Housing can’t both be a good investment and be affordable

Re:Housing can’t both be a good investment and be affordable by jplayer01 on Saturday November 03, 2018 @06:06AM (#18369473)

We currently have a feedback loop where rising prices attracts investors who sink money into real estate, which reduces supply and raises prices, which attracts investors, etc. There are a number of factors that incentivize reduced supply such as reduced incentive to build lots of new buildings because that would increase supply too much and reduce prices and an increased incentive to build a small number of luxury apartments instead, which further raises property values.

If ownership wasn't seen as an investment vehicle, this feedback loop would be broken. People would only buy because they need it, or in the case of landlords, the rents they could secure from rentees would be much lower because of the lower market value of the object and the overall lower rent prices across the entire market.

Of course, sufficient supply has one big condition: Zoning laws are relaxed, allowing enough supply to be built in the first place.

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Re:Housing can’t both be a good investment and be affordable by usaar333 on Saturday November 03, 2018 @10:19AM (#18370251)

It depends where you are.

I'd argue the SF Bay Area is not being driven by investors (many investors think it is bad to invest given the very low rent yields), but by supply constraints themselves.

The supply constraints are not so much financial, but being driven by residents who don't want their neighborhood to change. And since they don't suffer (no property tax increases come with the home value increase), there's not much push back other than the moral argument that their children can't afford homes anymore.

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Re:Housing can’t both be a good investment and be affordable by jplayer01 on Saturday November 03, 2018 @05:46PM (#18372649)

You're right. I just didn't want to write an essay. There are a number of incentives that motivate owners to prefer supply constraints.

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