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Because no one wants to buy a house next door to a pink house with the creepy year-round Christmas decorations. That directly affects the valuation on someone's

Because no one wants to buy a house next door to a pink house with the creepy year-round Christmas decorations. That directly affects the valuation on someone's biggest investment they may ever make in life.

maxerickson 5y ago
Treating housing as an investment is a horrible mistake. It's an expensive durable good, policy should be focused on making it cheaper over time. (while maintaining or increasing suitability/utility, not by letting it decay)
- jacob2484 5y ago
  Treating it like an investment IS the prudent thing to do. Is vs. what you want it to be theoretically are 2 different things.
  - maxerickson 5y ago
    What's prudent about it? My argument is that treating housing as an investment drives costs up over time and that at a policy level we should not seek to do that, we should seek to lower the cost of housing (while maintaining quality and so on).
    - ekerstein 5y ago
      All policy decisions aside… At an individual level (in the US), it’s prudent because over the last 50 years homes have been shown to keep their value and beat inflation. For many people it’s a rare chance to accumulate wealth, especially if there is a bubble forming in their market. Therefore, they have an interest in whether their neighbors make decisions that lower their home value.
- sosborn 5y ago
  > Treating housing as an investment is a horrible mistake. In terms of policy I totally agree, but as an individual, nothing has done more for my personal wealth than my real estate transactions. Of course, a lot of that is my location, but in general, real estate (much like stock) goes up.
  - hardolaf 5y ago
    Outside of the last two decades, real estate historically stayed the same price in constant dollars.
    - sosborn 5y ago
      Really depends on location: https://www.hicentral.com/oahu-historical-data.php https://www.hicentral.com/oahu-historical-data.php

maxerickson 5y ago

Treating housing as an investment is a horrible mistake. It's an expensive durable good, policy should be focused on making it cheaper over time. (while maintaining or increasing suitability/utility, not by letting it decay)

jacob2484 5y ago
Treating it like an investment IS the prudent thing to do. Is vs. what you want it to be theoretically are 2 different things.
- maxerickson 5y ago
  What's prudent about it? My argument is that treating housing as an investment drives costs up over time and that at a policy level we should not seek to do that, we should seek to lower the cost of housing (while maintaining quality and so on).
  - ekerstein 5y ago
    All policy decisions aside… At an individual level (in the US), it’s prudent because over the last 50 years homes have been shown to keep their value and beat inflation. For many people it’s a rare chance to accumulate wealth, especially if there is a bubble forming in their market. Therefore, they have an interest in whether their neighbors make decisions that lower their home value.
sosborn 5y ago
> Treating housing as an investment is a horrible mistake. In terms of policy I totally agree, but as an individual, nothing has done more for my personal wealth than my real estate transactions. Of course, a lot of that is my location, but in general, real estate (much like stock) goes up.
- hardolaf 5y ago
  Outside of the last two decades, real estate historically stayed the same price in constant dollars.
  - sosborn 5y ago
    Really depends on location: https://www.hicentral.com/oahu-historical-data.php https://www.hicentral.com/oahu-historical-data.php