4 ms·

Maybe that’s true. Or maybe the arrow of causality runs the other way and increased labor supply and housing demand due to mass immigration of foreign labor dri

by User23 8y ago

Maybe that’s true. Or maybe the arrow of causality runs the other way and increased labor supply and housing demand due to mass immigration of foreign labor drives down wages and drives up housing costs, thereby reducing native fertility rates. Edit: I wonder to what extent the US current account deficit is funding west coast real estate valuations. I know Chinese cash buyers were a big part of the Vancouver price increases.

redahs 8y ago
The United States is not currently experiencing mass immigration. Its total annual population growth rate including immigration is lower than 1% and has not been this low since the Great Depression. The United States is a relatively lightly populated country per unit of total land area, and many cities in the interior of the country are declining in population despite immigration. Housing prices are inversely correlated with the property tax rate on real estate and the income tax rate on capital gains. A decline in either real estate property taxes or capital gain income taxes increases housing prices, by making land more attractive as an investment. This effect is independent of the population of the country. If it becomes more attractive to put money into land rather than in businesses which employ workers, and changes to the tax code cause an increase in land banking, then the price of land increases faster than wages and salaries used to buy it regardless of the level of population of the country. Taxing earned income of younger families via payroll taxes at a much higher rate than unearned increment of land via property taxes and capital gains taxes is basically a very slow moving form of national suicide.
- User23 8y ago
  The US will be minority American in 25 years as virtually every news source will gleefully tell you. The foreign migration into the USA is massive and unprecedented in history, except for the original colonization. What you say about housing costs is not wrong, but it’s also very incomplete. Many other factors drive housing inflation, just one example is that mortgages expand the total money supply, resulting in textbook inflation. Rent seeking behavior is definitely unfortunate for the non rentier classes though. I’m generally inclined to agree about taxing income vs assets. However it’s just as important to not punish savers as it is to not punish labor.
  - chasontherobot 8y ago
    "American" is not a race, what do you mean by that?
    - User23 8y ago
      American is a nationality that has roots going back centuries. They are one of the youngest ethnic groups on the planet, having just recently branched off from the English, but they have their own dialects, cuisine, music, and all the other cultural traits.

by User23 8y ago

redahs 8y ago

The United States is not currently experiencing mass immigration. Its total annual population growth rate including immigration is lower than 1% and has not been this low since the Great Depression. The United States is a relatively lightly populated country per unit of total land area, and many cities in the interior of the country are declining in population despite immigration. Housing prices are inversely correlated with the property tax rate on real estate and the income tax rate on capital gains. A decline in either real estate property taxes or capital gain income taxes increases housing prices, by making land more attractive as an investment. This effect is independent of the population of the country. If it becomes more attractive to put money into land rather than in businesses which employ workers, and changes to the tax code cause an increase in land banking, then the price of land increases faster than wages and salaries used to buy it regardless of the level of population of the country. Taxing earned income of younger families via payroll taxes at a much higher rate than unearned increment of land via property taxes and capital gains taxes is basically a very slow moving form of national suicide.

User23 8y ago
The US will be minority American in 25 years as virtually every news source will gleefully tell you. The foreign migration into the USA is massive and unprecedented in history, except for the original colonization. What you say about housing costs is not wrong, but it’s also very incomplete. Many other factors drive housing inflation, just one example is that mortgages expand the total money supply, resulting in textbook inflation. Rent seeking behavior is definitely unfortunate for the non rentier classes though. I’m generally inclined to agree about taxing income vs assets. However it’s just as important to not punish savers as it is to not punish labor.
- chasontherobot 8y ago
  "American" is not a race, what do you mean by that?
  - User23 8y ago
    American is a nationality that has roots going back centuries. They are one of the youngest ethnic groups on the planet, having just recently branched off from the English, but they have their own dialects, cuisine, music, and all the other cultural traits.