A New Real-Estate War in Silicon Valley

Re:A New Real-Estate War in Silicon Valley by madeofpalk on Saturday October 22, 2016 @07:20PM (#12771050)

I'm curious, because "Housing Affordability" parallels to a "problem" we have here in Sydney, do people buy property in cities in America? I'm always hearing about unaffordable rent and rent control and the likes, but is purchasing property in San Francisco outrageously expensive?

Is rent uncharacteristicly high for the value of the property in SF, or is housing of all sorts just plain expensive in SF?

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Re:A New Real-Estate War in Silicon Valley by aianus on Saturday October 22, 2016 @07:48PM (#12771138)

Housing of all sorts is plain expensive. A regular house in a decent family-friendly neighborhood in San Francisco costs millions of dollars.

Just an apartment is already over a million.

http://www.zillow.com/noe-valley-san-francisco-ca/

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Re:A New Real-Estate War in Silicon Valley by madeofpalk on Saturday October 22, 2016 @09:51PM (#12771452)

So why is the conversation centred around "rent"? Aren't rental prices just a byproduct of purchasing price?

You want cheaper rent? Make purchasing cheaper. You want cheaper property? 'Fix' the supply/demand problem.

I'm not entirely convinced that there is a problem - SF, NY and Sydney (heh, little old Australia still trying to stay relevant here) are great cities which are in high demand (close to infinite!), yet is extremely limited in space/land. To me, it makes sense that the price reflects that demand.

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Re:A New Real-Estate War in Silicon Valley by Eridrus on Sunday October 23, 2016 @12:07PM (#12774067)

The talk is about rent because poor people rent and there are policy options that effect rental prices directly, rather than as a byproduct. Eg in NYC there are many co-op buildings that forbid renting units, or the idea of rent control, or housing vouchers or public housing.

I think that policy options that effect supply are the ones I would prefer, but we can't ignore other options.

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Re:A New Real-Estate War in Silicon Valley by ArkyBeagle on Monday October 24, 2016 @05:31AM (#12777564)

The word "rent" covers more than one concept. The version you seem to be at is called "rack rent" - the price of a place to sleep. "Land rents" are a much more esoteric conceptual ... mess. You have to look to David Ricardo and Henry George for that.

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Re:A New Real-Estate War in Silicon Valley by woah on Sunday October 23, 2016 @10:52AM (#12773793)

SF is mostly 2 story bungalows and there are actually laws against building in the majority of the city.

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Re:A New Real-Estate War in Silicon Valley by hkmurakami on Saturday October 22, 2016 @08:58PM (#12771328)

Buying might be arguably slightly cheaper than renting due to tax savings, the down payment of 20% on a $1Mm-$3MM place is a prohibitive barrier.

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