U.S. Will Track Secret Buyers of Luxury Real Estate

Re:U.S. Will Track Secret Buyers of Luxury Real Estate by yummyfajitas on Sunday January 17, 2016 @01:18PM (#10920293)

You can "build equity" by doing things like buying, well, equities. Or fixed income, or any of a variety of other investment vehicles.

The only thing special about real estate investment is the massive government subsidies for it. (E.g., owner-equivalent rents are untaxed, mortgage interest is tax deductible, etc.) The best solution to that problem is simply to eliminate those tax subsidies.

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Re:U.S. Will Track Secret Buyers of Luxury Real Estate by hueving on Monday January 18, 2016 @12:36AM (#10922711)

The major thing that is special about real estate investment is that you can live in it. If I could live inside of Google stock and it would eliminate my need to pay rent, then sure, equities are just as good.

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Re:U.S. Will Track Secret Buyers of Luxury Real Estate by yummyfajitas on Monday January 18, 2016 @01:40AM (#10922925)

If you invest in equities and get a revenue stream that pays rent, you can "live in it". The only advantage to real estate is that the revenue stream is tax subsidized.

This is fixable in multiple ways; start taxing imputed rent (tolerable) or stop taxing capital income (far better).

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Re:U.S. Will Track Secret Buyers of Luxury Real Estate by hueving on Thursday January 21, 2016 @05:02AM (#10944289)

Because returns on equities are stable enough for rent. /s

Have you seen what happened since the year started?

If you're thinking of dividends, just for 1k/mo apt you need to have 400k worth of a 3% yielding stock. 400k in a normal us housing market gets you much better than the 1k rent.

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Re:U.S. Will Track Secret Buyers of Luxury Real Estate by Tycho on Sunday January 17, 2016 @07:23PM (#10921809)

Mortgages also give people access to leverage though, so it's a bit different from other investments most people make.

[ Parent | on HN ]