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

Most Germans don’t buy their homes, they rent

qz.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

381–390 of 413 posts

Re: Most Germans don’t buy their homes, they rent

#381

Post by camiller »

blibble wrote: post #290
camiller wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buying stock on the open market also doesn't create any job for anyone, it just transfers wealth to the hands of the seller. Basically, unless you are investing in an IPO, the company doesn't see a dime from the ongoing trading of it's stock. So the vast majority of investors are not creating jobs by buying stock. Similarly, most bond investors are not buying new issue bonds, they are buying bonds from the current ow…

if there was no secondary market people likely wouldn't buy into the IPO, as there would be no way to get rid of the stock later so it clearly adds value to the original seller

Yes, but that wasn't the point.

Re: Most Germans don’t buy their homes, they rent

#382

Post by premium-concern »

pluma wrote: post #297
premium-concern wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> However there are also co-operatives that invest your deposit and actually pass on the interest to you when you move out (these apartments are rare though). This is not optional. It is required by law. Interest from deposits belong to the renter.

Sure, but the difference is that they actually invest it. Normally the money pretty much just sits there.

Given the size of the deposits, and the ROIs of available low-risk investments, does the difference really matter?

Skip a single CappuFrappeGingerPumpkinLatte (or what people buy in cafes in SF) and you just got more money than any investment on the deposit can ever make.

Re: Most Germans don’t buy their homes, they rent

#383

Post by premium-concern »

kriro wrote: post #67
thesimon wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>suffer from government shutdowns over how much the debt ceiling is raised On the other hand: The government shutdown because of the debt ceiling seems just like "Stop hitting yourself" on the playground. And Germany's budget is far from balanced.

Nominally Germany has a balanced budget. I agree it isn't really balanced and the big zero is just achieved via some shifting around of things. However the fact that the government jumps through all sorts of hoops to be able to say the budget is balanced is at least an interesting indicator that it does seem to matter to enough people.

Even government budgets have to adhere to some standardized schemes of reporting. See also rating firms.

Otherwise even the US would have a balanced budget and no debts. (Ignoring the fact that the US is the main force behind trying to change the account rules to make them look less bad.)

Re: Most Germans don’t buy their homes, they rent

#384

Post by Grishnakh »

criddell wrote: post #346
Grishnakh wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you'd rather spend all your time in the evenings transiting to a restaurant, waiting around for a table, waiting around for your order to arrive, getting hurried by the server so they can get a new customer in, then transiting back home? Eating out at a nice sit-down restaurant takes a huge amount of time. I can cook myself a meal at home and eat it in much less time than going out. The only way it's faster to eat…

What do you do with your old oil?

Any auto parts store will take it. They have a giant metal vat in the back room; you just bring your old oil in, and they tell you to go dump it yourself. I have an Autozone next to the grocery store I normally go to, so it's easy to just swing by and dump it while I'm already out.

Re: Most Germans don’t buy their homes, they rent

#385

Post by hx87 »

gsnedders wrote: post #320
hx87 wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sure, I can use my us credit card in France after te weird you-need-a-signature-? look I thought chip-and-PIN was the standard over there?

Cards without a chip require a signature; cards with a chip have their own preference as to whether they prefer chip-and-signature or chip-and-PIN (i.e., it's a preference of the card, not the terminal).

Chip-and-signature cards are annoyingly common in the USA, but I though chip-and-PIN cards were standard in that part of the world.

Re: Most Germans don’t buy their homes, they rent

#386

Post by hx87 »

coldtea wrote: post #282
hx87 wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say that 1-year roots are still roots and are every bit worth nurturing as 30-year ones. Even if I live in a place for a single year, I still want to improve it and connect with my neighbors. This idea that an experience is less worthy of cultivation because its duration is short just seems bizarre to me.

> This idea that an experience is less worthy of cultivation because its duration is short just seems bizarre to me. The stay having an short deadline means the cultivation will be cut short too. Heck, in 6 months most people haven't even fully unpacked their things or made new friends -- so it's not like they'll have grown roots in a year -- especially since they know that they'll be leaving in a year anyway.

I'm probably an outlier then--I'm fully unpacked by the end of the 3rd day and made new friends by the end of the second week, and from my point of view an excellent friend is an excellent friend, whether for 6 months or 30 years.

Re: Most Germans don’t buy their homes, they rent

#387

Post by 6DM »

erikb wrote: post #268
6DM wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A big reason why I don't want to share a room with anyone anymore is because they don't clean. Every roommate I've ever had (so far ~11 different people), has never actually cleaned. No matter how many times I'm getting upset or having a talk. It just ends up with them washing the dishes/taking out the trash once and I'm stuck cleaning 75% of the apartment. I'm not a clean freak I just hate when the trash is overflow…

Why not pay not pay a cleaning lady?

Nice segue into my next point, they almost never want to split the cost on anything. I lived furnitureless for a few years until my cousin became my roommate...

Re: Most Germans don’t buy their homes, they rent

#388

Post by kiyundai »

kgwgk wrote: post #198
mtw wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A credit card in France is not the same as a credit card in the USA or Canada. In France, a purchase paid with a VISA/Mastercard is taken directly from your checkings bank account. Yes it is called "carte de crédit" i.e. credit card but when you think about it, it is not actually credit. In Canada, paying with VISA/Mastercard is considered as credit i.e. debt. You can pay with VISA even if at the present moment, you…

Do you have any reference for the French "cartes de crédit" not being the same as the credit cards elsewhere?

disclaimer : I'm french

Strictly speaking a credit card is a "carte de credit", however between the simple translation with english, the similarities between the form factor etc, A LOT of French (especially not used to the US credit card) will call their debit card 'carte de crédit'

Their is a lot of confusion on this, but most of the time french people use debit card. In fact I think banks almost don't advertise credit card, only companies offer this (airlines/supermarket)

On the technical side, there is no difference most people have visa/mastercard

Re: Most Germans don’t buy their homes, they rent

#389

Post by MrFoof »

egeozcan wrote: post #166
MrFoof wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>No, there is no fee on that transfer. And please don't tell me "but the effort!". Small businesses gladly go through that "effort". Well, there usually is a fee. At least here in the US, business bank accounts get cash handling for free up to a certain amount per month. After that you're charged a small fee (as a percentage) on the amount of cash deposited, because the bank sure as hell isn't counting your cash for…

> the bank sure as hell isn't counting your cash for free I thought there is a machine for that? Also, isn't it possible just to use an ATM?

Every bank I checked (and I checked DOZENS) charges business customers to count cash beyond a certain amount. For my business, the amount is cash in excess of $20,000/mo. Yes, they do use a machine. Yes, they still do charge you for it to count your money if you bring in more than that threshold in a given month.

This is for business accounts, which have vastly different fee structures than consumer accounts, because businesses have more money, and also because it costs them money (either in employee time, or having machinery available). Do you let your customers use your time and stuff for free? No? Then why should the bank? Hence why they charge.

Re: Most Germans don’t buy their homes, they rent

#390

Post by cmdrfred »

tptacek wrote: post #375
hash-set wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think most Americans buy houses as investments. There are other reasons: You usually find yourself in a better neighborhood with fewer hassles if you buy vs. rent. Stocks and bonds aren't any better anymore--the bottom could drop out again anytime and leave you with half or less of what you previously had. We're in a crap storm of epic proportions in this country, but we avoid the reality of it.

My experience and intuition suggests that the opposite is true, and that you'll generally end up in nicer places and in better neighborhoods if you rent. Looking at current house rental listings in Oak Park, I see several in nicer neighborhoods that are less than my rent; in other words: I believe I pay a premium to to own here. That was my experience in Ann Arbor as well.

This isn't the case in most of New Jersey or Pennsylvania. Cost to rent a crappy 2 bedroom apartment (with the people below blowing smoke up into your bedroom) is the same as a 3 bedroom house, property taxes, and insurance. It really is location, location, location as they say.
Post reply on HN