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The home you live in is not an investment, you should not see it as one. If the $ value of your house goes down, you can still live it in just fine. If you wan

The home you live in is not an investment, you should not see it as one. If the $ value of your house goes down, you can still live it in just fine. If you want to move, and the overall market is down, you will sell your house for less but you will also buy your new house for less. No matter what, a 100m2 house is still worth a 100m2 house in a similar neighborhood. The only case you should be worried is if only YOUR neighborhood goes down in price while the rest of your city is stable or going up. Or only your city is going down and you want to move to a different city. Anyway - it's still unclear to me how allowing small business in residential area would make the housing prices go down. If anything it would make it go up as having small business in a walking distance is very convenient. Even multi-stories buildings, I see why homeowners don't want them because of their personal confort, but if it becomes the norm I don't see how it would make their property prices go down.

bmitc 4y ago
> The home you live in is not an investment, you should not see it as one. I don’t and didn’t say I did and really need lectured on that. It’s my primary complaint of how people think about the financial aspect of home ownership. I was a happy renting but mainly because I was very lucky and found a landlord who kept my rent below market and only raised it once. That was until I got tired of a revolving door of neighbors and a particularly nasty one, so I chose home ownership primarily for lifestyle. It’s nice to not have a maniac neighbor living above me. Trust me, it’s not by choice that I needed to tie up so much of my worth in a mortgage. I’m not arguing against really anything other than indiscriminately blaming homeowners. Even when I was renting, which so far occurred every year except for one of my adult life, a lot of urban development generally increased rent and prices. As I mentioned elsewhere, a lot of urban designers just want to build, build, build. That’s something I don’t think solves what people think it does. And in general, urban design cannot fix cost of living issues and these conflicts of interests. By the way, moving is a whole other discussion. I couldn’t have afforded my home merely a few months after purchase due to the volatility of interest rates. Tokyo has extensive public transportation and culture and other things that support its density. You don’t get Tokyo in the U.S. by just slapping down apartment buildings, which typically come with parking and traffic demands on the local area.
- bmitc 4y ago
  * don’t need
JKCalhoun 4y ago
Not only do I believe that a person's home is an investment, for many it is their biggest and most important investment (if not, in many cases, their only one). When the kids leave the nest and it comes time to retire, downsizing is the way a home owner will "cash in" on that investment (or, as you suggest, moving to a less expensive community/city/state). I'm sure you know all this but I am confused as to why you say it is not an investment. It is illiquid, to be sure, but it does not depreciate in the way that a car, for example, does. It seems to me no less of an investment than precious metals or stocks (but for the illiquid aspect I mentioned).

bmitc 4y ago

> The home you live in is not an investment, you should not see it as one. I don’t and didn’t say I did and really need lectured on that. It’s my primary complaint of how people think about the financial aspect of home ownership. I was a happy renting but mainly because I was very lucky and found a landlord who kept my rent below market and only raised it once. That was until I got tired of a revolving door of neighbors and a particularly nasty one, so I chose home ownership primarily for lifestyle. It’s nice to not have a maniac neighbor living above me. Trust me, it’s not by choice that I needed to tie up so much of my worth in a mortgage. I’m not arguing against really anything other than indiscriminately blaming homeowners. Even when I was renting, which so far occurred every year except for one of my adult life, a lot of urban development generally increased rent and prices. As I mentioned elsewhere, a lot of urban designers just want to build, build, build. That’s something I don’t think solves what people think it does. And in general, urban design cannot fix cost of living issues and these conflicts of interests. By the way, moving is a whole other discussion. I couldn’t have afforded my home merely a few months after purchase due to the volatility of interest rates. Tokyo has extensive public transportation and culture and other things that support its density. You don’t get Tokyo in the U.S. by just slapping down apartment buildings, which typically come with parking and traffic demands on the local area.

bmitc 4y ago
* don’t need

JKCalhoun 4y ago

Not only do I believe that a person's home is an investment, for many it is their biggest and most important investment (if not, in many cases, their only one). When the kids leave the nest and it comes time to retire, downsizing is the way a home owner will "cash in" on that investment (or, as you suggest, moving to a less expensive community/city/state). I'm sure you know all this but I am confused as to why you say it is not an investment. It is illiquid, to be sure, but it does not depreciate in the way that a car, for example, does. It seems to me no less of an investment than precious metals or stocks (but for the illiquid aspect I mentioned).