fjsolwmv (u/fjsolwmv)

fjsolwmv commented on A Growing Problem in Real Estate: Too Many Too Big Houses wsj.com/articles/a-growin... · Posted by u/ryan_j_naughton

Balgair · 6 years ago

True! We've decided to be nimble, and it does take a toll (no pool tables, no big patio furniture, smaller couches, etc). But saving the cash is worth it to us. 12% on 1000k/mo rent comes out to an extra 1440/year that could be saved. To us, such a thing is worth the weekend of moving hell.

fjsolwmv · 6 years ago

$1440/yr seems hardly worth the effort for he hassle and cost of moving every year. Compounding rent increase over years makes it substantial.

I suppose you don't have kids though, which may simplify things.

fjsolwmv commented on A Growing Problem in Real Estate: Too Many Too Big Houses wsj.com/articles/a-growin... · Posted by u/ryan_j_naughton

zcid · 6 years ago

We really need some stronger regulation on renting.

I'd like something along the lines of federal rent control. Limit the rent that can be charged to reduce the profitability of buying up house after house. This would be unpopular with the current owners of homes as it would lower property values, but over time they would remain much more stable.

fjsolwmv · 6 years ago

Much simpler would be to raise property taxes to a reasonable level and redistribute that via a citizens' dividend /UBI. That gives you free market efficiency with no rent-seeking non-local owners sucking away the wealth, only reasonable fees for management and liquidity services.

fjsolwmv commented on A Growing Problem in Real Estate: Too Many Too Big Houses wsj.com/articles/a-growin... · Posted by u/ryan_j_naughton

scarface74 · 6 years ago

It depends on the neighborhood and unfortunately the racial and the economic makeup of the neighborhood.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesleadershipforum/2012/12/1...

Anecdotally speaking, I bought a house in a new minority subdivision in 2003 brand new build. The value went up by about $40K by 2008, crashed to $40K less than I bought it, and today it’s still worth $4K less than I bought it in 2003. It’s still a nice neighborhood so it hasn’t gone “downhill”.

Being the numbers oriented, unemotional person that I am, I did a strategic default in 2012 realizing that I could be eligible for an FHA 3.5% down loan in 3 years after the foreclosure, applied and received a loan exactly three years later and had a house built in a new subdivision in a predominantly White neighborhood. The value of the house has gone up $70K in 3 years and a house with basically the same floor plan is being sold for $70K more than mine was 3 years ago. .

And to hopefully stave off some of the expected replies:

- No the world shouldn’t work like that. But to paraphrase Buffett, “the world can stay racist longer than I can stay solvent”.

- No I’m not racist and it’s not that “I don’t want to be around Black people”. I am Black.

- Yes I know “White Flight” is a real phenomenon. But there is also a well studied “tipping point” when that occurs. I don’t see that tipping point happening.

fjsolwmv · 6 years ago

If you live in your house instead of paying transaction costs to sell, lower property value just means lower property taxes and a more prosocial working class neighbors.

fjsolwmv commented on A Growing Problem in Real Estate: Too Many Too Big Houses wsj.com/articles/a-growin... · Posted by u/ryan_j_naughton

hn_throwaway_99 · 6 years ago

One of the trends that I can only hope continues is getting rid of this idea that home ownership (especially single family home ownership) is the American dream.

I live in and own a detached single family home (was a compromise with my spouse) and to be honest, I hate it. I hate having to take care of the yard, to deal with unreliable tradespeople when things break, to deal with the huge expense of minor home repairs - and this is even after outsourcing as much of that work as possible.

Compare that to renting an apartment, which I loved. If something broke, I just called the super, and that was that. This ridiculous idea that renting is "throwing money away" is absurd. I'm paying someone to deal with all the shit I absolutely don't want to deal with, and more importantly I'm paying for the freedom to easily up and move if something else fits my fancy.

fjsolwmv · 6 years ago

You are conflating home ownership with house ownership. You can buy a condo and pay someone to maintain it for you, just as your apartment landlord can hire unreliable managers tradesworkers to fail to fix your water heater.

fjsolwmv commented on Ask HN: What are the signs that you have a great manager? · Posted by u/rahulskn86

SkyBelow · 6 years ago

>A leader is best when people barely know that he exists, not so good when people obey and acclaim him, worst when they despise him. Fail to honor people, They fail to honor you. But of a good leader, who talks little, when his work is done, his aims fulfilled, they will all say, "We did this ourselves."

I see a potential problem here. This may be true if you have one iteration of needing a leader. But if you have something that needs a leader on a repeating basis, is this really sustainable? It is like good IT that is so good their budget gets cut for lack of visibility.

fjsolwmv · 6 years ago

It works if the leader is a birthright aristocrat leader who has no need to justify his position, but still wants to be good.

The ancient wisdom didn't account for the politicking of corporations.

fjsolwmv commented on Airbnb likely removed 31,000 homes from Canada’s rental market, study finds theglobeandmail.com/canad... · Posted by u/bendauphinee

peterwwillis · 6 years ago

Replacing cheap hotels with Airbnbs is like replacing buses with cars. Pretty soon you run out of room on the road. The problem isn't that we aren't building more roads or cars, the problem is the cars are space-inefficient. By using buses, we decrease the amount of road used per person, which eases congestion, and lowers cost (buses are much more cost-effective per person per mile than cars). So we don't need more houses, we need more (and cheaper) hotels. This would reduce demand for Airbnb, and thus reduce the number of homes bought explicitly to rent out.

But of course, who's going to pay for them and run them well? The nice thing about Airbnb is it created a competitive market, mechanisms to eliminate bad actors, customer service, price adjustments, insurance, and so on. You wouldn't get those things with a couple of hyper-efficient hotels. So it almost seems like we need the state to build the structure, and then allow people to bid on owning the rooms, and then renting them out on Airbnb. That way there could still be competition that drives all the useful features of Airbnb, but in a much more efficient form than the completely inefficient use of land that buying houses results in.

fjsolwmv · 6 years ago

Airbnb doesn't replace cheapo hotels. It replaces expensive hotels. People go to airbnbs because hotels are too expensive for them.

fjsolwmv commented on Airbnb likely removed 31,000 homes from Canada’s rental market, study finds theglobeandmail.com/canad... · Posted by u/bendauphinee

libraryatnight · 6 years ago

It's also things like Invitation Homes. They buy hundreds of thousands of houses and charge really high rents (even in areas where it makes you scratch your head how they can charge that much), they also have a guaranteed 5-6% rent increase each year you stay. So renting from them is never a long term possibility, you will always eventually hit a point where the rents just too high and will be forced to move.

fjsolwmv · 6 years ago

It is more likely that IH knows the rental market price and you don't. 5% growth per year is totally normal in desirable areas . It's lower than real estate appreciation.

fjsolwmv commented on Airbnb likely removed 31,000 homes from Canada’s rental market, study finds theglobeandmail.com/canad... · Posted by u/bendauphinee

britch · 6 years ago

I think it's both. There's a few different situations with AirBnb

1 We had surplus housing. AirBnB would (probably) be fine from an availability perspective.

2 We have adequate housing. AirBnB would still not be good. A good portion of the available places for long term rent would be taken up by short term tenants and would drive up prices.

3 We have not enough housing. AirBnB same effects as 2, but even more so.

It seems to me that we live in situation 3. We need to build housing AND curb the excesses AirBnB. Just building more housing won't fix the problem. Just banning AirBnB won't suddenly give us an adequate housing supply.

fjsolwmv · 6 years ago

If you had surplus housing, Airbnb would not exist because there is no point.

fjsolwmv commented on Airbnb likely removed 31,000 homes from Canada’s rental market, study finds theglobeandmail.com/canad... · Posted by u/bendauphinee

seanmcdirmid · 6 years ago

Name one mega city with lots of housing where the prices have actually gone down. It isn't rocket science: add more supply in a hot area, it attracts more demand. Kind of like how building wider highways doesn't really do anything for traffic jams.

Most cities would like to keep their growth in check somehow so they have the appropriate infrastructure ready for it. Things that distort that (AirBNB, Chinese speculators, etc...) throw all of that off.

fjsolwmv · 6 years ago

Chinese speculators reduce growth by keeping property vacant. Airbnb doesn't affect growth.

House prices are not growth, and they generate the tax revenue that you say helps get the infrastructure ready.

fjsolwmv commented on Airbnb likely removed 31,000 homes from Canada’s rental market, study finds theglobeandmail.com/canad... · Posted by u/bendauphinee

sfsfsf6666 · 6 years ago

It's long term renters that increase the probability of issues/squatting/ill-maintenance cropping up, and generally start a long term degradation of the neighborhood. Long term renters also seem to buy ridiculously overpowered audio systems, and run them in such a way that one can hear the thump-thump bass, a block away. Not to mention they often pack like sardines into a place, and then you have 4 or 5 autos per residence.

fjsolwmv · 6 years ago

You are describing young, single people, not long-term renters.