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I think the best approach is just to spread the risk. If I own a house and someone builds a fracking station behind it, I'll lose most of what I have worked my

I think the best approach is just to spread the risk. If I own a house and someone builds a fracking station behind it, I'll lose most of what I have worked my whole life to build. I shouldn't be able to buy a house and have jurisdiction over the entire surrounding area, but I also shouldn't be at risk of losing 50% of my property overnight. To be honest, I'm surprised there isn't some kind of insurance policy that covers this kind of thing. You'd pay a premium to be protected from large value reductions, and the risk is distributed across a large number of homeowners.

kyleee 6y ago
Don't give the insurance companies any ideas...
pirocks 6y ago
The core problem here is that so much value is tied up in houses. People view houses as an investment. If houses depreciated like cars then people aren't so concerned about the value of there house b/c it won't make or break retirement. Any long term housing solution needs to find a way of preventing houses from becoming investments.
- chongli 6y ago
  Houses do depreciate like cars. Houses are money pits. It’s land that is the investment. The earth may have a huge amount of land but the amount of desirable land is tiny by comparison. Lots of people will spend a million dollars on a house and tear it down to the ground so they can rebuild. To them, the house essentially had negative value. The land was all they wanted.
  - t-writescode 6y ago
    > Lots of people will spend a million dollars on a house and tear it down to the ground so they can rebuild. At this stage, you're not talking about regular people who are holding their house as their nest egg. Many, many people hold their house as a location they can put money every month that won't disappear and someday might make more money. The kind of people that are buying houses for the land and the kind of people that are buying existing houses to live in are two entirely different income brackets. Lots and lots of people are in the poorer income bracket.
    - chongli 6y ago
      That people put money into their house every month doesn’t change the fact that a great deal of that money doesn’t contribute to wealth building. Interest on mortgage payments, maintenance and repair, renovations, utility bills; these are all sunk costs associated with home ownership.
  - amelius 6y ago
    Ok but that doesn't change GP's point. Just substitute land for house in their post.
    - chongli 6y ago
      It changes the point profoundly. Why would we expect land to depreciate? Unless the world’s population goes into decline (always a possibility), land will only continue to become more scarce. As other sources of wealth grow (and not just population), land will go up in price, not down.
- kenhwang 6y ago
  They're treated like investments partially because they have special tax advantages that other investments wouldn't have. So part of the long term solution may be to actually treat them like investments.
  - FpUser 6y ago
    So that even less people will have a chance to have roof over their head? Fuck that
- Waterfall 6y ago
  Just encourage earthquakes and building on unstable ground. it works in Japan.
mikecoles 6y ago
I'd love to have fracking or another well put in behind my backyard or, even better, in my backyard. That's a huge win. My cut from the mineral rights would be a welcome addition to the retirement plan.
- xref 6y ago
  Assuming you verified you own the mineral rights since deed of property does not necessarily convey deed of mineral rights, which is a costly process in its own right.

kyleee 6y ago

Don't give the insurance companies any ideas...

pirocks 6y ago

The core problem here is that so much value is tied up in houses. People view houses as an investment. If houses depreciated like cars then people aren't so concerned about the value of there house b/c it won't make or break retirement. Any long term housing solution needs to find a way of preventing houses from becoming investments.

chongli 6y ago
Houses do depreciate like cars. Houses are money pits. It’s land that is the investment. The earth may have a huge amount of land but the amount of desirable land is tiny by comparison. Lots of people will spend a million dollars on a house and tear it down to the ground so they can rebuild. To them, the house essentially had negative value. The land was all they wanted.
- t-writescode 6y ago
  > Lots of people will spend a million dollars on a house and tear it down to the ground so they can rebuild. At this stage, you're not talking about regular people who are holding their house as their nest egg. Many, many people hold their house as a location they can put money every month that won't disappear and someday might make more money. The kind of people that are buying houses for the land and the kind of people that are buying existing houses to live in are two entirely different income brackets. Lots and lots of people are in the poorer income bracket.
  - chongli 6y ago
    That people put money into their house every month doesn’t change the fact that a great deal of that money doesn’t contribute to wealth building. Interest on mortgage payments, maintenance and repair, renovations, utility bills; these are all sunk costs associated with home ownership.
- amelius 6y ago
  Ok but that doesn't change GP's point. Just substitute land for house in their post.
  - chongli 6y ago
    It changes the point profoundly. Why would we expect land to depreciate? Unless the world’s population goes into decline (always a possibility), land will only continue to become more scarce. As other sources of wealth grow (and not just population), land will go up in price, not down.
kenhwang 6y ago
They're treated like investments partially because they have special tax advantages that other investments wouldn't have. So part of the long term solution may be to actually treat them like investments.
- FpUser 6y ago
  So that even less people will have a chance to have roof over their head? Fuck that
Waterfall 6y ago
Just encourage earthquakes and building on unstable ground. it works in Japan.

mikecoles 6y ago

I'd love to have fracking or another well put in behind my backyard or, even better, in my backyard. That's a huge win. My cut from the mineral rights would be a welcome addition to the retirement plan.

xref 6y ago
Assuming you verified you own the mineral rights since deed of property does not necessarily convey deed of mineral rights, which is a costly process in its own right.