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Priced out of home ownership

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Priced out of home ownership

#231

Post by WheatMillington »

Auracle wrote: post #204
lwansbrough wrote: post #171

In my opinion, there can only be one solution to this that will come sooner or later. A great correction following simplified zoning & building legislation. Federal governments across the west need to take control of building and zoning. Planning can remain a city/state/provincial affair, but it must be done under standardized and simplified building and zoning legislation. We are wasting unfathomable economic potent…

I’ll keep shouting this from the rooftops: while it may contribute in some areas, zoning laws are not the primary cause of home prices increasing like they have. For proof, look at any rural (and I mean actual rural) area and how their home prices have also been skyrocketing. It’s supply and demand, with other things being small factors. We either need to vastly increase supply across the entire country somehow, or c…

Supply and Demand is a function of zoning, because more supply cannot happen without the correct zoning happening.

Re: Priced out of home ownership

#232

Post by blackeyeblitzar »

shrewduser wrote: post #216
erickf1 wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Sorry what? Shelter is a necessity for survival. Is it communism to not allow people to buy up all the water supplies and sell it back to you at an extortionate rate? The truth about the housing market is that it's not a free market anyway it's controlled by special interests, bad laws, zoning, local nimbys and councils the list goes on.

Shelter is a necessity but lots of people think they’re entitled to live wherever they want at a price they can afford. They go to SF or NY and complain about rents when there is a whole country they can live in.

I don’t think communities have to allow higher density and the lower quality of life that comes with it. Desirable places are going to be expensive and that’s okay.

Personally I think if we have better rail, people can live in a wider range of places but still access jobs. You see this in Europe, and it lets smaller communities keep their way of life.

Re: Priced out of home ownership

#233

Post by erickf1 »

lr1970 wrote: post #181
oooyay wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live on a sleepy street that's half dense housing and half single family homes. Density will likely take over more than half of the street some day because the city has been relegating more dense housing to the working class areas of the city, which is where I happen to live. [1] Of those single family homes there is one that was owner-occupied for a year when we moved in. Since, it's been locked up and has had no…

> It perplexes me, and the rest of our neighborhood, how someone can float a mortgage, much less an investment mortgage, without a renter. In the USA it is happening all the time because, surprisingly, landlords have little skin in the the game. LLC is the name of the game. Each investment property is "owned" by its own LLC that bares 100% of risks and liabilities associated with the property and shields the landlord…

Landlords have 100% risk. Look what happened to California, when the state said tenants did not have to pay rent. Same for Washington, NY, IL, etc... The vast majority of people with rental properties are just regular people trying to make a living.

Re: Priced out of home ownership

#234

Post by rahimnathwani »

thraxil wrote: post #222
rahimnathwani wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something about the tax position of letting mortgaged property. EDIT: I had misremembered. Landlords can still get a tax deduction for mortgage interest, but only at the 20% rate, not at their marginal tax rate. For most landlords with mortgages, this probably halves the tax credit. In the UK, if a private landlord receives £1000 in rent, and pays £800 in mortgage interest, they pay tax on the whole £1000, not just o…

Wouldn't a reasonable resolution to the conflict between A and B be to instead allow owner-occupiers to deduct mortgage interest from their income for tax purposes?

That just shifts the perceived inequity to:

C) Why can homeowners deduct mortgage interest costs, whilst renters cannot deduct rent costs?

Re: Priced out of home ownership

#235

Post by downrightmike »

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…

Its not stability, it is collusion. For all the downvoters Price fixing by algorithm is still price fixing: https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2024/03/price-fix...

Re: Priced out of home ownership

#236

Post by nradov »

fairity wrote: post #208

I don’t get articles like this. It’s arguably a better financial decision to NOT buy a home, and park your downpayment in a broad based index fund. I get that there are arguments for or against, but there doesn’t seem to be a clear financial advantage to home ownership. So, what’s the big fuss about? Just pay rent and carry on? Surely, there are better things to focus on?

Home ownership isn't a good financial option for everyone, but for most consumers who aren't accredited investors it's the only way to make highly leveraged trades. You can't buy an index fund with 20:1 leverage. Of course this occasionally blows up, but even then the downside is limited.

Even if ownership doesn't make sense from a financial standpoint it's still somewhat essential for parents of school age children. Renters can be forced to move on short notice if the landlord declines to renew the lease, like if they're planning to sell or redevelop the property. This instability has a cost that goes beyond financial concerns.

Re: Priced out of home ownership

#237

Post by NewJazz »

lr1970 wrote: post #181
oooyay wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live on a sleepy street that's half dense housing and half single family homes. Density will likely take over more than half of the street some day because the city has been relegating more dense housing to the working class areas of the city, which is where I happen to live. [1] Of those single family homes there is one that was owner-occupied for a year when we moved in. Since, it's been locked up and has had no…

> It perplexes me, and the rest of our neighborhood, how someone can float a mortgage, much less an investment mortgage, without a renter. In the USA it is happening all the time because, surprisingly, landlords have little skin in the the game. LLC is the name of the game. Each investment property is "owned" by its own LLC that bares 100% of risks and liabilities associated with the property and shields the landlord…

Wait don't the assets include the property?

Re: Priced out of home ownership

#239

Post by onion2k »

postalrat wrote: post #194
DGAP wrote: post #180

Stop subsidizing demand at the national level. Stop restricting supply at the local level.

Land is cheap but building a house is expensive. If you want more supply then you are going to need to make building more economical.

Land is not cheap in the UK.

Re: Priced out of home ownership

#240

Post by fire_lake »

DGAP wrote: post #180

Stop subsidizing demand at the national level. Stop restricting supply at the local level.

Inequality is another issue. Even with enough homes, if they are all owned by minority of the population who extract rents from the rest the situation remains pretty dire.
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