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Rocket Mortgage to trim 8% of workforce as home-loan market shrinks

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Re: Rocket Mortgage to trim 8% of workforce as home-loan market shrinks

#481

Post by syntheticcorp »

jjav wrote: post #318
oliwarner wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whole-term-fixed rates are pretty uncommon in Europe. Fixes of 2, 5 sometimes 10 years are products most providers offer, but as the term increases, the rate shoots up, to offset rate uncertainty. My question is: why would you fix for 30yr when you know you're paying multiple points to offset market uncertainty? Remortgaging every couple of years takes a bit of time, and shopping around, but is much cheaper.

> why would you fix for 30yr when you know you're paying multiple points to offset market uncertainty? At least in the US it is always better to get a fixed rate loan (meaning fixed for the life of the loan, typically 30 years). This means your mortgage payment can never go up no matter how high rates climb in the market. But if rates go down, you can always refinance to a lower rate and ratchet your payments down an…

I can’t believe you can get 30 year fixed in the US , that’s amazing. The longest terms I can see where I live are 5 year fixed.

Re: Rocket Mortgage to trim 8% of workforce as home-loan market shrinks

#482

Post by eli_gottlieb »

kelnos wrote: post #427
woeirua wrote: post #410

I won't feel one ounce of pity for the "investors" who lose their shirts when this bubble finally pops. We should regulate investors almost entirely out of housing. Yes, there is still a need for people with lots of capital to go in and repair dilapidated homes. But we don't need people hoarding homes and renting them out as AirBnbs.

It's somewhat fashionable for well-off people/families to have a vacation home somewhere vacation-y. Before Airbnb, most of those homes just sat vacant for most of the year[0]. Clearly, that's not a great use of that land. Often these sorts of properties would be in pretty desirable locations, and doing it this way would deprive most people the use of that space. Certainly there are still some people who are wealthy…

I say we just tax every house you're not living in full-time as if you owned an apartment building or hotel. You wanna run an Airbnb? Sure, go ahead, but pay the same taxes as an actual hotelier.

Re: Rocket Mortgage to trim 8% of workforce as home-loan market shrinks

#483

Post by caeril »

whimsicalism wrote: post #480
kelnos wrote: post #476

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not missing it so much as I'm ignoring it, I guess. While this phenomenon is bad for people looking for long-term primary homes, it is nice to be able to afford a vacation home when you couldn't before. Certainly I would prioritize locals over non-locals looking for a second home, but can't we have both? Build more.

I agree, build more - but given that we are not currently doing it, AirBnB is only making this situation worse. The market doesn't care whether someone is buying a vacation home or buying the only home that lets them stay in the region. It is the responsibility of the state to put its thumb on the scale in favor of positive externalities that the market is agnostic between.

Legitimately not trolling here, trying to understand.

How is it that the high-IQ HN zeitgeist centers on the contradictory positions of "climate change is an existential threat" and "we must expend more resources and build more housing"?

Seems like reducing population in high-carbon-footprint countries is the obvious solution to both problems.

What am I missing, here?

Re: Rocket Mortgage to trim 8% of workforce as home-loan market shrinks

#484

Post by jasonladuke0311 »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #297
bitexploder wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of Denver region had been hot as well.

I've heard Denver is extremely popular because you have all the amenities of a big city (They even have a Six Flags!), yet is right next to beautiful mountains and nature. Some parts even still have a small town feel. Of course, I've also heard that a significant fraction of those moving in are single men, to the point where the city has gotten the nickname "Menver".

According to this [0], Denver metro area - 1.626M males and 1.641M females.

[0] https://www.metrodenver.org/regional-data/data-central?categ...

Re: Rocket Mortgage to trim 8% of workforce as home-loan market shrinks

#485

Post by whimsicalism »

caeril wrote: post #483
whimsicalism wrote: post #480

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, build more - but given that we are not currently doing it, AirBnB is only making this situation worse. The market doesn't care whether someone is buying a vacation home or buying the only home that lets them stay in the region. It is the responsibility of the state to put its thumb on the scale in favor of positive externalities that the market is agnostic between.

Legitimately not trolling here, trying to understand. How is it that the high-IQ HN zeitgeist centers on the contradictory positions of "climate change is an existential threat" and "we must expend more resources and build more housing"? Seems like reducing population in high-carbon-footprint countries is the obvious solution to both problems. What am I missing, here?

Increasing density reduces climate change impact, urban sprawl increases it.

Re: Rocket Mortgage to trim 8% of workforce as home-loan market shrinks

#486

Post by bogomipz »

saiya-jin wrote: post #450
DamnYuppie wrote: post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have seen AirBnB referenced many times in these comments as having something to do with the increase in home prices. From what I can find there are 660,000 AirBnB hosts in the US; this was found under the Airbnb Statistics by Region section from here https://www.stratosjets.com/blog/airbnb-statistics/ seems to also be found here https://ipropertymanagement.com/research/airbnb-statistics . Most likely both of those…

Airbnb is Hacker News' McDonald - an easy target to attack and complain about, kind of symbol of lost 'right for one's house' which never really was but definitely will not be. I prefer having discussion about the underlying issues causing these emotions though, they keep being mentioned here all the time but I guess its easier to just bash the messenger rather than fight government and selfishness/greed in general p…

>"I prefer having discussion about the underlying issues causing these emotions though, they keep being mentioned here all the time but I guess its easier to just bash the messenger rather than fight government and selfishness/greed in general population."

And this "blame the government" for the the housing shortage is the same old tired trope that's invariably wheeled out when defending Airbnb. The "discussion" never seems have any more depth once that blame is assigned though. The fact is people have fought at the local government level, from Miami, to Berlin to NYC to London. It turns out that legislation itself isn't enough as it is regularly flouted or just plain ignored. Actually enforcing the legislation is difficult. And regular citizens and local governments are simply no match against the mega-Corp. Or is there another pithy and overly reductionist talking point to that complex problem as well?

Re: Rocket Mortgage to trim 8% of workforce as home-loan market shrinks

#487

Post by charcircuit »

woeirua wrote: post #448
charcircuit wrote: post #437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>we don't need people hoarding homes If you made a good enough offer you could buy it from them. Investors aren't trying to hoard. They want to make a return on their investment.

How many homes do you need to actually live? Most likely, the answer is one. Are homes for living in, or for making money? That's the fundamental question we need to resolve. Because if its the former, then we are doing an abysmal job at satisfying that need. If its the latter, then we're doing a bang up job.

Why not both? You can buy pokemon cards to play the game, but you can also sell them later.

Even if you can only live in one at a time, you may want to temporarily live somewhere else. What if you feel like going to the beach for a weekend?

Re: Rocket Mortgage to trim 8% of workforce as home-loan market shrinks

#488

Post by sangnoir »

kelnos wrote: post #461
ak217 wrote: post #458

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know. The question is whether subsidizing 30Y mortgages (fannie mae/freddie mac/FHA/QE/standard terms enforced by law to enable refinancing, etc.) is the right policy in an open system where it has many major side effects, compared to other ways to adjust housing policy. For reference, Canada has no 30Y fixed mortgages - instead they have 5-10Y fixed terms and distinguish between prepayment for refinancing (e…

Rolling the mortgage into the new property seems interesting. From what I understand, this is very rare in US mortgages, right? I do wonder, if we just had 10Y mortgages, would home prices just crash? People won't buy what they can't afford (I mean, sure, they do to some extent, but not if their monthly payment would double), so sellers might just be forced to sell for less. The first "generation" of 10Y-only mortgag…

> I do wonder, if we just had 10Y mortgages, would home prices just crash?

I suspect home prices won't fall by as much as you think they will. I suspect institutional investors will become major buyers and lease out those units; which would crash homeownership - at least in the popular metros

Re: Rocket Mortgage to trim 8% of workforce as home-loan market shrinks

#489

Post by refurb »

nikanj wrote: post #295
refurb wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Fastest growing urban area in Canada" is like the "fastest sprinter at the senior center". Sure it's fast relative to other cities, but not in an absolute sense. Kelowna grew 14% over 5 years? So 2.7% a year? Or 5,500 people per year? Kelowna is a tiny town in the middle of BC. Jobs are scarce. Vast swaths of undeveloped land surround the town. Wages are pretty typical, yet a modest house is $1,000,000. Does that ma…

Did Kelowna add 5500 new homes per year, every single year? Or even 550?

Presumably not every single one of those 5,500 would get their own separate home. Presumably people have babies, families move, etc.

Let’s say half that - 2,750 homes needed.

Last year Kelowna built 3,200 new homes alone.

https://www.kelownadailycourier.ca/news/article_bb3f2eae-8ac...

Re: Rocket Mortgage to trim 8% of workforce as home-loan market shrinks

#490

Post by throwaheyy »

x86_64Ubuntu wrote: post #454
1270018080 wrote: post #423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it a bubble? Where is the irrational exuberance? Lots of people need homes, there aren't enough, prices go up. And investors hoarding equity by forcing people to rent have a captive audience. Both of those aren't really tulip/crypto hysteria. It's just a shitty situation. I would love to see investors get burned too, but I don't think there's anything to pop. We're just a decade behind Canada.

I see your point, but I look at the houses going up all around me and their prices, and I wonder where folks are getting this money from. I know what I do for a living and how well it pays, but people who make less than half of my salary are buying homes that are twice as expensive. Also, talking to realtors they mention that homes are sometimes sold before they hit sites like Zillow and such. Sight-unseen, waived in…

It’s more than just salary. Take an elder millennial who has been working in bigtechco for 10 years or so. The RSUs they collected in their early years could be worth >10x today. Same with crypto over an even shorter term.
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