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

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

#421

Post by lliamander »

duxup wrote: post #308
lliamander wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, to be fair, there was a self-decribed cabal of sorts that worked to change election laws, curtail protests, and pressure social media companies leading up to the 2020 election. Whether what they did was in any way illicit or undermines the integrity of U.S. elections is of course up for debate, but the fact that a secret coordinated effort of powerful people "conspired" (if you will) to influence the outcome of…

That's not fair, that's just some unrelated thing...

It was a conspiracy that the original twitter thread brought up, and you seemed to be criticizing conspiratorial thinking in general.

My point was that, of the conspiracies mentioned by the original user, the conspiracy to influence the 2020 election was openly acknowledged by its participants.

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

#422

Post by throwaway0a5e »

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?

Or just tax them differently than a primary residence.

Stable and long term living arrangements are something the government should be incentivizing so primary residences should be taxed minimally.

Vacation houses and income properties should be taxed higher.

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

#423

Post by jimrandomh »

an_opabinia wrote: post #396
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…

> Support groups like https://yimbyaction.org/ if you want to 'stick it to the investors'. I’m pretty sure you’re not sticking it to investors if you support development. You might be sticking it to different investors.

The word "investor" is conflating two things. On one hand you've got "investment" where someone pays up front for materials, construction workers, and equipment, producing a building, and then makes money by selling or renting that building. This is good, because it resulted in a building that people can live in. On the other hand you've got "investment" where someone purchased a preexisting building, in a way that's disconnected from the process that caused it to get built in the first place. This is usually neutral or bad.

So yes, it's sticking it to different investors. But that's a good thing! Stick it to the investors for whom "investment" means pushing dollars around, rather than the ones for whom investment means construction.

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

#424

Post by the_optimist »

mumblemumble wrote: post #252
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…

How does this not play out like Archegos in the end? https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-04-08/archeg...

If you’re politically connected and influential, you get bailed out. Also, Blackrock is intermediating people’s pensions, so they’re ultimately just levering up retirees against the future generations of home buyers (empowered by the Fed). Think the politically connected Fed/DC/Davos crowd is simply going to just hand over power and influence?

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

#427

Post by nradov »

lettergram wrote: post #325
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…

The main reason the homes are being bought up is the lumber and steal costs. Right now, it would cost me $500k to build a house that last year would cost me $190k. Real quotes I got for a possible build. More details on what I’m seeing here: https://austingwalters.com/stagflation-is-here-monetary-infl... With that being the case and the dollar appearing to be weakening, it makes since for them to buy anything they ca…

Your numbers are off for most areas. There has been inflation in construction material prices, but that's only one part of the total price of building homes. The other major components include land prices, labor, and permits. So costs could have only doubled from $300k to $600k in areas with very cheap land and permits where materials make up the dominant share of the total cost.

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

#428

Post by aazaa »

> The country’s most prolific home builder [DR Horton] booked roughly twice what it typically makes selling houses to the middle class—an encouraging debut in the business of selling entire neighborhoods to investors.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/if-you-sell-a-house-these-days-...

I see no future for this model.

The reason is simple. Individual buyers avoid high-rental areas because they know the renters will depress home values. This sets up a reinforcing cycle. The neighborhood fills up with renters with no incentive to invest in the costly maintenance required to keep properties attractive. Landlords have little incentive to invest in long-term improvements, either.

Tragedy of the commons. Step by step, the neighborhood slides into the abyss.

So let the Blackrock's of the world buy up entire neighborhoods and turn them into rentals. As soon as the inevitable mean reversion happens in house prices, these home rental businesses will be toast.

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

#429

Post by secondcoming »

cycrutchfield wrote: post #334
GloriousKoji wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Prop 13 is a limits how much property tax can increase in a year. So hypothetically without prop 13 it would possible that the value of your house jumps 10x and then you're stuck with paying 10x the amount of property tax that year. I don't think we need to remove it completely but some adjustments like applicable only to a primary residence and not investment or commercial properties would probably go a long way.

If the value of my home jumped 10x in a year, I would be ecstatic. Are you kidding?

Why so? You don't see that gain unless you sell, at which point you'll probably buy another house that has also risen 10x.

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

#430

Post by ahmedalsudani »

wolverine876 wrote: post #380
FredPret wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a common meme - that asset appreciation is unearned wealth. But it's not. That investor could've spent the 3600 on hookers and blackjack. Investors freezing their money in communities in the form of real estate or other investment is a key part of those communites becoming richer and more complex. There's a real risk of losing your money - there's no worse financial nightmare than holding real estate that you'…

How did the investor in that empty lot make the community richer?

It was used for blackjack and hookers.
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