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Geez, we’ll do anything but build more housing. But seriously, anything that increases demand, like making it easier to buy a house using your 401k just increa

Geez, we’ll do anything but build more housing. But seriously, anything that increases demand, like making it easier to buy a house using your 401k just increases house prices. Where are all the “rent control is bad economics” folks now?

alephnerd 9mo ago
> Where are all the “rent control is bad economics” folks now Complaining about zoning even though in a large portion of America, zoning is orthogonal to housing affordability [0] and supply, especially because no bank wants to finance residential real estate anymore - they'd all rather invest in commercial real estate which has better and more consistent returns (logistics parks, data centers, factories during CHIPS and IRA) [1]. [0] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42543143 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42543143 [1] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42544296 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42544296
Teknomadix 9mo ago
Since nothing is finalized, the same framework could just as plausibly be extended beyond buying existing homes to using 401(k) funds as a down payment toward building a new one, which would be especially relevant for median-income buyers priced out of tight resale markets but able to access land or lower-cost construction pathways; in that version, retirement savings could seed new housing supply rather than just bid up existing stock, and any future “re-vesting” mechanism that’s been hinted at could theoretically allow part of the home’s appreciated value, or structured repayments tied to equity growth, to flow back into the retirement account over time, reframing the withdrawal less as a permanent depletion and more as a reallocation from paper assets into a productive, shelter-providing one that later migrates back into long-term retirement capital. This is a very smart economic policy reform.

alephnerd 9mo ago

> Where are all the “rent control is bad economics” folks now Complaining about zoning even though in a large portion of America, zoning is orthogonal to housing affordability [0] and supply, especially because no bank wants to finance residential real estate anymore - they'd all rather invest in commercial real estate which has better and more consistent returns (logistics parks, data centers, factories during CHIPS and IRA) [1]. [0] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42543143 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42543143 [1] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42544296 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42544296

Teknomadix 9mo ago

Since nothing is finalized, the same framework could just as plausibly be extended beyond buying existing homes to using 401(k) funds as a down payment toward building a new one, which would be especially relevant for median-income buyers priced out of tight resale markets but able to access land or lower-cost construction pathways; in that version, retirement savings could seed new housing supply rather than just bid up existing stock, and any future “re-vesting” mechanism that’s been hinted at could theoretically allow part of the home’s appreciated value, or structured repayments tied to equity growth, to flow back into the retirement account over time, reframing the withdrawal less as a permanent depletion and more as a reallocation from paper assets into a productive, shelter-providing one that later migrates back into long-term retirement capital. This is a very smart economic policy reform.