this-is-fine You will own nothing and be happy.

  • buckykat [none/use name]
    ·
    25 days ago

    Housing as an investment is socially corrosive even for the individual owner-occupant. It gives them this deranged focus on property value which makes them actually materially benefit from housing becoming less affordable. Property value is also used as the logic of reaction from redlining to HOAs to car dependency.

    • Wertheimer [any]
      ·
      25 days ago

      No one who thinks of their home in terms of its exchange value rather than its use value should be allowed to participate in local politics.

    • Realtor_Hate_Account [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      25 days ago

      I was actually thinking about how shitty most suburbs actually are here in the USA. Like not run down but just having nothing to offer.

      They aren't places anyone would want to go to if they didn't live there, even ones with million dollar homes are nothing but small plots with houses on them. The newer ones are lucky to even have many trees in them.

      I'm sure this is all due to profit maximization, but it makes me wonder if on some level this is totally intentional. No need for gates if you make a place no one wants to go.

      This is all just random stuff I thought up but I'd like to look into it more.

      • buckykat [none/use name]
        ·
        25 days ago

        Yes, and any time someone proposes putting something other than more single family sprawl in all the homeowners shriek about property value

        • context [fae/faer, fae/faer]
          ·
          25 days ago

          and banks and developers know there's more money in single family sprawl, especially when they can convince local municipalities to cut them sweet tax incentives to build more homes to address the housing affordability crisis...

          • buckykat [none/use name]
            ·
            25 days ago

            And the fact that maintaining the suburb after it's built is unsustainable and requires being subsidized by the city doesn't matter to them at all

      • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
        ·
        25 days ago

        Like not run down but just having nothing to offer.

        This is part of why I never want to live in the suburbs again. I was always so jealous of the kids I knew growing up who lived in the city. They could do stuff. All sorts of stuff. On their own, without needing their parents to drive them in a car.

        I couldn't go anywhere other than the little dead end of houses without serious risk of being hit by a car. I think two people died like that in the 20 years I lived there. No sidewalks.

        Also related to the dearth of third places. Not a lot of that when it's all single family homes

      • viva_la_juche [they/them, any]
        ·
        25 days ago

        The newer ones are lucky to even have many trees in them

        This is definitely true here. all of the new additions will clear cut everything and then maybe plant some saplings if you’re lucky. Only the very wealthy neighborhoods have actual trees

        • Realtor_Hate_Account [he/him, comrade/them]
          ·
          25 days ago

          Sounds like we live in the same place. It's dystopian. Then everyone mows their lawns like 3 times a week. Most of them don't have any plants or gardens even.

    • viva_la_juche [they/them, any]
      ·
      edit-2
      25 days ago

      I was more or less trying to refer to institutions that buy homes purely for ROI. Individuals who see their homes this way are also a problem but at least they’re actually using the home. Obv ideally I want full automated luxury communism and everything else but in the short term I would prefer for banks and investors to be made to keep their nose out of it at a minimum