5 ms·

How relevant is this to average people? I.e., seems this only affect the rich?

Aeolun 6y ago
I like how most of HN is probably comfortably within the 1%, but as soon as we start talking about ‘owners of real estate in SF’, we are easily able to call them ‘the rich’, because the wealth is on a completely different level.
- Texasian 6y ago
  Most? You’ve gotta be earning more than 400k to get into the 1%. Top 10% maybe, since that’s around 125-150k.
  - onecommentman 6y ago
    According to this, in 2008 UN researcher determined the 10% threshold was $61K in 2000 dollars. It’s now 2020... https://www.mic.com/articles/2636/compared-to-the-rest-of-the-world-americans-are-all-the-1 https://www.mic.com/articles/2636/compared-to-the-rest-of-th...
  - Aeolun 6y ago
    That’s a very US centric view.
- nemothekid 6y ago
  Most of HN is in the 1%? Maybe globally, but I doubt most of HN is in the 1% of America. A couple of two, both making $200k/year is outside the 1%.
quickthrower2 6y ago
It might be a canary for the general state of the economy. It might not though!
patrickthebold 6y ago
Depends on if it totally crashes the economy or not. It's not like 2007 recession only affected mortgage lenders.
refurb 6y ago
There are no economic islands. Office space is vacant, property prices drop, tax revenue drop, city services get reduced.
TrackerFF 6y ago
If anything, average people are affected more. When REITs and the like lose money, at least those losses are tied up to their company. Worst case, they go bust - but their owners aren't personally responsible for the losses. Now, imagine being some average tech-Joe that bought a house for $2M last year (almost entirely on a mortgage), the job market goes to sh!t, and subsequently the housing market follows after. You're forced to sell, and take a 20% loss - selling it for $1.6M You're now $400k in the red. That's a massive debt to carry around, if you're not able to continue in some high-earning job. This is something you (unfortunately) see in cities that are heavily affected by boom/bust cycles. Price volatility can be a real killer if you've stretched your resources to the max, even if the market rebounds. Solvency can be a killer. (But as for why this could affect average people - I'd imagine there being some correlation between business real-estate, and private real-estate. The general real-estate market has a big market psychology component to it. So hysteria in one market could very well transition to another)

I like how most of HN is probably comfortably within the 1%, but as soon as we start talking about ‘owners of real estate in SF’, we are easily able to call them ‘the rich’, because the wealth is on a completely different level.

Texasian 6y ago
Most? You’ve gotta be earning more than 400k to get into the 1%. Top 10% maybe, since that’s around 125-150k.
- onecommentman 6y ago
  According to this, in 2008 UN researcher determined the 10% threshold was $61K in 2000 dollars. It’s now 2020... https://www.mic.com/articles/2636/compared-to-the-rest-of-the-world-americans-are-all-the-1 https://www.mic.com/articles/2636/compared-to-the-rest-of-th...
- Aeolun 6y ago
  That’s a very US centric view.
nemothekid 6y ago
Most of HN is in the 1%? Maybe globally, but I doubt most of HN is in the 1% of America. A couple of two, both making $200k/year is outside the 1%.

quickthrower2 6y ago

It might be a canary for the general state of the economy. It might not though!

patrickthebold 6y ago

Depends on if it totally crashes the economy or not. It's not like 2007 recession only affected mortgage lenders.

refurb 6y ago

There are no economic islands. Office space is vacant, property prices drop, tax revenue drop, city services get reduced.

TrackerFF 6y ago

If anything, average people are affected more. When REITs and the like lose money, at least those losses are tied up to their company. Worst case, they go bust - but their owners aren't personally responsible for the losses. Now, imagine being some average tech-Joe that bought a house for $2M last year (almost entirely on a mortgage), the job market goes to sh!t, and subsequently the housing market follows after. You're forced to sell, and take a 20% loss - selling it for $1.6M You're now $400k in the red. That's a massive debt to carry around, if you're not able to continue in some high-earning job. This is something you (unfortunately) see in cities that are heavily affected by boom/bust cycles. Price volatility can be a real killer if you've stretched your resources to the max, even if the market rebounds. Solvency can be a killer. (But as for why this could affect average people - I'd imagine there being some correlation between business real-estate, and private real-estate. The general real-estate market has a big market psychology component to it. So hysteria in one market could very well transition to another)