house and one person being homeless consumes the same amount of housing as two people sharing a rental house
Post reply on HN