Priced out of home ownership • Hacker News Board

Re: Priced out of home ownership

#61

Post by formerly_proven » Mon, May 27, 2024, 2:14 PM UTC

jeffbee wrote: post #59

None of the measures mentioned in the article — lower interest rates, lower transaction fees, down payment subsidies — will lower costs. Every one of them will raise prices. You can only fix this with supply: build homes.

The good ol' "subsidize demand" approach to reducing prices. And if prices continue to climb? Well, just subsidize demand harder and in more diverse ways. I assure you, eventually price will fall. You just haven't subsidized the demand side enough yet.

Re: Priced out of home ownership

#62

Post by prox » Mon, May 27, 2024, 2:15 PM UTC

holoduke wrote: post #60

Same here in the Netherlands. I currently rent a 130m3 house for 2500 euros. 500 energy. 2500 euros daycare (4 kids). I think I spend around 6000, 7000 euros after taxes on fixed costs. I wont complain. My life is good, but for most peope here impossible to pay those amounts. Result is that lots of my friends with "normal" jobs end up living in small apartments far outside the cities or even move to a completely diff…

Why is this happening everywhere right now? On Reddit I see this in so many places (US, UK, Europe, not sure about Asia)

Re: Priced out of home ownership

#63

Post by tdb7893 » Mon, May 27, 2024, 2:15 PM UTC

holoduke wrote: post #60

Same here in the Netherlands. I currently rent a 130m3 house for 2500 euros. 500 energy. 2500 euros daycare (4 kids). I think I spend around 6000, 7000 euros after taxes on fixed costs. I wont complain. My life is good, but for most peope here impossible to pay those amounts. Result is that lots of my friends with "normal" jobs end up living in small apartments far outside the cities or even move to a completely diff…

I was just explaining this to my mom today. Our generation has a lot of luxuries cheaper but also a lot higher fixed costs (housing, education, childcare, healthcare, etc). Even adjusting for inflation my college and rent were a few times what she paid when she was in her 20s so my experience is that people now who are doing well are doing really well but people who are struggling are really struggling.

Re: Priced out of home ownership

#64

Post by technotony » Mon, May 27, 2024, 2:16 PM UTC

jeffbee wrote: post #59

None of the measures mentioned in the article — lower interest rates, lower transaction fees, down payment subsidies — will lower costs. Every one of them will raise prices. You can only fix this with supply: build homes.

That's not the main source of the problem, it's governments printing money that's causing this.

Re: Priced out of home ownership

#65

Post by bsenftner » Mon, May 27, 2024, 2:16 PM UTC

jeffbee wrote: post #59

None of the measures mentioned in the article — lower interest rates, lower transaction fees, down payment subsidies — will lower costs. Every one of them will raise prices. You can only fix this with supply: build homes.

Make home ownership and renting them back to single families by corporations illegal. Seriously. It's the corporations doing ALL this. The people don't have the money.

Re: Priced out of home ownership

#66

Post by candiddevmike » Mon, May 27, 2024, 2:16 PM UTC

prox wrote: post #62

holoduke wrote: post #60

Same here in the Netherlands. I currently rent a 130m3 house for 2500 euros. 500 energy. 2500 euros daycare (4 kids). I think I spend around 6000, 7000 euros after taxes on fixed costs. I wont complain. My life is good, but for most peope here impossible to pay those amounts. Result is that lots of my friends with "normal" jobs end up living in small apartments far outside the cities or even move to a completely diff…

Why is this happening everywhere right now? On Reddit I see this in so many places (US, UK, Europe, not sure about Asia)

Too few houses, too many landlords (commercial and "investment properties")

Re: Priced out of home ownership

#67

Post by Pet_Ant » Mon, May 27, 2024, 2:17 PM UTC

jeffbee wrote: post #59

None of the measures mentioned in the article — lower interest rates, lower transaction fees, down payment subsidies — will lower costs. Every one of them will raise prices. You can only fix this with supply: build homes.

One of the key factors is the increased migration for China and India. While people did emmigrate before, it was much lower. So effectively they were walled off into their own pocket. Now, most of my co-workers are immigrants from India. It's like the rest of world's population is jumping by 2 billion. That is going to change the value of everything related to populations and living.

Re: Priced out of home ownership

#68

Post by moralestapia » Mon, May 27, 2024, 2:18 PM UTC

candiddevmike wrote: post #66

prox wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is this happening everywhere right now? On Reddit I see this in so many places (US, UK, Europe, not sure about Asia)

Too few houses, too many landlords (commercial and "investment properties")

Nah, there's more than enough housing for everybody; quite obvious by the observable fact that people have a roof over their heads, lol.

The value of currency went down significantly, i.e. actual inflation is massive. Salaries didn't go up as much, not even close, and here we are.

>inb4 ...

Re: Priced out of home ownership

#69

Post by blondie9x » Mon, May 27, 2024, 2:19 PM UTC

The problem is pretty easy to fix. 50-70% of homes (Depends on Area) are owned by people over 58-70 (Baby Boomers). They don't have good senior apartment/living options. Make more senior housing and provide incentives for them to sell their homes. There are so few available affordable senior apartment options. It's really saddening. Most places have 5-10 year waiting lists, if the waiting list is open at all.

Fixing senior living options will create inventory in the market and give seniors better choices with an active community.

Re: Priced out of home ownership

#70

Post by bsenftner » Mon, May 27, 2024, 2:19 PM UTC

technotony wrote: post #64

jeffbee wrote: post #59

None of the measures mentioned in the article — lower interest rates, lower transaction fees, down payment subsidies — will lower costs. Every one of them will raise prices. You can only fix this with supply: build homes.

That's not the main source of the problem, it's governments printing money that's causing this.

No, it's the value of the dollar in free fall and our purchased economists not talking about it. It's the value of the dollar as reflected by the rest of the planet's confidence in the US, which is dropping faster than Trump can fall asleep and fart.