Posted on 02/14/2017 2:14:47 PM PST by Lorianne
Suppose there were a way to pump up the economy, reduce inequality and put an end to destructive housing bubbles like the one that contributed to the Great Recession. The idea would be simple, but not easy, requiring a wholesale reframing of the United States economy and housing market.
The solution: Americans, together and all at once, would have to stop thinking about their homes as an investment.
The virtues of homeownership are so ingrained in the American psyche that we often forget that housing is also a source of economic stress. Rising milk prices are regarded as a household tragedy for some, and spiking gas prices stoke national outrage. But whenever home prices go up, it’s “a recovery,” even though that recovery also means millions of people can no longer afford to buy.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
How about we have average Zer0 inflation over the years....
And we kick 10 or 20 million illegals out of the country, lightening the load on all of our transportation, energy, water and other infrastructure—and freeing up more housing at prices that’ll get more millennials out of their parents’ basement and back into the workforce.
Thought Control.
Why didn’t I think of that?
Commie pinko bastards....
The solution: Americans, together and all at once, would have to stop thinking about their homes as an investment.
***********
These Commies want to control everybody.
None of your f’ing business NY Times!
Fre markets to determine prices?
Why how very novel and anti Liberal.
This isn’t just an economic issue; it is largely cultural. What reason do the increasing number of childless American adults have to purchase a home? Here in NJ you’d immediately be on the hook for about $10K in property taxes, 75% of which are local school taxes. Also, snowflakes (and former snowflakes) have little interest in maintaining a property.
Most are content to rent an apartment if they can have pets; they pay much less for the local schools, which are filled with the children of the foreigners trafficked here to buy homes...
Agree 100%.
The free market is the only equitable way to allocate resources.
Many Americans are quite content to rent a home instead of own one; it lets them follow their jobs or flee if Section 8 housing is set up.
I was thinking, I’ll bet it’s connected to all those White home owners who deserve to lose their shirts to better the lives of minorities.
Half a sentence in, “reduce inequality”.
Bam! These folks are so easy.
I’ve never seen racism as overt as it is today.
The left is doing it’s damnedest to turn this into South Africa.
If you rent, you are still paying property taxes and school taxes -it is baked into your rent payment.
Renters are paying for local property taxes too, only indirectly.
And it is criminal how costly local taxes are for wasteful public school spending—in part because those with children vote up the spending, since they see it as a subsidy for themselves.
If only we’d get to more non-parent voters to keep a lid on it!
You do - but not $7,500 per year. That is why I said they pay much less. They have to sleep somewhere, but they don’t need to tie their lifetime earnings to it.
NJ has the worst housing market because of this; they have a property tax freeze for seniors, but the taxes are frozen so high that retirement income won’t cover them - causing seniors to flee. On top of that, you have to pay the higher current taxes throughout the year, and wait for a refund of the difference afterwards (making it even harder for those on a fixed income). Single-family homes are too much space, with taxes too high, for average people, so they have crappy re-sale prices. Few are built anymore; nowadays housing construction (where it exists) is mostly hives for childless drones.
I just looked up my house and the value has increased by over $3000 in the last 30 days. I guess it depends on where the house us. It has about 1600 sq ft plus a basement and on about an acre lot. Everyone says it is the best location in my neighborhood. I need to check with my insurance company to make sure it is fully covered.
See # 14; tenants do contribute but much less.
Here in NJ we have a 2% property tax cap, which means when teachers get 4% raises other costs are cut (sometimes untenured teachers themselves). Because they have the strongest union, they usually hang on to their jobs while police/fire and public works are cut instead.
Just as all these guys that refuse to get married can’t be ALL wrong, the same for people who refuse to buy homes in NJ. The scales have fallen from peoples’ eyes (in both cases); in NJ (as in CA), you aren’t just buying a huge property tax commitment, you are also buying a share in a massive IOU (public employees’ pensions) payable to people who haven’t worked in years. Current services suck because current revenues have to pay those obligations; it really has come to a head in many cities (throughout the country). Within the past couple of years FReepers posted articles where black urban residents were attacking the system which required that the cities’ dwindling current revenues were being used to pay primarily white former municipal employees (causing cops, teachers, etc. to be laid off). NJ is an illustration of this happening statewide.
From the article:
“According to them, a standard American home should cost around $200,000, a figure that includes the cost of construction, what land would cost in a lightly regulated market, and a modest profit for developers.”
I don’t what planet these “standard American homes” are located
The bottom line is far more people own homes at any given time than are looking to buy their first one, so rising housing prices benefit more people than they hurt. And more Americans have become rich though real estate than any other means.
They pay a proportionate share to represent what they are buying when they rent—use of the property, but no ownership appreciation.
“You do - but not $7,500 per year.”
A halfway decent 2 BR apartment in a high property tax area will rent for approx. $2500 a month——they certainly are paying about $7500.00 per year in property taxes-—and they don’t get income tax benefits from it.
.
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