This is an excellent point about housing affordability: Solving Housing Affordability Means Thinking About Housing Differently
I don't care about the price of my house because I don't intend to move from it. This is my home, I hope to stay here until they carry me out in a box. It's not an investment for future sale (except in having a roof over my head) so the price is irrelevant.
And I had this excellent experience in a discussion with a coworker who was taking an interest in the courses I'm doing on weekends right now. We were discussing house modifications and improvements, and all his focus was on 'adding value' to the house. Me? I don't care if it doesn't add value to the property price: it's adding value to my life which I hope to live out in this house. The price of the house is an exercise in birdwatching: so long as they don't shit on my head, I don't actually care all that much about it.
Admittedly, I have this privilege because I don't have children. I don't have a 'next generation' who are my specific concern. Yes, there are the children of my stepbrother and halfbrother, but they presently have parents and grandparents in a position to care for them. If we were needed, sure, we'd step in. We're not (right now). Which means I don't have to think about the future beyond my lifespan.
An interesting thought exercise I've been undertaking is to imagine what I would do with a couple of million dollars. To whit, a lottery win: say, $20mil.
I'd buy property outright - land property, not apartments - and I'd find decent people to rent it out to for rather less than I need, and long-term rentals with contracts that could run for decades. Develop the land best for gardening use and people use, for long-term viability when we run out of oil (it is going to happen, and fusion isn't coming along fast enough to solve our energy crisis), and to form community.
What people want a lot of the time is permanence and some control over the regularity of their lives; they don't get that when they're in unstable renter situations.
I understand what Aly is talking about. When you have a mortgage on a property you're renting out, then the focus is on recouping that money by any means possible. It can you small-hearted and inconsiderate in the pursuit of recouping. You look to cut corners, squeeze money out of people. Or your agents do. The problem is that's the mentality that bedevils us when the housing market is also a speculatory market, not just about putting a roof over people's heads, but about making money in a dog-eat-dog world. And that mentality
of monetary gain is destroying the hopes of those around us.
I don't care about the price of my house because I don't intend to move from it. This is my home, I hope to stay here until they carry me out in a box. It's not an investment for future sale (except in having a roof over my head) so the price is irrelevant.
And I had this excellent experience in a discussion with a coworker who was taking an interest in the courses I'm doing on weekends right now. We were discussing house modifications and improvements, and all his focus was on 'adding value' to the house. Me? I don't care if it doesn't add value to the property price: it's adding value to my life which I hope to live out in this house. The price of the house is an exercise in birdwatching: so long as they don't shit on my head, I don't actually care all that much about it.
Admittedly, I have this privilege because I don't have children. I don't have a 'next generation' who are my specific concern. Yes, there are the children of my stepbrother and halfbrother, but they presently have parents and grandparents in a position to care for them. If we were needed, sure, we'd step in. We're not (right now). Which means I don't have to think about the future beyond my lifespan.
An interesting thought exercise I've been undertaking is to imagine what I would do with a couple of million dollars. To whit, a lottery win: say, $20mil.
I'd buy property outright - land property, not apartments - and I'd find decent people to rent it out to for rather less than I need, and long-term rentals with contracts that could run for decades. Develop the land best for gardening use and people use, for long-term viability when we run out of oil (it is going to happen, and fusion isn't coming along fast enough to solve our energy crisis), and to form community.
What people want a lot of the time is permanence and some control over the regularity of their lives; they don't get that when they're in unstable renter situations.
I understand what Aly is talking about. When you have a mortgage on a property you're renting out, then the focus is on recouping that money by any means possible. It can you small-hearted and inconsiderate in the pursuit of recouping. You look to cut corners, squeeze money out of people. Or your agents do. The problem is that's the mentality that bedevils us when the housing market is also a speculatory market, not just about putting a roof over people's heads, but about making money in a dog-eat-dog world. And that mentality
of monetary gain is destroying the hopes of those around us.