My heart breaks for would-be homeowners priced out of housing markets across the country. We need to do something to bring the price of all houses ...

This is a real issue in my community (as is the case of pretty much every community). All the older homeowners and younger/middle aged middle class yuppies love to talk about how they care for the housing crisis for us poorer youth, but then anytime a plan to address it comes up it's all "muh property values, muh investment". It should be obvious to anyone that for the price to go down for buyers, the sellers must sell for less but they all want to sell absurdly high and then buy another home for low.

  • WoofWoof91 [comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    owning a house in a place with a housing market aligns your material interests directly against the majority of the proletariat

    cue middle class dipshits going "SoCiAlIsM iS WhEn PoOr" at me

    a house is a financial asset, and like any other financial asset it is in the owner's interest for the price of it to go up
    and for people who do not own a house (the majority), it is in their interest for house prices to go down

    • join_the_iww [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      and for people who do not own a house (the majority)

      Not true in the US. Homeownership rate is around 65%.

      • RION [she/her]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Looked it up myself because this sounded inaccurate and while that figure is 65%...

        The name "home-ownership rate" can be misleading. As defined by the US Census Bureau, it is the percentage of homes that are occupied by the owner. It is not the percentage of adults that own their own home. This latter percentage will be significantly lower than the home-ownership rate.

        We love our weasely statistics giving a false impression of prosperity, don't we folks?

        • Hexaglycon [he/him,they/them]
          ·
          2 years ago

          So that means 35% of US homes are pure investments and not places for people to live. That's pretty messed up, though, it doesn't really say anything about how hard it is to own a home.

          • RION [she/her]
            ·
            2 years ago

            Yeah it's helpful for measuring family units owning homes, but skews some other situations.

            Say a homeowner is renting out four rooms to four different people. If we try to determine home ownership rates by asking how many homes are occupied by owners, that situation would bring the rate up (1 home with an occupying owner). If we instead ask how many people in the US own a home, that situation would bring the rate down (5 people, only one of them owning a house). Of course that last one should exclude minor children (maybe spouses? I'm no statistician) to be more accurate, but you get the broad idea