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Housing is at the root of many of the rich world’s problems (2020)

economist.com

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Re: Housing is at the root of many of the rich world’s problems (2020)

#501

Post by Retric »

choko wrote: post #437
Retric wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is unreasonably difficult. There is no reason you should need to jump through any extra hoops beyond a change of address.

Why stop there? Perhaps government employees should go door to door and record my vote for me. Sending something in the mail is unreasonably difficult.

Because this would actually save the government and thus taxpayers 100+ million dollars a year?

A change of address is informing the government you moved and happens millions of times a year. Automating it doesn't just save citizens 10’s of millions of hours per year it also saves all the effort by all these different agencies when people communicate the same information to multiple agencies.

Re: Housing is at the root of many of the rich world’s problems (2020)

#502

Post by valarauko »

namlem wrote: post #446
valarauko wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious as to what the solution in this case is then. If election days were holidays, wouldn't the same people still have the same issues with employers? Do shift workers not work on holidays?

Early voting. Let people cast their vote for the two weeks preceding the election.

How does that work? The polling booths are staffed and open two weeks for walk ins?

Re: Housing is at the root of many of the rich world’s problems (2020)

#503

Post by cannaceo »

mminer237 wrote: post #192
idkyall wrote: post #122

Housing in the US has gotten to where it is due to horrible laws effectively allowing total tax avoidance for landlords. Take some investment property. You buy it at some basis price, let's say 500k. You rent it out for 15k a year. Each year you can offset your rental income against deprecation of the property and property taxes - meaning, you pay no income tax on your rental income. ~30 years later, you've deprecate…

You don't write off your rental income. You depreciate the rental property over 27½ years and write that off against your rental income. Few rental properties will have under a 3.7% ROI where depreciation would cover all the income. At best you might be paying half tax. In your example, you'd pay no tax, but you'd lose out on the potential income you could have had with better investments (and lose about 6 years' wor…

Aside from a 1031 you can do what I do and take loans against the property to buy the next property. Keeps your tax basis lower. At least in LA county the appreciation is limited to 2% a year while the increase in property value has been 20%+ the last few years.

Re: Housing is at the root of many of the rich world’s problems (2020)

#504

Post by namlem »

carom wrote: post #391
idkyall wrote: post #122

Housing in the US has gotten to where it is due to horrible laws effectively allowing total tax avoidance for landlords. Take some investment property. You buy it at some basis price, let's say 500k. You rent it out for 15k a year. Each year you can offset your rental income against deprecation of the property and property taxes - meaning, you pay no income tax on your rental income. ~30 years later, you've deprecate…

Taxes have nothing to do with insane rental prices. It is zoning that favors single family homes.

Single family zoning, plus parking minimums, minimum floor-area-ratios, and minimum lot sizes.

Re: Housing is at the root of many of the rich world’s problems (2020)

#505

Post by adamsmith143 »

foobarian wrote: post #259
adamsmith143 wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Give me a break. You'd need a down payment of ~400K to have a mortgage low enough to barely break even at $15,000 in rent per year. None of his math makes sense. Of course you would really rent a 500k property at something more like 2500 a month but even then you'd need a down payment near 200k to start making a profit.

You don't need to make a profit, there are ways to get loans against the property and continue acquiring more inventory.

Well this ain't a startup with VC funding. How long can you reasonably have negative cashflow like this before you personally go bankrupt?

Re: Housing is at the root of many of the rich world’s problems (2020)

#506

Post by nemo44x »

kmeisthax wrote: post #188
rhacker wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's multiply Seattle housing count by 3. I'm sure you'll still be able to get from point a to point b in a day (if you survive the drive).

[laughs in Phoenix] In all seriousness, no. The way you multiply housing count is by making buildings taller and closer together, not by spreading them further out. This is how we used to build cities before cars and roads ruined them.

It's because most people don't want to live in small boxes stacked on top of each other. The market responded to what people wanted and it was larger single family homes with yards and living space. An automobile to get you to other places for shopping and entertainment. This is what most people people want.

I agree though that a lot of suburbs are just wastelands and I would consider them to be depressing places to live. But people seem to love them for some reason. A lot of these places don't even have sidewalks but I guess it makes sense as there isn't really anywhere to walk to.

Re: Housing is at the root of many of the rich world’s problems (2020)

#507

Post by rory »

foota wrote: post #493
abeppu wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is certainly not my area so I could be missing something basic. But after you sell a property, why shouldn't that force a reevaluation on past depreciation writeoffs? In idkyall's post, they mention the scenario of depreciating your property down to an effective value of $0 and then selling to buy another property to start again. You've argued that this only covers a fraction of your income. But at a basic level…

What you describe does happen, unless they use that transfer process described, but by doing so they reduce the effective cost basis of the new property by the difference between the cost basis of the old one and the sale price.

Yeah the 1031 exchange simply defers the tax to a later time. But if you defer it until you die, your heir (in many cases) gets off tax-free.

Re: Housing is at the root of many of the rich world’s problems (2020)

#509

Post by thehappypm »

bsedlm wrote: post #344
idkyall wrote: post #122

Housing in the US has gotten to where it is due to horrible laws effectively allowing total tax avoidance for landlords. Take some investment property. You buy it at some basis price, let's say 500k. You rent it out for 15k a year. Each year you can offset your rental income against deprecation of the property and property taxes - meaning, you pay no income tax on your rental income. ~30 years later, you've deprecate…

I think taxes stopped making sense since 1971 when the USD became a fully fiat currency. if the government can print money, what's the point of collecting money through taxes?

This is actually a really interesting question.

There’s a really good argument to be made that taxes are actually a huge part of why dollars have a stable value.

Let’s say you buy a house for $1 million. 1% interest rate means you have to pay $10,000 every year to your local tax board. That means that you need to acquire US$10,000 or you lose your home. That means you need to earn USD. If the USD hyperinflated, 1% of your house is now $100,000. Now you need to go earn $100,000 and pay that in taxes — which is actually making dollars more in demand, countering inflation.

Re: Housing is at the root of many of the rich world’s problems (2020)

#510

Post by malfist »

lozenge wrote: post #483
malfist wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, won't somebody think of that poor family on hard times inheriting an estate worth more than 12 million. How could we ask them to pay taxes?

It's any estate worth less than 12 million.

No. The estate tax doesn't start until the inheritance is over $12 million.

So they have to inherit a $12m estate before they're taxed, if it's less, no estate tax.

And they don't pay taxes on that $12m if they're over the $12m, only the amount that it's over that $12m. If it's worth $12,000,001, they pay taxes on only $1.

Sources: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ashleaebeling/2021/11/11/new-hi...

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