One additional important detail: if this gets implemented at all, hopefully it does not affect the common practice of having a self-owned LLC owning your home. This is common for the purposes of keeping your personal name out of public records; it is far too easy to link someone's name and address, and people at risk of doxing can do this to protect themselves.
Is it not public in the US who owns a company?
US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes
881–890 of 1001 posts
Re: US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes
#882This mentioning of 'Wall Street' with investors if typical for the kind of populist argument that is used to argue that banning investors from buying houses is a good thing.
What would this 'Wall Street' even mean? Would it mean that companies listed on the stock exchange are banned but privately owned companies not?
Anyhow, I argue that investors are positive for the the house market. They shouldn't be banned. Investors provide enough liquidity to the market so that the building companies have enough certainty to invest in large housing projects, because they know that their properties will be sold quickly. If investors would be banned they would sell their houses eventually as well but it would take much longer.
Similarly, investors improve mobility and throughput. An individual putting his house for sale will find a buyer much faster when investors are in the buying market, who are willing to buy up a house when nobody else takes it and sell it for a better price later. So: sellers sell faster, so they can move out and buy a new home faster as well: mobility in the house market increases.
In IT terms: investors function as a buffer.
Re: US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes
#883One additional important detail: if this gets implemented at all, hopefully it does not affect the common practice of having a self-owned LLC owning your home. This is common for the purposes of keeping your personal name out of public records; it is far too easy to link someone's name and address, and people at risk of doxing can do this to protect themselves.
Owning your family home through an LLC, depending on your state, is often a bad idea. There are generous protections in most states for your personal home that you lose if it's owned by an LLC. This includes things like a homestead exemption in bankruptcy protection. In Florida, for example, there are better options to keep yourself anonymous. Florida has something called a land trust [1]. [1]: https://www.jimersonfi…
I feel like mortgage lenders should legitimately wonder why they’re lending to an LLC or a trust rather than an individual. I’m not sure there’s a good answer.
Re: US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes
#884Earlier quoted context omitted.
Making this decision as a politician in this country is death to your career though; how could we incentivize our leaders to bite the hand that elects them?
If your local mayor decides to allow a tower block to be built next to your house, you might be pissed. But if the president says 'we're gonna take away mayors powers to restrict housebuilding', you won't be pissed yet.... And when a builder comes along to build later it'll be too late.
The president doesn’t have this power, or shouldn’t according to a sane reading of the Constitution. This needs to be a state level action.
Re: US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes
#885Earlier quoted context omitted.
Indeed. I was in Sweden and learned that you can look up someone's address and pay on a government website. I think there are some "are you human" checks, but it's basically all in the clear. It creeped me out a bit and then I was angry when I realized it's the same way in the US, but maybe worse. In the US this is possible too, you just have to pay private data brokers and a bunch of middle men make a cheap buck. Em…
If you know the region they live in, many counties in the US now let you search property records by name from a simple web form.
Most Texas counties put all their residents' complete, real-time information out there with zero impediments to scraping and wholesale harvesting. Appraisal value, tax payment and tax status, mailing address, full legal name, and phone number. Basically a scammer, stalker, and data broker goldmine.
Re: US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes
#886Earlier quoted context omitted.
Personally I feel people and especially corporations/REITs do not have the right to hide what real estate they own. Sure put it in a trust, but the public has the right to know who controls it.
Where do you stand on encryption? Do you feel like the "I have nothing to hide" argument has any merit? If you think people have the right to privacy, why should real estate be an exception? I personally find the fact that real estate ownership is public in the US to be quite bizarre.
Property is a physical thing in the real world that has been here long before anyone "owned it", and will be here long after all the "owners" are gone.
The public, i.e. the people on this planet, have a right to know who is claiming to own which part of the grass and soil that we all share.
Re: US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes
#887Earlier quoted context omitted.
So basically you want to give a loophole for Wall Street to cosplay as regular people. No thanks.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46532033 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46532004 It costs relatively little to create an LLC. This is not an uncommon pattern for people in groups commonly targeted by hate-motivated doxing and similar attacks. This is not a "rich-person trick", and if you can afford a house, the cost of an LLC is a very tiny expense by comparison.
I’d need to see numbers about how many such people cannot otherwise be found online. If we all pay higher mortgages and rent to subsidize those who use loopholes, it’s only possibly worth it.
Re: US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes
#888Earlier quoted context omitted.
Renting should be viewed is a negative in society. Imagine if car dealerships moved to a rental model instead of ownership..oh wait, they sort of already are, they just call it "financing", they make no money from cash buys because of that economic perversion. Rent income is not wages, that's the critical part you're mistaken. Income and wages are not the same thing. Rent income is as much wages as Elon Musk selling…
> The kind of capitalism we have now is a short-sighted parasitical money-grab. it would seem so, at least in the west perhaps... but i wonder what the cause is; is it culture? or just organic growth is becoming harder and harder?
It's the nature of a capitalist society. Perverse incentives are everywhere and our primary measurement of success is wealth. We richly reward grifters and cheaters and folks with integrity often fall behind. The decades of perverse incentives have created a perverse society that no amount of "golden rule" theory taught in kindergarten can stand up against.
Re: US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes
#889This is largely a good move. There are plenty of whales, once those 5% disappeared, price should slowly come down. ( The Hong Kong Housing market is the one worth studying ) Next would be increase supply, and may be if needed, additional tax for individuals owning more than one home or when they buy 2nd home. Largely making housing as an asset not attractive for certain group of investment.
Housing continues to be the biggest problem in modern world and yet it is a problem not resolved.
Re: US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes
#890Yea, right. "Wall Street" has publicized lashings and rules, but there's also a backdoor. And they obviously have a strangle-hold on rentals.
The end game for capitalism is for everyone to rent everything: healthcare, cars, software, music, physical items, roads, etc.