Re:Priced out of home ownership – 'It makes me want to throw...
by AnimalMuppet on Tuesday May 28, 2024 @08:58AM
(#40500299)
> In my view this is symptomatic of a more fundamental issue - global asset price inflation driven by a broken financial system (i.e. a system being artificially pumped up with cheap credit).
Maybe? 2008 happened. At that point, there was a policy choice: allow a deflationary collapse, or prevent it. If we allowed it, there would be a lot of ruined businesses and ruined people. There would have been a lot of people who lost their houses. Instead, we chose to prevent the collapse, and we wound up here, where people can't afford houses. That's almost the same place, except that 1) the numbers are higher, and 2) it happened gradually rather than in a shock. That is, people didn't lose their existing houses, but new families can't buy their first homes.
So is this better or worse? My impression is that, for all the problems, it's still better than a collapse in 2008 would have been. But given the situation in 2008, some damage was inevitable. This amount of damage 16 years later is actually pretty good, considering.
Maybe? 2008 happened. At that point, there was a policy choice: allow a deflationary collapse, or prevent it. If we allowed it, there would be a lot of ruined businesses and ruined people. There would have been a lot of people who lost their houses. Instead, we chose to prevent the collapse, and we wound up here, where people can't afford houses. That's almost the same place, except that 1) the numbers are higher, and 2) it happened gradually rather than in a shock. That is, people didn't lose their existing houses, but new families can't buy their first homes.
So is this better or worse? My impression is that, for all the problems, it's still better than a collapse in 2008 would have been. But given the situation in 2008, some damage was inevitable. This amount of damage 16 years later is actually pretty good, considering.