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The faculty deal is that stanford owns the land but the faculty member owns the house. They get discounted mortgages, and though they can (or have to if they l
by gumby 4y ago
The faculty deal is that stanford owns the land but the faculty member owns the house. They get discounted mortgages, and though they can (or have to if they leave) sell the house, the only permitted buyers are stanford faculty or a few non-faculty employees. This kind of arrangement (house built on leased land) is common in some places (e.g. London) but pretty unusual in the USA.
So the parents can post their house as collateral.
Non-bail aside: stanford recently changed the terms of those leases so they are only 50 years. This can screw you if you want to retire in your home, but increases housing supply, which is relevant to another HN front page post about zoning.
- Mountain_Skies 4y agoSimilar setups exist for fraternities and sororities. They lease university land for a token amount but own the house that's built on it. In some cases, the university even gives loan guarantees for the mortgage on the house. This makes Greek organizations more financially viable than they otherwise would be and desirable locations near or on campus. In exchange, the university has incredible amount of leverage over the Greek organizations to ensure their compliance with university rules. Of course, some schools are quite lax on this but when something rises to the level of legal proceedings, the university can move swiftly in banning the organization from campus.