2y ago

Goldman is back with a 16-years-later look at the housing market crash of 2008—and finds affordability is even worse right now

fortune.com Goldman is back with a 16-years-later look at the housing market crash of 2008—and finds affordability is even worse right now

Goldman Sachs economist says it would take a ‘shock to the broader economy’ to make homebuying more affordable.

16 comments

Of course it is. Everyone in the US who's watched TV in the last few years has seen companies and privileged individuals buying any privately owned property available for any reasonable price.
Are they reselling them? No. Are they renting or leasing the worthwhile properties for outrageous rates? Yes. Are they bulldozing lodgings and putting up apartments at every other opportunity? Yes.
Are they aiding the housing crisis by building new single family dwellings? No.
Are they forcing as many people as they can into rental lodging with decreasing prospects of those families and individuals ever owning their own house? Absolutely.
- Honest question:
  If they're bulldozing lodgings and putting up apartments instead of building new single family dwellings, isn't that helping the housing crisis by supplying higher density housing? Like you can house more people with less land?
  
  They're ignoring supply and demand by keeping rents up in dense areas. That allows them to withstand empty units. Moreover, there are tools created to help them determine the right ratio of empty units to keep in order to maximize profit through reduction in management as well as maintaining an occupancy balance.
  It's downright insipid.
  https://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/new-lawsuit-alleges-price-fixing-at-seattle-area-apartment-buildings/
  
  Yes in the sense that they are housing but it's not affordable housing and I wouldn't call the massive expanse that these apartment complexes take up "high density." One of the complexes next to me has FOUR connected complexes that take up several entire city blocks. The buildings are two stories tall and most of them are one bedroom so these things are concrete hellscapes and they don't hold the same number of people as European style planned cities, not even close. Plus, these aren't apartment buildings in walkable and accessible areas, they are sprawling complexes built smack dab in the middle of the suburbs with NO amenities or public transport within walking distance. They are just tiny shitty fenced in neighborhoods with nothing going for them other than shelter. I'm sure they are much nicer than a lot of places but as someone that's lived in one for 10 years now, they are soul sucking wastes of space. Some of these apartments on the bottom floors could have been corner stores, boutiques, salons, restaurants, or shops. They could have gotten rid of one or two of the parking lots for a park since it's convenient to walk and you don't need a car. Instead we just get packed in here and hope we can keep up with the rent.

You mean my not owning a home is not just because I'm a bad person and had too much avocado toast?

Rent till we die! Yayyyyyy
- Well if the studies are correct that will happen sooner than if you own.
  Always a silver lining /s
- Honestly, the only reason I want to own is because I have gotten too old, out of shape, and fat to move most of my furniture myself, and I am not sure I can afford a mover, so I want the security that I am on a straight and narrow that doesn't have the constant looming threat of the owner going "yeah... I'm just not gonna renew the lease" even though I am still somehow keeping up with the payments.

Been 16 years already?
- Yup.
  About how old my grandpa was when he bought a plot of land, a shit ton of wood, and a shit ton of concrete and built the house that was sold to pay off his medical debt when he died...
  
  ...fuck...that's dark. Sorry things swung that way for your family.

Are they telling their clients to get out of the housing market? That's when things change.
Somebody has to pay for falling housing prices. Should that be negotiated or should it be a game of hot potato?
- This is Goldman Sachs, they didn't tell their customers to dump the worthless shit bonds they sold them, they actively shorted them!
- Just use inflation to hide the losses from the working class.

16 comments