Yes we’ve discussed zoning restriction in the real estate thread before. They’re a disaster and def make things impossible to expand supply. Commercial areas need to be rezoned for residential imo so more units can be built.
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I’ve thought this since the beginning of Covid. The issue is that in a lot of areas it is cost prohibitive to convert old office to housing because of the plumbing and electrical requirements in housing being exponentially more cumbersome than office. In our last offices there was one central restroom area surrounded by office for 50 people and the building is designed this way from floors 2-10. It is not designed in a manner that is conducive to housing, even though that same building is now only 20% occupied.
There will be a lot of office foreclosures coming and if someone could figure out how to convert at a reasonable cost it would be extremely beneficial.
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This is annoying. I just got hit with a tariff on my wine from Italy. I bought it on my honeymoon in Italy on March 25th before the tariffs were even a thing. But since it was a small vineyard, the shipping wasn’t quick enough.
Gotta love paying more in taxes that I’ll never see a dime of benefit from. I really hope I’m wrong and that there’s some grand plan no one is sharing with all of us. But I don’t see how this helps the economy in anything outside of a very idealistic and optimistic scenario.
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This might work in big cities/metropolitan areas, but what about smaller towns where there is no such office space?
How is this going to help close the home-ownership affordability gap? Home prices are dictated by market conditions. I am all for a free market economy, but there needs to be more incentives for new homeowners.
I remember taking advantage of FHA financing (only put down 3.5%) when I bought my first home nearly 15 years ago.
That 3.5% is a hell of a lot higher today than it was 15 years ago.
And so are the rates.
More incentives for new home owners just encourages people to buy more houses/makes those existing homes effectively cheaper. This is tantamount to giving people more dollars to deal with high prices. A poor solution which actually pours fuel on the fire.
That isn’t really addressing the core issue. I think the opposite frankly, there is too much incentives for home ownership and RE investing, not too little. Most folks have a large chunk of their net worth tied up in their houses which is an ineffective paradigm that doesn’t benefit anyone.
Say it with me, a home is a consumption choice, not an investment.
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Because it will increase supply. Not everyone wants a sfr.
Also this is 2.5 hours to Boston. Far yes but I know people that commute to nyc from Philly a couple times a week. Gotta do what you gotta do when you’re trying to climb the ladder, raise a fam etc. Def affordable areas I didn’t even need to look for more than 30 seconds.
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Carvana has in the past week started sending me increased offers on cars I inquired about months ago. The Hornet RT I appraised 4 months ago has gone up 9% in just the past month. They provide you with a handy graph showing change in value. I could actually flip now for a small profit. All in all I don’t think used car prices going up is going to help the economy much.
Well, that house only cost me about $200k back in 2011. If I recall, my mortgage rate was 4.75% (or somewhere in that range) for a 30-year fixed rate. I had to pay PMI for a few years, but eventually refinanced to get rid of it.
We can agree to disagree here. FWIW, I am referring to primary residences and first time homebuyers.
Apart from the tax deductions that were reduced during the current president’s first term, what incentives are you referring to?
I don’t own any income property, btw.
I used to commute 2 hours one way (30 minutes by car and 1.5 hours by train) into Boston at least 4 days a week. That was right before Covid - not complaining here, but that was my reality.
That’s why I moved to the country away from the city, where housing was becoming unaffordable.
You will definitely find affordable homes in rural communities or small towns, such as Oxford, Brookfield, Gardner, Oakham, New Braintree, or Springfield MA. Or even further West in the Berkshires. However, there are not a lot of good paying jobs in those communities. There are a lot of small farms around me. I try to support local businesses, but some are struggling to stay open even before talk of these tariffs.
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Mortgage interest being deductible and insane BS depreciation schemes that facilitate ridiculous RE returns for starters.
Just need to increase supply. My whole point is you’re basically saying stuff is too expensive, so the government should subsidize it with tax breaks and etc, which just drives up the cost further. That just subsidizes demand and makes the problem worse. That is equivalent to “ inflation is too high, quick send out every checks to help em out.”
You have to fundamentally change the supply. Also I don’t really see a logical reason a first time home owner should get any preferential treatment over anyone else.
Education isn’t that dissimilar. We continue to dissociate people from the cost of their educations by infinitely deferring payments and all these overly generous repayment plans where you can make $0 payments that count. People are able to wait literal years after obtaining employment before they recertify their incomes and have these 0 payments go away . Just infinitely disassociating supply and demand which of course leads to imbalances. Basically encouraging people to take out excess loans bc of how overly generous and mismanaged the repayment programs are.
More subsidy is not the answer IMO
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Or up to 4 hours if you want to be in Boston for 9AM…
It’s no existence anyone actually wants
As covered, re-zoning is what is needed, eveyone is a NIMBY thought so will take a lot to ever push through
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Some folks have no idea how bad the commute can get when coming from Western/Central MA and getting on the (Mass)Pike during morning rush hour traffic. It could take 2.5+ hours one-way, depending on what time you leave your house. I’ve done it a few times and it is no fun.
With regards to housing in general, re-zoning and building new homes might help address the supply issue. However, it still does not address the affordability issue. There are new house being built near me, and they are nowhere near affordable in today’s market.
As far as my prediction for the next few months, we shall see what happens with tariffs (once 90 days has passed) and how car manufacturers plan to deal with it.
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No trade deals so far as administration tries to get somebody to be the “first mover”
Bessent’s comments come as Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said he was in no rush to agree to a deal with the U.S. as trade negotiations kick off in-person in Washington, D.C., this week—perhaps not the reaction Trump was looking for when he imposed a 24% “reciprocal” hike on the country on April 2.
“We may fail if we rush, and I don’t think it’s good to compromise a lot in order to just get the negotiations done,” Ishiba said
The Shart of the Deal.
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It’s called sacrifice. Rent a shithole room for a couple nights a week. Get a 1br apt and let your kids sleep in your room or share a room/living room for a couple years. Everyone’s wants the world handed to them immediately. God forbid what your friends will think…I dunno I always lived on like 25% of my income and continue to do around the same now. The key is finding a partner that shares the same goals/values and doesn’t care what others think and doesn’t try to keep up. Social media is a major issue in this respect.
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I hope you are not making assumptions here.
When I was younger and didn’t have much, I rented a room for $400/month. I had roommates, but it was close to public transportation, clean, and affordable.
Everyone’s situation is different.
My social media presence constitutes of LinkedIn (for job & professional networking), LH, and Instagram (less than 1 year). I deactivated my FB account around 2016 - it is still deactivated.
I never had an X account, nor did I have one for Tik-Tok. I do watch YT videos here and there, but I try to avoid social media. I am not trying to keep up with anyone.
People in the Bay Area/Central Valley and SoCal invented the 3 hr one way commute 40 years ago just to maintain “affordable” housing.
For some it still exists although then and now “affordable” has always been debatable.
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The point is you shouldn’t have to be making these kind of sacrifices, only for your next generation to all have to do the same thing
Not being able to afford somewhere to live anywhere near where you can make a living, is not a problem caused by social media, its a problem caused by a failing society, not planning properly.
Its not a US specific problem either its replicated in pretty much every major economy, it worse in the US due to the distances involved though and the greater rich-poor divide
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Fundamentally summed up as boomers pulling the ladder up from everyone else. Cant stand the thought of their RE not appreciating and therefore become extremely obstructive to increasing RE supply with insane policies and regulations.
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Created from boomers pulling the ladder up and also accepting that Mom should work too. The state raises your kids with commoncore educational system and Saved by the bell/ Fullhouse. All to prepare you for the next big scam which is college, that somehow doubled YOY and only handful of boomers were set to absorb these costs. So now unlike them you graduate into a debt system and a job that can’t cover the loan payment.
Current generation is worse..they have college degrees from socialist teachers, They YOLO meme stocks, GameStop, and they all want to start a tik tok or YouTube channel. Why work at star bucks for $25 an hour when you can be on perpetual unemploymen. living in your parents basement arguing about the war in Ukraine and the direction of the economy on leasehackr.
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