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California funding 3% down first time buyer program with $1B a year
- shaburn 4y agoCalifornia is starting one of the most interesting experiments in Real Estate. It is effectively functioning a hedge fund extending 3% down payment mortgages for first time buyer in the state. Huge incentive to pump property values at all cost and pushing much of the risk on the buyers.
- missedthecue 4y agoQuite irritating that so many governments around the world, not only the US, but NZ, Aus, Canada, the UK, and parts of Western Europe continue to believe the answer to the real estate cost problem is juicing demand rather than building out more supply. I wonder how long until the average home is $5 million, the average mortgage term 100 years, with a heavily subsidized 1% down payment, and subsidized interest rate.
- coding123 4y agoGovernment can't force people to build. Unless you want to swap out capitalism (which I assume you do) the builder needs incentive to build. The only incentive to build is active buyers and prices going up.
- superchroma 4y agoThe government can pay and build things itself, however.
- shaburn 4y agoNot a great history here for residential
- superchroma 4y agoIt worked well for Singapore. It can be done, conceptually.
- shaburn 4y agoGreat anecdotal example that only seems to apply to Singapore. See China today for state sponsored high rise outcomes elsewhere.
- superchroma 4y agoChinese culture is completely different; they treat property as a sure-fire growth asset and are generally desperate for secure investments, hence why so many just bought property sight unseen in the middle of nowhere with no housing demand underpinning it. We can use success stories as guidance and failure stories as cautionary tales when devising policy, you know.
- shaburn 4y agoYou want the US to follow policy and investing leads by mainland China?
- shaburn 4y agoUmm in California, some version of the Government is always in the way of the build. Homes also have almost always sold well above building costs.
- trinovantes 4y agoThey could at least stop preventing people that may want to build Reforming zoning laws may not be the panacea but it's a vital first step
- shaburn 4y agoOr they can just functionally ignore them like most laws.