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Priced out of home ownership

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Priced out of home ownership

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A similar thing has happened in France, where the government has restricted the rental of less energy efficient dwellings[0]. This is generally a good thing for the environment, but it has already had an effect on rental prices as those apartments are now taken off the market. The exact impact is a little hard to work out, because, at least in Paris, it's also coincided with apartment owners wanting to hold on to emp…

>apartment owners wanting to hold on to empty apartments to rent them for the Olympics rather than to locals. Sounds like something that can be fixed with laws. Edit: would you mind explaining your downvotes with arguments please? thanks.

We're talking about France, fix the law too much and heads will roll, or at least cars burn.

Re: Priced out of home ownership

#42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about developing the "missing middle" in urban development. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_middle_housing Efficient and healthy land use for housing was solved in the 1900s - we don't need tiny homes.

Yeah, American houses are massive compared to what we have in Europe and often have large amounts of space around the house too. In England, row housing is quite common and that seems a good compromise between density and comfort. I live in an apartment block in Spain and it's quite a lot worse than even row housing due to noise from neighbours, lack of parking etc. It's okay for young people, but it'll be hard to ra…

And Australian houses are, as I understand it, bigger again. There was a thread somewhere about where to put your washing machine: bathroom or kitchen. And every Australian was in there getting completely confused because the vast majority of houses in Australia have a dedicated laundry room usually with a trough, bench top, washing machine, dryer, etc.

Re: Priced out of home ownership

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about developing the "missing middle" in urban development. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_middle_housing Efficient and healthy land use for housing was solved in the 1900s - we don't need tiny homes.

Yeah, American houses are massive compared to what we have in Europe and often have large amounts of space around the house too. In England, row housing is quite common and that seems a good compromise between density and comfort. I live in an apartment block in Spain and it's quite a lot worse than even row housing due to noise from neighbours, lack of parking etc. It's okay for young people, but it'll be hard to ra…

I have lived in an apartment my entire life. I'm in a building with 15 floors and 5 flats on each right now. My direct neighbors have a newborn baby. I don't hear a thing, literally - I wouldn't know there are other people if I wasn't 20 meters above the ground. Don't compromise on build quality like the Spanish do, build it like the Germans, Poles, Czechs and Slovaks do - and you won't have any issues.

Re: Priced out of home ownership

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about developing the "missing middle" in urban development. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_middle_housing Efficient and healthy land use for housing was solved in the 1900s - we don't need tiny homes.

Yeah, American houses are massive compared to what we have in Europe and often have large amounts of space around the house too. In England, row housing is quite common and that seems a good compromise between density and comfort. I live in an apartment block in Spain and it's quite a lot worse than even row housing due to noise from neighbours, lack of parking etc. It's okay for young people, but it'll be hard to ra…

And yet there is a shortage of urban units with 3+ bedrooms in most US cities.

Re: Priced out of home ownership

#45

Pff, in Switzerland, the mean age of the first-time home buyer is 48, and the mean age of a homeowner is 58. And those are the luckiest and the richest who could actually afford buying a house; many rent for life.

Yeah, but renting in Switzerland is fairly advantageous compared to many countries (rent is locked, except interest rate adjustments).

Re: Priced out of home ownership

#46
2008 was low of the low for home values. In my view a few things have happened since:

1.hyperconsolidation in lenders

2. Real estate orgs have worked together to eliminate downward price pressures.

3. NIMBYs and generally “home ownership associations “ have created so many barriers to building & reaped the profits in their own home values.

Some good news is that most populations are slowing or declining on the globe, and that ought to be a substantial risk to mass ownership, but that will take 20years to manifest.

Re: Priced out of home ownership

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>apartment owners wanting to hold on to empty apartments to rent them for the Olympics rather than to locals. Sounds like something that can be fixed with laws. Edit: would you mind explaining your downvotes with arguments please? thanks.

We're talking about France, fix the law too much and heads will roll, or at least cars burn.

Why would people violently protest against taxing empty real-estate that's not occupied by locals?

I'm not French but IMHO, Airbnb style short term renting for tourst purposes should come with hefty taxes because housing should always prioritize the locals who live, work, have families and pay taxes there, not wealthy foreigners on vacation.

Re: Priced out of home ownership

#48
post #11

I always assumed when the baby boomers retired there would be a flood of big family houses coming up for sale. I see it in my parents that they're pretty comfortable staying in the family house as long as possible, I'm happy with this. It is made a lot easier by the fact that prices keep going up so staying in a house that is oversized financially is rewarding. I'd like to think it'll all come to and end one day as t…

There won't be because of the massive number of immigration the country has faced. Either intentional or unintentional, this has the effect of increasing demand and with interest rates high supply is constrained.

Housing construction having peaked 40 years ago might have something to do with it.

Re: Priced out of home ownership

#49
To efficiently live in cities, many large public works have historically been completed, for example:

- Cities across the world built thorough sewage systems, preventing the need for private citizens to empty their litter buckets out the window – a large river in Chicago was even reversed!

- Cities across the world built mass transit networks, enabling citizens to move around efficiently without relying solely on private vehicles.

- Cities across the world should build affordable housing networks, as Vienna did. This way, citizens don't have to fall victim to the exploitation of speculators and distortions of the supposedly fair market.

Public affordable housing is a necessary infrastructure, just like sewers and transit, to create livable cities for all residents.

Re: Priced out of home ownership

#50
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> “Seriously, screw urbanization and gentrification. We absolutely need to revitalize rural areas again.” Covid-19 was effectively a massive experiment to test whether people want that, and turns out they didn’t.

Of course they did want space. Turns out most people can't stand being locked up like chicken in too small coops too long. Domestic violence exploded for example - and that's only from those who were actually able to call police [1]. On positiver notes, you had stuff like urban gardening increase in popularity [2], or sales of (e-)bikes towards people who went and biked to the rural areas. And finally, WFH made it po…

I don't really see a decrease in population density and the corresponding increase in cars on the road as "progress", otherwise you're about to tell me that American-style giga suburbs are the answer to our problems. Densification is actually the answer as it's a far more efficient use of resources.
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