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This will help out home prices in a lot of lower priced markets, but do little in higher priced markets. In the Bay Area, many houses are bought up by non-occu

This will help out home prices in a lot of lower priced markets, but do little in higher priced markets. In the Bay Area, many houses are bought up by non-occupying internationals. I've been in a couple of such houses. It's bizarre walking into a $5M+ hilltop mansion that's completely bare inside except for a token "student" living out of one room.

mattmaroon 10mo ago
Banning people from other countries buying home is both more sensible and more practical than this, which is why very many countries do it.
- 63 10mo ago
  "From" other countries is overly broad and I assume not what you intended. I am actually interested though in the idea of legislating how frequently home owners have to actually be within range of the home, for example. A friend has had a hell of a time with a landlord in Malaysia who's never seen the property.
  - linuxftw 10mo ago
    Many countries prohibit non-citizens from owning any real estate or businesses at all, even if they have a long-term resident status. Thailand is one example. Ownership is limited to 49%, a local partner must own at least 51%.
    - rsanek 10mo ago
      does that work out in their favor in the end? seems like that would really deter investment in the country. I'm not familiar with any large thai corporations.
  - charcircuit 10mo ago
    Someone from another country taking ownership of land in your country is practically an invasion.
  - mattmaroon 10mo ago
    They do it by citizenship, and you might be surprised how many investment properties are vacant homes, but I’m not necessarily advocating for this in any case. The real cure would just be right to build laws. The problem is, you can’t do that at the federal level, and the people who vote at the local level are the homeowners who benefit from housing restrictions. The federal government has a very difficult task. They want to make home prices basically stay flat for a long time, and they have limited tools with which to do it since they can’t do the one thing every economist agrees would solve the problem.
    - presentation 9mo ago
      Could homeowners be convinced with truckloads of money? As in, yes if you increase density beyond demand the value of each individual home decreases, but the value of the land dramatically increases if suddenly your single family home with a lawn could be converted to a 9 story tower renting out units to 20+ households with infrastructure spending diverted to your area to improve it. Are landowners unaware or just do not care about the profit potential?
      - mattmaroon 9mo ago
        I just don’t think it works that way. The developers don’t buy existing homes, they buy farms and golf courses and large vacant tracts. They don’t frequently just like buy 4 homes and put 20 where they had been. Most people have most of their money tied up in their home equity and would lose an amount that hurts
  - presentation 9mo ago
    Citizenship or long term visa would immediately cut out 90% of the foreign speculators I imagine.
- snihalani 9mo ago
  I'm not sure we'll get china to buy our debt if we do this related to: Warren Buffett's Thriftville
- tylergetsay 9mo ago
  Its even done in some US territories!
xnx 10mo ago
Kind of great to have someone paying property taxes and using minimal city resources.
- ceejayoz 10mo ago
  Except land is one of a city's most important resources, and they often aren't paying much property tax (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978_California_Proposition_13 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978_California_Proposition_13).
- Olympicene 10mo ago
  Feel like that would be cancelled out by the opportunity cost of high network individuals not spending in the area.
- bballer 9mo ago
  Do the math of what it costs a city per resident - napkin math it, total tax intake divided by population. Now compare that to the additional taxes and money that person (who is wealthy) is not injecting into your city. So out of touch to think the net spend of a gov directly on an individual would be worth sacrificing all of that additional capital injected to your other neighbors and their businesses.
- IncreasePosts 9mo ago
  Yes but the area would collect far more revenue overall if an individual of commensurate means was actually dwelling within the dwelling.
klipklop 10mo ago
> many houses are bought up by non-occupying internationals. Maybe they are next?
logicalmind 10mo ago
It's the same in Southern California. When I sold my first starter home it was bought by internationals to rent. There were already multiple homes on the block owned by foreign interests. And at the new home I moved into, the house next door is owned by foreign interests and rented out to the highest bidder. It makes it extremely difficult to get anything done that involves shared areas (like common fence or overhanging trees) because the owner is essentially unavailable and doesn't speak english. Not to mention that every year or so we have to deal with renters who are minimally vetted. We've had a group of 5 college kids turn the place into a frat house once. There is also a property management company involved, but they can't get in contact with the owner either. In my experience, this seems to be a bigger issue than wall street investors.
mgraczyk 9mo ago
What is the mechanism that you believe would cause this to lower home prices? Early signals are that the announcement alone will increase prices

mattmaroon 10mo ago

Banning people from other countries buying home is both more sensible and more practical than this, which is why very many countries do it.

63 10mo ago
"From" other countries is overly broad and I assume not what you intended. I am actually interested though in the idea of legislating how frequently home owners have to actually be within range of the home, for example. A friend has had a hell of a time with a landlord in Malaysia who's never seen the property.
- linuxftw 10mo ago
  Many countries prohibit non-citizens from owning any real estate or businesses at all, even if they have a long-term resident status. Thailand is one example. Ownership is limited to 49%, a local partner must own at least 51%.
  - rsanek 10mo ago
    does that work out in their favor in the end? seems like that would really deter investment in the country. I'm not familiar with any large thai corporations.
- charcircuit 10mo ago
  Someone from another country taking ownership of land in your country is practically an invasion.
- mattmaroon 10mo ago
  They do it by citizenship, and you might be surprised how many investment properties are vacant homes, but I’m not necessarily advocating for this in any case. The real cure would just be right to build laws. The problem is, you can’t do that at the federal level, and the people who vote at the local level are the homeowners who benefit from housing restrictions. The federal government has a very difficult task. They want to make home prices basically stay flat for a long time, and they have limited tools with which to do it since they can’t do the one thing every economist agrees would solve the problem.
  - presentation 9mo ago
    Could homeowners be convinced with truckloads of money? As in, yes if you increase density beyond demand the value of each individual home decreases, but the value of the land dramatically increases if suddenly your single family home with a lawn could be converted to a 9 story tower renting out units to 20+ households with infrastructure spending diverted to your area to improve it. Are landowners unaware or just do not care about the profit potential?
    - mattmaroon 9mo ago
      I just don’t think it works that way. The developers don’t buy existing homes, they buy farms and golf courses and large vacant tracts. They don’t frequently just like buy 4 homes and put 20 where they had been. Most people have most of their money tied up in their home equity and would lose an amount that hurts
- presentation 9mo ago
  Citizenship or long term visa would immediately cut out 90% of the foreign speculators I imagine.
snihalani 9mo ago
I'm not sure we'll get china to buy our debt if we do this related to: Warren Buffett's Thriftville
tylergetsay 9mo ago
Its even done in some US territories!

xnx 10mo ago

Kind of great to have someone paying property taxes and using minimal city resources.

ceejayoz 10mo ago
Except land is one of a city's most important resources, and they often aren't paying much property tax (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978_California_Proposition_13 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978_California_Proposition_13).
Olympicene 10mo ago
Feel like that would be cancelled out by the opportunity cost of high network individuals not spending in the area.
bballer 9mo ago
Do the math of what it costs a city per resident - napkin math it, total tax intake divided by population. Now compare that to the additional taxes and money that person (who is wealthy) is not injecting into your city. So out of touch to think the net spend of a gov directly on an individual would be worth sacrificing all of that additional capital injected to your other neighbors and their businesses.
IncreasePosts 9mo ago
Yes but the area would collect far more revenue overall if an individual of commensurate means was actually dwelling within the dwelling.

klipklop 10mo ago

> many houses are bought up by non-occupying internationals. Maybe they are next?

logicalmind 10mo ago

It's the same in Southern California. When I sold my first starter home it was bought by internationals to rent. There were already multiple homes on the block owned by foreign interests. And at the new home I moved into, the house next door is owned by foreign interests and rented out to the highest bidder. It makes it extremely difficult to get anything done that involves shared areas (like common fence or overhanging trees) because the owner is essentially unavailable and doesn't speak english. Not to mention that every year or so we have to deal with renters who are minimally vetted. We've had a group of 5 college kids turn the place into a frat house once. There is also a property management company involved, but they can't get in contact with the owner either. In my experience, this seems to be a bigger issue than wall street investors.

mgraczyk 9mo ago

What is the mechanism that you believe would cause this to lower home prices? Early signals are that the announcement alone will increase prices