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A comment on Americans still think they can make money flipping houses. Parent comment

Re:Americans still think they can make money flipping houses by qeternity on Saturday July 09, 2022 @08:22AM (#32034382)
> The current attitude toward housing is based on the recent explosion of house prices which is driven by financialization, extremely low interest rates, and demand outpacing supply where there are jobs.

These are the mechanisms by which the housing market has been driven to absurdity. But that reason why were here is that politicians and by extension the electorate on whose behalf they govern, decided to turn housing into a retirement plan. We then created enormous government programs to encourage people to partake in this scheme, which only robbed the future to pay the present. And now that many families have substantial wealth tied up in housing, it will be nearly impossible to voluntarily undo this mess.

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Re:Americans still think they can make money flipping houses by nwatson on Saturday July 09, 2022 @08:29AM (#32034426)
And a big swath of the US population were barred from participating in those programs and so didn't get the benefit of relative inflation.
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Re:Americans still think they can make money flipping houses by BrianOnHN on Saturday July 09, 2022 @08:44AM (#32034544)
What programs?
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Re:Americans still think they can make money flipping houses by m0llusk on Saturday July 09, 2022 @08:56AM (#32034640)
Federal Housing Administration backed loans and the mortgage interest tax deduction worked together to give a big boost to a very specific demographic slice of the population.
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Re:Americans still think they can make money flipping houses by nwatson on Saturday July 09, 2022 @11:32AM (#32035979)
Plus explicit contracts in new housing developments barring current sales and future sales to specific "undesirable" demographics. This "red-lining" was widespread from post-WW2 boom through the 80s or so to keep those demographics out of some areas. Those demographics were locked out of the housing markets and in big urban areas like NYC this created an artificial demand for rental that forced these people to pay above-market rental rates for substandard housing, a double-slam on generational wealth accumulation.
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Re:Americans still think they can make money flipping houses by pibechorro on Saturday July 09, 2022 @09:03AM (#32034688)
This is why we aught to never have subcidies or bailouts.
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Re:Americans still think they can make money flipping houses by ceejayoz on Saturday July 09, 2022 @09:20AM (#32034810)
Perhaps, but at this point that means pulling the rope ladder up behind you so no one else can use it.
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Re:Americans still think they can make money flipping houses by LBJsPNS on Saturday July 09, 2022 @10:45AM (#32035561)
No.

There is no perfect system. That doesn't mean you don't implement systems. You just police them better to make sure that kind of problem doesn't happen any more.

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Re:Americans still think they can make money flipping houses by sneak on Saturday July 09, 2022 @12:29PM (#32036671)
Hard to find problems with a system that doesn't exist, so perhaps some "systems" are perfect.
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Re:Americans still think they can make money flipping houses by drewcoo on Saturday July 09, 2022 @06:35PM (#32039967)
Systems, like functional code, can seem perfect in isolation. Everything is accounted for and it's provable. Beautiful!

Applied to any useful purpose, though, there are externalities and there is the unexpected. If you include those externalities in your model, you not only have a more complicated model, but you probably have an even larger surface of externalities.

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