If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund • Hacker News Board

Re: If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund

#221

Post by JKCalhoun » Wed, Jun 09, 2021, 4:30 PM UTC

artificialLimbs wrote: post #38

commandlinefan wrote: post #4

This hurts people who already own houses, too - property taxes are assessed on the appraised value of the home, which is a function of what the similarly-sized houses in your area sold for most recently. My property taxes have increased 10% every year for the past several years (and it would have been more if not for a legislative 10% annual cap). I worry that there will come a day when I've paid off my mortgage but…

Arkansas has a petition going around right now to axe property taxes completely. I believe other states do not have property taxes already as well.

I agree, the unwashed masses can all send their kids to private schools and hire their own security as do I.

(Wow, I don't understand the public sometimes.)

Re: If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund

#222

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jun 09, 2021, 4:30 PM UTC

fighterpilot wrote: post #208

JKCalhoun wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something else to be skeptical of: skepticism. A good amount of skepticism is great. Questioning everything is belligerent and actually close-minded rather than open.

What you describe is called pseudoskepticism. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoskepticism

[deleted]

Re: If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund

#223

Post by twox2 » Wed, Jun 09, 2021, 4:30 PM UTC

If the "remote work" future is here, then this will just push people out further to the middle of nowhere instead of suburbans towns.

Re: If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund

#224

Post by gowld » Wed, Jun 09, 2021, 4:31 PM UTC

plank_time wrote: post #209

seanp2k2 wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve ranted about this before but CA Prop 13 not only makes housing a good investment, but one that you’re extremely incentivized to hold onto forever and never move. Two people can be living in houses next to each other valued around 1.5m, and one of them will be paying 1/10th the tax. If anyone wants to buy a house, they have to first be able to afford the property, so the barriers to entry are so much higher for t…

You’re saying that old people should be driven out of their houses because younger, richer people deserve to live in their houses. I’m sure your feelings will change as you get older.

Paying taxes on unearned gains is not "driven out of your house". You can keep the house and pay taxes on the gains.

> I’m sure your feelings will change as you get older.

Yes, this is the problem. Extreme self-interest and entitlement to massive windfalls.

Re: If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund

#225

Post by KingMachiavelli » Wed, Jun 09, 2021, 4:31 PM UTC

etempleton wrote: post #200

In my neighborhood the bank owns a house and has owned it since it was foreclosed upon about three years ago. The house is completely falling apart. It is unlivable. The house is tarpped. Apparently also filled with mold. The yard has rotting wood and weeds that are taller than my head. And no one will do anything about it. The city will fine the bank $100 for each infraction and that is it. The bank could care less.…

Very strange. Typically banks try to sell foreclosures ASAP to the extent that most go the 'short sale' route where they just force a sale. Given it has been only 3 years and it's already inhabitable; something probably went very wrong preventing it from being sold. It's possible the previous tenants just destroyed it... it's really surprising how bad some people treat their home.

Re: If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund

#226

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jun 09, 2021, 4:31 PM UTC

OJFord wrote: post #137

tachyonbeam wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that we need to stop treating houses as investments, because they're a basic fundamental need everyone has. IMO, the problem could be fixed by having stricter laws prohibiting people who aren't residents from owning homes in another country. The requirement to become a resident is only to live in a country for over 6 months out of the year. Before that, you can just rent. We could also do things like limit th…

So, also make holiday homes also illegal?

[deleted]

Re: If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund

#227

Post by bplatta » Wed, Jun 09, 2021, 4:31 PM UTC

yabones wrote: post #102

Things went off the rails at the end... > Well, the banks are controlled by and in bed with the same cabal buying everything up. You think this will be corrected by market forces when it is a financial and political pincher movement pushed by the same cabal that stole the 2020 election & hid COVID Truth? You are fucked. https://twitter.com/APhilosophae/status/1402449561864577024 IMO, weakens the entire 'thread' and m…

Ok, cabal is a strong word and the election stealing/truth hiding is certainly off the rails in my opinion as well.

But here's some perhaps interesting information on top 5 shareholders of largest US banks [1]:

JP Morgan Chase: Blackrock 6.4 Vanguard 4.7 State Street 4.5 Blackrock 2.7 Blackrock 2.5

Bank of America: Berkshire 6.9 Blackrock 5.3 Vanguard 4.5 state street 4.3 Fidelity 2.1

Citigroup: Blackrock 6.1 Vanguard 4.5 State Street 4.2 Fidelity 3.6 Capital world Inv 2.4

Wells Fargo: Berkshire 8.8 Blackrock 5.4 Vanguard 4.5 State street 4.0 Fidelity 3.5

US Bank: Blackrock 7.4 Vanguard 4.5 Fidelity 4.4 State Street 4.4 Berkshire 4.3

So although yes this does go off the rails a bit, not unreasonable to question the (possibly perverse) incentives banks face given their ownership. Book by Eric Posner and Glen Weyl called Radical Markets explores those incentives a bit.

[1] Jose Azar et. al. Ultimate ownership and Bank competition https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers/cfm?abstract_id=2710252

Re: If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund

#228

Post by president » Wed, Jun 09, 2021, 4:31 PM UTC

mrzimmerman wrote: post #177

president wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dismissing someone because they hold a viewpoint you disagree with is childish and dangerous to our society. By that logic we should all be dismissing CNN reporting because they were peddling Covington kids and russian collusion among other things proven to be false. We should all be striving to take in all sources of information and use our best judgement to judge and interpret them.

There is a host of terms used in that thread that point to the person as a conspiracy theorist. "The Cabal", "The Great Reset". These are terms used in the Qanon community constantly. It has to do with the person lacking credibility based on their own statements than them holding an opposing viewpoint.

I have no idea what those things are and I'll give you the benefit of the doubt but the twitter post referenced a wsj.com article. I don't think we should shoot him down for linking to a trusted source.

Re: If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund

#229

Post by opportune » Wed, Jun 09, 2021, 4:31 PM UTC

scotuswroteus wrote: post #169

davidw wrote: post #125

Here's why investors buy up houses: they know your neighbors will do the dirty work of artificially constraining the housing supply, which makes it a good investment. Here's one who comes right out and explains this: > Meanwhile, local opposition to building is so commonplace and the approval process so cumbersome, time consuming, and expensive, even when a proposed project complies entirely with requirements, approv…

You lost me at the end. You lack political acumen if you think this is how politics works: " If there's a credible threat to build plenty of housing, they'll move on." The Yimbies supported Mayor Breed. She hasn't changed the political problems in SF that you're (for the most part, accurately) diagnosing here. The problem with most anti-activist government screeds like this is that they lack the same nuance and sophi…

I don’t even understand this comment at all. So the solution to NIMBY activists controlling local government is to do... nothing? You know YIMBY is itself an activist movement right? Activist isn’t a code word for “crazy left wing people I don’t like”, it just means people who are hyper politically active (moreover N/Y IMBY is not clearly demarcated on political lines IMO).

All you have done is said the person you are replying to is an idiot for YIMBY but the only argument is that they support Breed. That’s definitely part of the problem but in SF the board of supervisors also hold a lot of power and those are more important. Also, Breed is supported as a least-worst candidate.

Re: If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund

#230

Post by gfodor » Wed, Jun 09, 2021, 4:31 PM UTC

TheCowboy wrote: post #217

gfodor wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I follow this account and others like it because it allows one to be exposed to things like the idea that COVID leaked from a lab a year ago. Skepticism is warranted in all cases, of course, but I think it's extremely healthy to keep in tune with a variety of subcommunities who are in and of themselves skeptics of many mainstream narratives.

Conspiracy proponents act like the lab leak theory being true is some game changer. It's the stupidest thing. Even if it wasn't leaked, China sure did a lot to mess up and exacerbate the early response to the pandemic for the world. Additionally, people have been critical of wet markets in China from early on, one suspected source of where it first spread to humans. I have no problem with investigating if it was a la…

> trying to turn this into some political wedge issue that you wield as a cudgel against 'the sheeple'

This thing you did here is mind-reading - nothing you wrote here is present in my original comment. You may be living in a small set of filter bubbles compared to the average.