Current Events > Can anything be done about the housing market?

(+) Yeah! (+)

This is absurd.

Its hard to do, but people just have to boycott buying homes. Everyone shack up with their in laws for a few years.

They already did. Prices stopped spiraling even more out of control. Now let's pat ourselves on the back

Jiek_Fafn posted...

They already did. Prices stopped spiraling out of control. Now let's pat ourselves on the back

I live in a poor area and they are still really overpriced.

EmilyTheCEman posted...

Its hard to do, but people just have to boycott buying homes. Everyone shack up with their in laws for a few years.

That will def drive costs down as demand falls.

Its being done. It takes time though.

Interest rates are high and house prices are high. And it's still competitive as fuck.

I'm not really sure it's going to get any better. If housing prices or interest rates get any lower, the competition will just increase further.

Buy the house that you can afford is really all you can do at this point (my wife and I are struggling at finding something for us rn)

Ban corporations from scooping up a bunch of houses. No more big landlord companies or Air BnB companies buying up houses.

Demand isn't going to go down, so it has to be about increasing supply. Have policy focus on building more high-density housing over single family homes. I know that's easier said than done though, especially since NIMBYism often gets in the way.

same thing with cars. mine got flooded out in my driveway like 5 weeks ago from bad storms and insurance totaled it out. trying to look at newly used cars and anything from the last few years with under 30k miles is barely cheaper than a brand new 2024. insurance rates are ridiculous. i managed to find a bank that'll do 4.5% but only on a new 3 year car loan. my bank i got my previous loan at like 2.5% starts at 7% now and that's on the low end compared to a lot i see.

i'm hoping to buy a house in the next couple years but i'm seeing houses that were going for like $150k pre pandemic going for legit double that now. if you're looking for anything around $200k it's gonna be tiny or need a good bit of work to it. see plenty of houses going for $400k+ that aren't even all that big. not small by any means but ridiculous for a house in a neighborhood. not like there's any land to go with it. not even a new house either.

The only thing that "can be done" is that the government needs to do a buy-back program to re-acquire real estate from foreign investors, then re-market those homes on a specialized market for first time home buyers.

The enemy here isn't people who are selling their real estate at the going rate. It's all the multi millionaires overseas hoarding properties and our own government for not doing anything to stop it.

under the current kleptocracy, this is the plan, TC. Things are going exactly the way they were supposed to. So no, nothing is gonna be done.

look it up, its not my opinion: some of the biggest mortgage lenders are now backing out of the mortgage lending market altogether and buying huge swaths of land and real estate instead.

companies like black rock and some Chinese conglomerates are doing the same too. Many got ties to the GOP.

housing will remain scarce and expensive because it will become a thing for the millionaires, the rest of us will have to rent perpetually.

and since housing is something you cant do without, once they establish a stronghold in the market they will raise rents to the point you could buy 2 or 3 houses instead if they existed. In other words, theyre going to do the same to rental prices that they did to insulin, college tuition, health care and childcare.

hooray for the GOP and capitalism (this is not true capitalism, I love capitalism, but not this crony kleptocracy masquerading and capitalism)

WarfireX posted...

The only thing that "can be done" is that the government needs to do a buy-back program to re-acquire real estate from foreign investors, then re-market those homes on a specialized market for first time home buyers.

The enemy here isn't people who are selling their real estate at the going rate. It's all the multi millionaires overseas hoarding properties and our own government for not doing anything to stop it.

not just overseas: black rock, musk, the huge banks that just backed out of the mortgage business, etc etc, all of them

Social housing.

Each commercial development must have a percentage of affordable homes for purchase by first time buyers/those on lower incomes.

Shared ownership schemes with a right to buy.

Increased property sales tax for commercial owners.

Tax on commercially owned empty properties.

Make it easier to build home and get more people capable of building homes

Bought my house March 2022 and it's now up $48k over the sale price.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

Yes, something needs to be done about that as well. There are good reasons an individual owner might own two or even three homes and I'm not against that, but I'd be for policies to discourage owning any more than that, like maybe at a certain point the property tax on each successive home you own goes up sharply enough to eat up any profits you'd make by holding on to it to flip.

get rid of restrictive zoning laws

Theoretically, yes. It could be fixed within a few weeks if they really wanted to fix it. But here's a little secret: They don't. Republicans don't of course, but neither do Democrats. Nor does any major party anywhere else in the world, left or right, and it's debatable whether any minor-but-still-relevant ones really do either. The left ones just are better at pretending they do.

Not really, people get pretty pissed when the value of their home drops. Especially if theyre upside down in a mortgage and lose it. Which mean politicians will move Heaven and earth to try and prop the housing market up.

so baring a repeat of a financial crisis on the level of or worse than 2009 the price of housing isnt going to significantly change. And if you cant afford a house now youre probably gonna have bigger problems on your hands should such a event happen, like if youre going to be able to eat today.

Raising interest rates was a start.

Ban foreigners from buying residential property. Put restrictions on the number of private homes one can own.

radical_rhino posted...

Put restrictions on the number of private homes one can own.

1 permanent residence would be a start.

maybe 1 vacation home maximum.

very easily

it just won't be done because of politics

Idk. Houses aren't supposed to be cheap tho. It's normal to be in debt for 30 years to get a home

radical_rhino posted...

Ban foreigners from buying residential property. Put restrictions on the number of private homes one can own.

it amuses me how people always come up with these brilliant ideas that will end harming the upper-middle class and wealthy (but not millionaire) class but do nothing to solve the real problem, which is the millionaires and huge conglomerates.

look, banning dentist Joe and attorney Mike from owning a *gasp* third rental property wont solve the issue when the Candem Property Trust (which is a US Company, by the way) owns almost 60,000 rental properties in the US alone.

btw I said properties, which means, units full of apartments or houses for rent, not individual houses/condos.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/7/1/AAfWAzAAE46H.jpg
source: Google

they are far from being the only company who does this, by the way.

wait for economy to crash, which is inevitable

The_shibe posted...

look, banning dentist Joe and attorney Mike from owning a *gasp* third rental property wont solve the issue when the Candem Property Trust (which is a US Company, by the way) owns almost 60,000 rental properties in the US alone.

You can ban both, or even ban property investment by companies / trusts / other entities while allowing actual physical humans to still own one or two.

As long as companies, the rich, and foreigners can buy up homes as investments, nothing will change.
We need a FEDERAL homestead tax. Some extremely high amount, like 20% or more. It only applies to single family homes, and you get an exemption if it is your primary residence.
Bam! All of a sudden those 2nd/3rd/80th homes being held onto for investment and renting become a tax burden and the rich are in a frenzy to sell and not be the last ones left "holding the bag" as prices crater.
At the same time, you lower interest rates. Before, low rates meant banks could buy up homes on the cheap. But now, they have to contend w/ the homestead tax and can't anymore. Instead, it becomes a historic buying opportunity for the middle class who can capitalize on low rates and low prices w/o competing w/ the rich for the homes, and the end result is prices stabilize a bit lower than they are now (probably about "half of whatever the % of the homestead tax is" lower, honestly...let's say 10%), but w/ WAY more people owning homes.

Politicians will never do this, because they get bribes...err...kickbacks....err....I mean, campaign contributions from corporations and the Realtors, and because they like the amount of tax money the status quo rakes in.

EDIT: This works better than just outright heavy-handed banning. If rich people want to own a vacation home, they still can.... But they're effectively at 20% (or whatever) disadvantage on the bidding of the house, and will have that tax burden annually, which will put regular people just trying to own *one* home on much better footing against them

lilORANG posted...

Idk. Houses aren't supposed to be cheap tho. It's normal to be in debt for 30 years to get a home

Over the last 30 years, median home prices have risen at a much faster rate than median income. More and more people have gradually been priced out of being able to afford a home. That's a big reason why barely over half of Millennials own a home today even though most of them are in their 30s at this point.

Build more housing where people want to live

I have been looking for a 2nd home for about 3 years now. My issue is I just can't find what I want. But I'm not looking to keep two homes though. Once I buy the 2nd one and take my time moving in slowly over a few months I will sell the other one which I currently own.

But even if I don't find the upgrade I want I still like my current home quite a bit and if I stay there for years more that is fine too. I don't owe anything on it so other than paying property taxes and insurance it is cheap living. Could be worse for sure.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


which would also devastate dentist Jim and attorney Mike while not doing shit to the likes of candem. If anything they will pass the buck to renters as some sort of fucked up fee

This never would have happened in the horsing business.

Bass posted...

Ban corporations from scooping up a bunch of houses. No more big landlord companies or Air BnB companies buying up houses.

This.

Restrict NIMBY-ism. Many communities have overbearing ordinances against tall buildings, or "historical" codes that stifle the types of construction allowed in a distinct.

The wealthy do what they can to keep prices up so nothing good is going to happen without having people who despise each other have the brain flash that they can work together.

Population is in decline so theoretically demand should lower over time as old people die

AlCalavicci posted...

Interest rates are high and house prices are high. And it's still competitive as fuck.

I'm not really sure it's going to get any better. If housing prices or interest rates get any lower, the competition will just increase further.

Buy the house that you can afford is really all you can do at this point (my wife and I are struggling at finding something for us rn)

This is what I hate. They keep raising interest rates mainly because housing is the biggest factor behind inflation numbers and its likely that prices wont fall much.

Lots of people like me who locked down a 2.5-4 % for whom it makes no sense to move unless you absolutely have to. So with no inventory, the economy will have to get pretty bad in order for prices to fall.

People are actually paying more than the asking price for homes these days. As long as those bidding wars are going on, good luck getting something at a reasonable price.

The_shibe posted...

hooray for the GOP and capitalism (this is not true capitalism, I love capitalism, but not this crony kleptocracy masquerading and capitalism)

What does truecapitalism look like?

lilORANG posted...

Population is in decline so theoretically demand should lower over time as old people die

The rate of population growth in the U.S. has slowed, but the population is still growing and is likely to continue to grow for at least the next few decades. It won't be until the latter half of the 21st century that the population may start to decline.

JuanCarlos1 posted...

This is what I hate. They keep raising interest rates mainly because housing is the biggest factor behind inflation numbers and its likely that prices wont fall much.

Lots of people like me who locked down a 2.5-4 % for whom it makes no sense to move unless you absolutely have to. So with no inventory, the economy will have to get pretty bad in order for prices to fall.

I read somewhere that something like 80-90% of homeowners with a mortgage have an interest rate of 6% or less.

WIth stats like that it's no wonder there's not a lot going on in the market. Basically buyers can't buy and sellers can't sell.

I dont think so, I seriously think that America is over, I think that China is taking over

If you can find out how to crash the housing market, get right on it.

radical_rhino posted...

Ban foreigners from buying residential property. Put restrictions on the number of private homes one can own.

Theres something along these lines where I live (as a foreigner). Only real way round it is to marry a local.