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US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes

reuters.com

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Re: US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes

#81

Post by agentifysh »

legitster wrote: post #34

Investor owned housing is a bit of a sensationalist scapegoat. Publicly traded companies account for a tiny, tiny fraction of available single family homes in the US. And so long as the tax code doesn't change, it strongly favors private/individual homeowners, and corporations only account for the margins where housing appreciates so fast or rental incomes are disproportionate to asset values. This is an easy thing f…

regarding public reits focusing on blackrock misses the Vancouver Model dynamic which is absolutely happening in major us markets.

the issue isn't just yield-seeking corps, it's opaque shell companies (llc) using real estate as a store of value aka money laundering vehicle. vancouver showed how this decouples prices from local wages completely. the us has this exact vulnerability—anonymous delaware/wyoming llcs buying in cash, specifically in supply-constrained cities like ny or miami.

this only works because of zoning. if nimbys didn't artificially cap supply, housing would be a depreciating consumer good (like in Japan) rather than a deflation-proof asset class. zoning is what turns a house into a safe deposit box for offshore capital.

if the corporate transparency act that Trump vetoed is successful then I expect to see the real estate become US's top source of GDP like it is for Canada.

Re: US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes

#82

Post by TZubiri »

Aurornis wrote: post #42

Even if this goes through without a mountain of loopholes and exceptions, I doubt it will have a significant impact. "Wall Street Investors" implies they're targeting large institutional ownership, which is only around 0.5% of housing ownership as cited in the article. That number is also flat-ish or maybe decreasing depending on the chart you look at, from what I recall. Outside of a few metro areas where institutio…

Anyone familiar with basic economics is pulling their hair out reading this, because there's one extremely obvious way to lower the price of building new housing: Reducing or eliminating tariffs on construction equipment and materials and ensuring a robust supply of low-cost labor.

That's quite an extreme political take.

A more humble basic economic theory question would be:

If you ban large institutional investors from buying homes, and then you ban small institutional investors from buying homes. And only owners directly can buy homes, no renting. Would that be good? Sure homes would be cheap, but very shortly after that the supply of new housing would drop dramatically, as there's no one to finance building homes, maybe the ultra rich will just invest in their own mansions or yachts?

Just very basic economics is the discussion here, not tariffs and china politics, but just a variant of the highschool/red-scare question of, "will anti-wealth laws have a positive effect on the economy"? in the past it was determined that no, and that you were a communist for suggesting it, but maybe there's a nuanced take like making a difference between some type of "institutional" investors and other types of investors?

Re: US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes

#83

Post by kelipso »

epistasis wrote: post #60
mc32 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure. But I’ve been hearing of this being an issue from both progressives, leftists as well as conservatives and rightists. Maybe they’re all misinformed by their bubbles, but there seems to be some smoke…

It's because of emotionally charged response. Leftists largely don't want corporations owning houses, because it's "impure" and capitalist. Rightists largely don't want renters to live in homes that used to be exclusionary on the basis of being able to buy a home. Though there's crossover on the reasons, of course.

Honestly, the argument on the other side seems like emotionally charged arguments due to TDS and not wanting to give Trump any credit.

It seems obvious to most people that institutional investors should not be allowed near single family homes and you would need quite a strong argument to persuade otherwise.

Re: US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes

#84

Post by SirFatty »

Aurornis wrote: post #42

Even if this goes through without a mountain of loopholes and exceptions, I doubt it will have a significant impact. "Wall Street Investors" implies they're targeting large institutional ownership, which is only around 0.5% of housing ownership as cited in the article. That number is also flat-ish or maybe decreasing depending on the chart you look at, from what I recall. Outside of a few metro areas where institutio…

Everything you stated is speculation.

Re: US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes

#85

Post by buellerbueller »

01100011 wrote: post #69
Aurornis wrote: post #42

Even if this goes through without a mountain of loopholes and exceptions, I doubt it will have a significant impact. "Wall Street Investors" implies they're targeting large institutional ownership, which is only around 0.5% of housing ownership as cited in the article. That number is also flat-ish or maybe decreasing depending on the chart you look at, from what I recall. Outside of a few metro areas where institutio…

This is pretty far down in the list of consequences we should be thinking about but building more housing in desirable, coastal areas of the US will only serve to exacerbate the political and cultural divide between the two Americas. I know we all hate on the electoral college, but it exists and it isn't going away anytime soon. I'm not saying the answer is to force folks to move to "flyover country", but that's what…

It's also what you'd do if you wanted to buy an inexpensive house and have a low cost of living.

Re: US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes

#86

Post by hypeatei »

mountainb wrote: post #53

There is a conservative case for this in that the 30 year fixed mortgage, combined with all of the foreclosure protections both old and new, amount to a government benefits program. Historically, this type of mortgage was developed to promote family homeownership. The mortgage systems have continually blown up in "crises" in part because it's a product of policy more than it is a market product. This is partly why in…

I mostly agree with your comment except the part where flipper types and corps cause distortion because they have 30-year mortgages at their disposal. A fixed rate, 30-year is distortionary on its own; it's a uniquely American "product" and banks in other countries would look at you crazy for requesting such a thing.

Re: US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes

#88

Post by xp84 »

nerdjon wrote: post #21
codyb wrote: post #7

Seems reasonable to me, a very anti Trump individual. Now deliver. And which of his buddies does this benefit? I'm trying to think if there will be ramifications to this... - Obviously forced divestment of all Wall St owned single family homes could impact housing prices which is both the point, but of course... also hurts many families borrowing power and net worth - I guess that crash could potentially have people…

I am also trying to think of what else could actually be fueling this, since it sounds very... not republican. Quite literally the opposite. Like you said that also assumes it actually happens and isn't another incoherent ramble that is conveniently forgotten about or claimed he never said. I mean if its legit I will cheer it on... but I remain skeptical.

It's mostly a made-up issue to begin with - so this would be a popular policy, easy to pass because there won't be much opposition, and it'll be easy to point to and say "We fixed that problem."

Re: US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes

#89

Post by michaelteter »

Will not happen with the current administration.

Like so many other big promises, it will appease a lot of people, but there will be no real follow through.

Any regulation that prevents unrestrained capitalism is immediately decried as socialism and therefore evil.

These kinds of promises are made which temporarily create market volatility, and once it later (usually quite soon) becomes clear that the big thing will not actually happen, the markets snap back. At this point, it’s incredibly likely that these situations are manufactured to both look good AND create large short term investment gains for people in the know - without actually changing anything.

Re: US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes

#90

Post by xp84 »

frogperson wrote: post #35
ceejayoz wrote: post #3

Actual title: "US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes, Trump says " Trump, notoriously, says all sorts of things. I'm sure this'll come right after he finishes his healthcare plans in "two weeks".

Im sure this will be rolled back 2 days after mid-terms.

I see the Democrats are right back in their 'wildly overconfident' phase again.
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