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Yep, as usual, people keep whining about "the corporations!" and "the billionaires!" and blaming them for America's problems. The problem isn't them so much, i

Yep, as usual, people keep whining about "the corporations!" and "the billionaires!" and blaming them for America's problems. The problem isn't them so much, it's the regular middle-class voter. The NIMBYs aren't billionaires or big corporations, though some corporations (not most) have been taking advantage of the situation. The problem is that regular, everyday Americans are greedy assholes, and expect (no, demand!) to make a huge profit after buying a house and owning it for a couple of years, and will do whatever they can to ensure this, no matter how it hurts the rest of society.

piva00 3y ago
Housing affordability is not an American issue though, it's happening in any major developed city across the globe. There is something else to it that isn't purely zoning laws, building codes or whatever. My personal opinion is that it's the culmination of policies incentivising housing as an investment vehicle, I know plenty of people who bought a first house when interest rates were low (or negative like here in Sweden), taking a loan as large as possible, which in turn pushed prices up, with the assumption that house prices always grow in value. When they grow in value the plan is to sell the first house, use the gains as a down payment springboard for their next loan on a larger house, rinse and repeat until you've built wealth. Cheap loans inflated the price of housing very fast, building new housing got anchored on that price point, and now loans are not that cheap and developers don't want to build more if prices are crashing. I have no idea how to break this cycle without a crash/bubble popping. If a government intervenes to create cheap housing (such as Sweden's Miljonprogrammet in the 60s-70s [0]) it will crash prices. It's a massive political issue because no one who has bought on inflated prices want to see their assets devalue, no politicians would survive in their career by implementing policies that would crash house prices. Corporate landlords are just another facet of this imbalance, they can play around with their stock of vacant homes to keep inflated prices (something that a private landlord with a few units on mortgage really can't afford to do for long), they have money to scoop up houses selling below their target price, etc. It's happening everywhere I see, everywhere where my friends and family live at, in multiple continents... There's something broken, and the correction is going to be very painful. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Million_Programme https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Million_Programme
- midoridensha 3y ago
  It's not happening everywhere: we don't have this problem in Japan. >Cheap loans inflated the price of housing very fast Interest rates here are 0.5% for primary homes. That's not the problem. The problem is a lack of supply. Over here, there's constant new construction, and zoning codes don't prevent new construction or higher density the way they do in other countries. So houses don't appreciate; they depreciate. So people don't use them as "investments"; they're just a place to live. >Corporate landlords are just another facet of this imbalance, they can play around with their stock of vacant homes to keep inflated prices We have corporate landlords here too. High competition and lots of supply keep prices stable.
  - dehrmann 3y ago
    > we don't have this problem in Japan. This backs up that limited supply is a large part of this. Japan's population has been decreasing for 50 years, so ignoring domestic migration trends, it has enough housing. It's also seen deflation for a long time.
    - midoridensha 3y ago
      You can't ignore domestic migration trends. Tokyo has been steadily increasing in population (except during the pandemic), as have other major cities. People are leaving the small towns and countryside. In any other place, this would result in hugely increasing prices.
  - piva00 3y ago
    > So houses don't appreciate; they depreciate. So people don't use them as "investments"; they're just a place to live. That's the core aspect for it to work in Japan though, it's a massive cultural difference in how houses are viewed as (and how policies were made) compared to other countries. The cultural difference is what blocks policies to increase supply in other countries, to break the culture of seeing a house as an investment and making current prices drop is exactly the friction point that demands some politicians to commit career suicide if they want to change it. I can only see it happening when the social fabric is close to a breaking point due to unaffordability, before that I don't see how Western countries that have pushed for generations housing as an investment to change course.

piva00 3y ago

Housing affordability is not an American issue though, it's happening in any major developed city across the globe. There is something else to it that isn't purely zoning laws, building codes or whatever. My personal opinion is that it's the culmination of policies incentivising housing as an investment vehicle, I know plenty of people who bought a first house when interest rates were low (or negative like here in Sweden), taking a loan as large as possible, which in turn pushed prices up, with the assumption that house prices always grow in value. When they grow in value the plan is to sell the first house, use the gains as a down payment springboard for their next loan on a larger house, rinse and repeat until you've built wealth. Cheap loans inflated the price of housing very fast, building new housing got anchored on that price point, and now loans are not that cheap and developers don't want to build more if prices are crashing. I have no idea how to break this cycle without a crash/bubble popping. If a government intervenes to create cheap housing (such as Sweden's Miljonprogrammet in the 60s-70s [0]) it will crash prices. It's a massive political issue because no one who has bought on inflated prices want to see their assets devalue, no politicians would survive in their career by implementing policies that would crash house prices. Corporate landlords are just another facet of this imbalance, they can play around with their stock of vacant homes to keep inflated prices (something that a private landlord with a few units on mortgage really can't afford to do for long), they have money to scoop up houses selling below their target price, etc. It's happening everywhere I see, everywhere where my friends and family live at, in multiple continents... There's something broken, and the correction is going to be very painful. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Million_Programme https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Million_Programme

midoridensha 3y ago
It's not happening everywhere: we don't have this problem in Japan. >Cheap loans inflated the price of housing very fast Interest rates here are 0.5% for primary homes. That's not the problem. The problem is a lack of supply. Over here, there's constant new construction, and zoning codes don't prevent new construction or higher density the way they do in other countries. So houses don't appreciate; they depreciate. So people don't use them as "investments"; they're just a place to live. >Corporate landlords are just another facet of this imbalance, they can play around with their stock of vacant homes to keep inflated prices We have corporate landlords here too. High competition and lots of supply keep prices stable.
- dehrmann 3y ago
  > we don't have this problem in Japan. This backs up that limited supply is a large part of this. Japan's population has been decreasing for 50 years, so ignoring domestic migration trends, it has enough housing. It's also seen deflation for a long time.
  - midoridensha 3y ago
    You can't ignore domestic migration trends. Tokyo has been steadily increasing in population (except during the pandemic), as have other major cities. People are leaving the small towns and countryside. In any other place, this would result in hugely increasing prices.
- piva00 3y ago
  > So houses don't appreciate; they depreciate. So people don't use them as "investments"; they're just a place to live. That's the core aspect for it to work in Japan though, it's a massive cultural difference in how houses are viewed as (and how policies were made) compared to other countries. The cultural difference is what blocks policies to increase supply in other countries, to break the culture of seeing a house as an investment and making current prices drop is exactly the friction point that demands some politicians to commit career suicide if they want to change it. I can only see it happening when the social fabric is close to a breaking point due to unaffordability, before that I don't see how Western countries that have pushed for generations housing as an investment to change course.