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When there are 6x more empty homes than homeless, I suspect the crisis is not one of supply in this country. A couple of points. The average home buyer stays i
by danjoc 9y ago
When there are 6x more empty homes than homeless, I suspect the crisis is not one of supply in this country.
A couple of points. The average home buyer stays in their home ~13 years as of 2013 and that number was trending lower,
https://chicagoagentmagazine.com/2013/01/07/nahb-study-average-homeowner-to-stay-in-home-for-13-years/ https://chicagoagentmagazine.com/2013/01/07/nahb-study-avera...
Now look at a 30 year amortization schedule
https://www.basicfinancialtips.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Mortgage-Amortization.gif https://www.basicfinancialtips.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/0...
Notice anything? Right, not even at 50% principal until around year 19.
Why is housing so expensive? Americans are giving all that money to the banks. And after 13 years? They jump off the treadmill, go back to the start, and throw more money away. And this is best case, assuming no second mortgages, interest only loans, and all the other scams Americans are so gullible to fall into.
- dredmorbius 9y agoIn some areas, homes are left empty. In others, there is a much greater housing demand than supply. In both cases, increasing the cost of leaving housing idle would seem to be an improvement over the present situation. It's occurred to me that the problem of housing and wages are twinned, and that some sort of land-tax / land-reform, paired with an income regime (employer of last resort, UBI, living wage, probably a mix of all of the above) is necessary. Without housing reform, increased wages are withdrawn via rents. Without wage reform, housing supply remains beyond the effective demand of those who are unhoused / insufficiently housed, and/or are subject to highly variable income. See: https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/6nxi42/rent_and_wages/ https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/6nxi42/rent_an...