President Donald Trump said during a Cabinet meeting that he wants to 'drive housing prices up' to keep homeowners 'wealthy' rather than focusing on affordability to benefit people people who 'didn't work very hard'
Go ahead, vote MAGA in the midterms if you’re curious how fucked your life can get.
Here’s the thing that I think a lot of people don’t understand about home ownership: Housing prices going up is only beneficial if you plan to sell.
We were (very) lucky and were able to get in on the tail end of the early 2010s housing crisis and leverage the first-time homebuyer incentives that were offered at the time to buy a modest house. It cost $245k. It’s currently worth $550k, and people seem to think this means we made $300k in profit! Yay us! And technically, on paper, sure, we did, but in reality, no.
Housing prices across the board are up, and we still need a place to live, so if we sold this place, we’d have to buy something else (at the same grossly inflated prices), or we’d have to rent (at grossly inflated prices). If the $550k this place is worth on paper buys us something that would have cost $245k in 2010, we haven’t gained anything.
Either way, we have no intention of selling, so we will never see a cent of that increased value. What we are seeing, however, is increased property taxes since the property has, on paper, doubled in value.
What I’m getting at is, this doesn’t benefit homeowners, it benefits housing investors, who are the group Trump really wants to prop up.
Yes, but when they do they cash out without needing comparable housing. Plus, more of them have finished paying their mortgages, so they can afford to wait.
This is something that has baffled me for a while when I see or hear people talking happily about their home value going up or talking about their house as an investment and get mad at the thought of a drop in home value. Even if these people never sold their house, if home prices keep increasing faster than wages, then at some point they won’t be able to afford the taxes on their home. I just don’t get it, smh.
Same here. We bought our modest house and have been slowly updating it. But we never plan on moving unless we absolutely have to. So I don’t need or want it to increase in value. The value is it’s my home.
It doesn’t help home owners, home buyers or even home sellers looking for a lateral move in a new area or an upgrade to a bigger or nicer home. In fact for the latter two, it ultimately hurts them. The people that it helps are those who are looking to downsize their home, move into a nursing home, or move in with their kids. i.e. people old enough to not have kids living with them anymore, retirees, etc. They can sell their 600k home they bought for 80k 40 years ago, pocket all of that or the difference if they buy a smaller home, and use it as a slush fund on top of their social security and 401k to take vacations.
Meanwhile, their home is bought as an investment property that people like their kids and grandkids will need to rent instead of own, spending more per month than a mortgage would be for the same home, especially as rent increases every year to keep up with the housing market (even though the only costs that go up for the landlord with the market increases is a marginal amount on taxes and cost to buy MORE investment properties), and with the renters gaining no equity for their rent dollars while their landlord profits off of that money instead.
Hell, not only would lower housing prices mean that more people could become homeowners, or means current homeowners could afford to get a bigger home for their family, or live closer to work, or get a nicer/newer home that isn’t a money pit.
Raising house prices ONLY benefits the elderly homeowner looking to sell and the landlords looking for more tenants and higher rents. Speaking as a homeowner, for the love of god, bring housing prices down.
A-fucking-men.
I’m in a similar boat house. We bought in 2011, used a USDA loan and were able to pick our place up for a song ($160k). It now has a “value” of ~$360k. And all that extra “value” is doing for me is increasing taxes and insurance costs. I’m not planning on selling any time soon, so my home “price” going up is a net negative. Sure, we might sell in a decade or so, but today’s price won’t have a major impact on that.
What I’m getting at is, this doesn’t benefit homeowners, it benefits housing investors, who are the group Trump really wants to prop up.
What? You’re telling me the pedophile, racist, Nazi sympathizer, billionare son of a racist, Nazi sympathizer who made the family’s billions by wartime real estate profiteering is more interested in protecting real estate profiteering than helping people? Color me shocked, absolutely shocked, I say. Well, not that shocked.
I agree. It doesn’t help me that people who work in my town can’t live in my town. It doesn’t help me when taxes go up on my house. I have the same house if prices crash lower than we bought. I have the same house if prices go up.
In fact - if prices bottom out and we can keep our jobs, maybe I have a better house because maybe we can afford to do some reno that is too expensive right now because housing is so expensive.
“Didn’t work so hard” WTF? Did Trump work hard? There seems almost no correlation between who works hard and who has money. Some who work hard have money, some don’t. Some who never worked at all have money, some don’t.
Raising house prices do benefit you, if you don’t have kids or don’t otherwise have heirs you want to leave money to. Reverse mortgages exist, and their are millions of baby boomers financing their retirements off of the increases in their home equity.
Here’s the thing that I think a lot of people don’t understand about home ownership: Housing prices going up is only beneficial if you plan to sell.
We were (very) lucky and were able to get in on the tail end of the early 2010s housing crisis and leverage the first-time homebuyer incentives that were offered at the time to buy a modest house. It cost $245k. It’s currently worth $550k, and people seem to think this means we made $300k in profit! Yay us! And technically, on paper, sure, we did, but in reality, no.
Housing prices across the board are up, and we still need a place to live, so if we sold this place, we’d have to buy something else (at the same grossly inflated prices), or we’d have to rent (at grossly inflated prices). If the $550k this place is worth on paper buys us something that would have cost $245k in 2010, we haven’t gained anything.
Either way, we have no intention of selling, so we will never see a cent of that increased value. What we are seeing, however, is increased property taxes since the property has, on paper, doubled in value.
What I’m getting at is, this doesn’t benefit homeowners, it benefits housing investors, who are the group Trump really wants to prop up.
Mmm, no.
300 fucking thousand dollars is still 300 fucking thousand dollars.
You could buy a shitshack and still have a place to live. Hell, you could even get scammed renting like a moron and you still would have made money.
You know who it is good for? Boomers who are selling their big houses to go live in a condo or nursing home. Guess who votes for this shit.
And, you know, US Presidents whose families own real estate empires.
If no one can afford the boomer homes, the houses stay unsold so there’s a balance when trying to maximise profit.
Yes, but when they do they cash out without needing comparable housing. Plus, more of them have finished paying their mortgages, so they can afford to wait.
This is something that has baffled me for a while when I see or hear people talking happily about their home value going up or talking about their house as an investment and get mad at the thought of a drop in home value. Even if these people never sold their house, if home prices keep increasing faster than wages, then at some point they won’t be able to afford the taxes on their home. I just don’t get it, smh.
Same here. We bought our modest house and have been slowly updating it. But we never plan on moving unless we absolutely have to. So I don’t need or want it to increase in value. The value is it’s my home.
It doesn’t help home owners, home buyers or even home sellers looking for a lateral move in a new area or an upgrade to a bigger or nicer home. In fact for the latter two, it ultimately hurts them. The people that it helps are those who are looking to downsize their home, move into a nursing home, or move in with their kids. i.e. people old enough to not have kids living with them anymore, retirees, etc. They can sell their 600k home they bought for 80k 40 years ago, pocket all of that or the difference if they buy a smaller home, and use it as a slush fund on top of their social security and 401k to take vacations.
Meanwhile, their home is bought as an investment property that people like their kids and grandkids will need to rent instead of own, spending more per month than a mortgage would be for the same home, especially as rent increases every year to keep up with the housing market (even though the only costs that go up for the landlord with the market increases is a marginal amount on taxes and cost to buy MORE investment properties), and with the renters gaining no equity for their rent dollars while their landlord profits off of that money instead.
Hell, not only would lower housing prices mean that more people could become homeowners, or means current homeowners could afford to get a bigger home for their family, or live closer to work, or get a nicer/newer home that isn’t a money pit.
Raising house prices ONLY benefits the elderly homeowner looking to sell and the landlords looking for more tenants and higher rents. Speaking as a homeowner, for the love of god, bring housing prices down.
A-fucking-men.
I’m in a similar
boathouse. We bought in 2011, used a USDA loan and were able to pick our place up for a song ($160k). It now has a “value” of ~$360k. And all that extra “value” is doing for me is increasing taxes and insurance costs. I’m not planning on selling any time soon, so my home “price” going up is a net negative. Sure, we might sell in a decade or so, but today’s price won’t have a major impact on that.What? You’re telling me the pedophile, racist, Nazi sympathizer, billionare son of a racist, Nazi sympathizer who made the family’s billions by wartime real estate profiteering is more interested in protecting real estate profiteering than helping people? Color me shocked, absolutely shocked, I say. Well, not that shocked.
I agree. It doesn’t help me that people who work in my town can’t live in my town. It doesn’t help me when taxes go up on my house. I have the same house if prices crash lower than we bought. I have the same house if prices go up.
In fact - if prices bottom out and we can keep our jobs, maybe I have a better house because maybe we can afford to do some reno that is too expensive right now because housing is so expensive.
“Didn’t work so hard” WTF? Did Trump work hard? There seems almost no correlation between who works hard and who has money. Some who work hard have money, some don’t. Some who never worked at all have money, some don’t.
Raising house prices do benefit you, if you don’t have kids or don’t otherwise have heirs you want to leave money to. Reverse mortgages exist, and their are millions of baby boomers financing their retirements off of the increases in their home equity.
Housing prices going up mostly benefits real estate agents.
As a home owner I don’t really care if my house goes up in value. I don’t include it in my net worth (even though it’s paid off).