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Let's just address the elephant in the room: the housing market is NOT booming out of control everywhere.
You want affordable housing, it's available in the red areas of the country in droves.
Blue cities, Democratic controlled areas, where the tech economy is going nuts, are the only places where housing is getting unobtainable for the middle class. Why is that? Is it because they are on the coasts and have beautiful weather? Maybe. But then explain Austin. Or DC. Or the Colorado metros.
The fact is that if the other cities would pull up their britches and enter the current decade, care about their environment and quality of life for their citizens regardless of race/religion/sexual orientation or political leaning, they could be the next Austin. The next Charlotte. The next Nashville.
There is plenty of land and plenty of housing in America. It doesn't have to be expensive. Just don't drive educated, tolerant Americans and companies to a handful of free-thinking and progressive metros, and you have the solution to the affordability crisis right there.
well, that's one fairly-partisan way to think about it. Is not the common denominator (except for DC) the "tech sector"? What comes first - the employee, or the employer? The government perspective, or the citizens that vote for it?
38k is more like $18 an hour...I thought we were talking about $15.
And what looks good on paper, isn't always the case in reality. My daughter is in the $16 an hour range, works overtime and we see how tough it is for her. She rents. Home ownership comes with a lot more responsibilities than just making the payment.
$38K for a young professional (which are most often salaried) or for a couple (2 incomes) that are hourly wage.
I'm talking about people that don't have jobs with a sporadic history of working at all. I'm not talking about this being mandatory, this would be for people who have never launched. A safety net for them.
That is one proposal that better die on the vine. Frankly, whoever cooked it up shows they have no clue about economics. Well, clueless and somehow want to be more progressive than Obama and fulfill a Biden claim that he'd be the most progressive POTUS ever. "What did Obama do here? OK,let's do more!"
Come on!
It is genius to encourage people that can't afford homes to buy into a housing market that is surging at the top of its peak ($$$$$) before the economic recession hits and those same people lose jobs or don't get raises. (Save some money to pick up a foreclosure before Biden's term is over)
as well as I understand residential real estate, I don't think I understand what you're saying.
"Affected" homeowners, who find a higher-density property built next to theirs, should get some type of lowered property value, tax rate, or a % discount on their property taxes?
Help me out.
It would be a rebate on property taxes, similar to concept NJ Homestead Rebate program.
However, it wouldn't necessarily be income and/or age based. In my area, the largest percentage of my property tax is school tax. So homeowners would be eligible for an annual rebate on these taxes based on the increased tax base due to higher-density housing. THe amount of rebate would be subject to change based on the budget. Note the NJ rebate program is not available to rental/ investment properties.
THe concept is that existing primary homeowners would financially benefit from higher-density housing via the tax rebate program.
THe issue becomes is the local government willing to issue rebates vs. a tax revenue grab?
The basic problem is this... housing prices have grown completely beyond even the highest level middle class to comfortably afford.
Sure there are some cheap houses in certain areas of the USA but with the exodus from higher living areas... there is great pressure on prices there as well.
IMHO it doesn't take a genius to see we will soon hit a point where you cannot reasonably purchase a home in the USA for anyone but the most rich.
At the same time, we cannot just unilaterally force people to sell at lower prices because they would lose money.
Is there anything that can be done to reset prices to reasonable levels without destroying the savings of most of he USA?
It's weird because in the neighborhood I now own my home, just like 7 years ago I saw trashy fixer-uppers for $15-30K.
I don't see fixer-uppers for that price these days...if you see fixer-uppers even in this neighborhood, they must be getting snatched right away because I don't see many of them. I think bare minimum you will find one for is like $50k.
This country has gone down the toilet since liberalism has infected it. 50 years ago, before liberals sunk their claws into it, you could buy a home with like two years' salary. Liberals have destroyed this nation in every conceivable way.
I can explain DC... because it's close to the federal government. We have a lot of tech companies here that want or are government contractors. Aside from the federal government, companies like the educational level of the populace here too. It's one of the reasons Amazon relocated. It's like a snowball effect. We have a lot of highly trained and well educated people here, which draws companies, which draws jobs, which draws more people, which draws companies, etc.
The weather isn't all that bad either. The seasons are nice and not too extreme here (I lived in Southern California for a while and while it can be nice, it gets monotonous to me). I never understood why people move for weather. But to each his own I guess. We also aren't that far from the beach and mountains... depending on your poison.
I am getting priced out of my house though and I really don't like living here. It's just too crowded for my liking and my taxes keep going up as my property value goes up. So does my HOA fees. Since the pandemic, I've been telecommuting and got permission from my boss to continue after the pandemic is over.
I plan to move out of the area, back to a rural area, back home. Literally. And I mean literally. My mom is a widow with Parkinson's and I am a single mom (divorced) with a teenager going to college soon and her dad is hot and cold about helping to pay for college. Mom needs someone to move in and help her and I can afford only two of the three: 1) My house, 2) Saving for retirement, 3) Paying for college so my daughter is drowning in loans when she graduates.
Plus, I would love to move back home. I love the open spaces, less people, and I have a lot of family and friends back home. I only live in the DC area because my ex's job was here and then, after we divorced, we wanted to stay close geographically for our daughter's sake. Once she graduates and is off to college, there is no reason for me to stay where I am.
Selling my house and taking that money and investing it, then moving in with mom to help her and to free up money for my daughter's college is a win-win for all three of us.
If the housing market does come down, I selfishly hope it takes a year and a half... after I plan to sell my house and move out of the DC area.
But home prices here are crazy. I bought my townhouse for about $390K 11 years ago. Houses in my neighborhood (same model as mine) are selling for $560K now. And it’s not like I own a big house or a mini mansion either. I own a basic townhouse built in the mid-1980s.
I couldn't afford to by my house now even if I wanted to. My salary has gone up, but not as much as housing. And just because I know someone will ask, I bought the house after the divorce so the lack of being able to afford it doesn't have anything to do with it being bought with two salaries from the start. My ex and I sold our joint house and then each bought our own houses about 1-2 years after we split up.
I owe $256K on my house as of today. I stand to make a nice little nest egg to drop into a total stock market fund when I sell. It can sit there for a decade or so until I am done taking care of mom and it's time for me to find a house of my own again. If I choose to buy again (but that's another thread).
Have you ever refinanced? If not, and it's going to be a year+, it could still be worthwhile.
DC officially dropped like a rock (32%) beginning in April 2006 but started back up basically when Obama took office (April 2009) - a large new crop of "politicians" moved in, but just starting recovery that quickly while the rest of the nation went down is surprising. Even LA & San Fran (and "all R/E starts in CA") bumbled along until spring 2007.
$38K for a young professional (which are most often salaried) or for a couple (2 incomes) that are hourly wage.
My original post :
Originally Posted by scarabchuck
Same here in the metro Detroit area. We sold a nice 1000 sq ft starter home last year for $145k. It needed a few minor cosmetic things. It had new windows, furnace/air, and roof.
Yeah, sorry. Minimum wage job earners are going to have a hard time with that . More incentive to attain a skill.
So, I thought we were talking about minimum wage earners....now it's young professionals and couples. My mistake.
38k is more like $18 an hour...I thought we were talking about $15.
And what looks good on paper, isn't always the case in reality. My daughter is in the $16 an hour range, works overtime and we see how tough it is for her. She rents. Home ownership comes with a lot more responsibilities than just making the payment.
Exactly, many people are not cut out for home ownership.
Exactly, many people are not cut out for home ownership.
Agreed. It is unfortunate for them though, they will miss out on a lot of wealth building.
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