~* Make America Great Depression Again -- Official Thread of Corona Virus infected markets *~

[Uaarkson]

4 minutes ago, Fizzzzle said:

Also Japan's unemployment is so low because no one's been born there in 30 years.

That is certainly a factor, mitigated by the strong local employment options. Lose your jobs as a salaryman because you kept coming to work drunk? Get a job around the corner putting bikes together. There are no shortage of job options that are physically close, and you’ll never have to cross 200 feet of pavement and culverts and lawn and parking lot to reach it if you can’t afford a car.

[Air_Delivery]

2 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

Light commercial in otherwise residential neighborhoods is a great thing.

Commercial businesses buying up properties for short term rentals however is not.

 

[Jason]

You need some basic stuff like grocery stores and coffee shops in residential areas to make sure people can walk for basic stuff like that. People also like living in those areas. There's really no reason not to do it except that post WWII America thought it was feasible to drive everywhere and they wanted to keep colored people out and physically separating themselves beyond walkable distance was a way to do that. 

[Jason]

2 minutes ago, Air_Delivery said:

Commercial businesses buying up properties for short term rentals however is not.

 

 

Only if you seriously believe demand is infinite and that you'd literally never reach a point where it'd stop being an appealing thing for businesses to be doing/eventually decide they're done and turn the units back into regular rentals (as plenty of Airbnb hosts did when the pandemic happened). 

[Uaarkson]

8 minutes ago, Air_Delivery said:

Commercial businesses buying up properties for short term rentals however is not.

 

Wouldn’t be a thing in a “normal” real estate market.

[Uaarkson]

Very important video 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

this is brain diseased

 

[Jason]

"Why is housing so expensive?"

 

Time Lapsed Between Land Purchase and Groundbreaking for a Portland Housing Development? 1,483 Days

WWW.WWEEK.COM

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[Jason]

 

[Fizzzzle]

2 hours ago, Jason said:

"Why is housing so expensive?"

 

Time Lapsed Between Land Purchase and Groundbreaking for a Portland Housing Development? 1,483 Days

WWW.WWEEK.COM

---

 

 

We have plenty of housing, it's just that most of it is luxury apartments that most people can't afford.

[Jason]

13 minutes ago, Fizzzzle said:

We have plenty of housing, it's just that most of it is luxury apartments that most people can't afford.

 

You don't have plenty of housing. The entire problem is that there's a housing shortage so instead of moving down market as they get older and shittier, older units become expensive because it's all people can find. 

 

If we restricted new car manufacturing the way we restrict new housing construction, the used car market would look like it does in Cuba, where pre-embargo cars are still valuable. 

[Jason]

I mean just yesterday you were talking about it being impossible to build more housing in an entire neighborhood that got designated historic. What do you think that does to housing prices across the board? 

[Fizzzzle]

I get it. I was just saying that new apartment/condo buildings seem to be going up every month, it's just that no one can afford to live in them. We've had 4 or 5 new apartment buildings open up in my neighborhood within the last year and a half or so, with another old single story commercial building getting ready for demolition as we speak, it's just like "cool, more housing that is going to sit at 35% capacity for 3 years because they want $1900/month for a studio"

 

Vancouver has an Empty Homes Tax that penalizes property owners for keeping housing empty, which I think is a start that most cities should implement.

[Jason]

15 minutes ago, Fizzzzle said:

I get it. I was just saying that new apartment/condo buildings seem to be going up every month, it's just that no one can afford to live in them. We've had 4 or 5 new apartment buildings open up in my neighborhood within the last year and a half or so, with another old single story commercial building getting ready for demolition as we speak, it's just like "cool, more housing that is going to sit at 35% capacity for 3 years because they want $1900/month for a studio"

 

Vancouver has an Empty Homes Tax that penalizes property owners for keeping housing empty, which I think is a start that most cities should implement.

 

The "I see a few cranes so obviously there must be tons of housing being built" fallacy. There's new stuff going up everywhere, but it's nowhere near as much new stuff as we need to see going up. Like in the Cuba example, if you let in 10 brand new Toyotas a year, do you think that's really going to have a huge impact on the desirability of the pre-embargo cars?

 

And I think vacancy taxes are also missing the point because people have big misunderstandings about the tax writeoff situation for empty apartments, and because you don't actually want the vacancy rate to hit 0 because then nobody could move. I'm pretty sure the Vancouver vacancy tax was also passed mostly because people convinced themselves that there was tons of housing sitting empty due to Chinese investors. I don't think it's actually had any particularly noticeable impact on housing costs there.

[Jason]

Speculation tax a failure, critics contend

WWW.WESTERNINVESTOR.COM

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B.C. tax on vacant homes raised $88 million in 2019 but did little to reduce home prices or improve rental affordability, housing experts say

 

[Fizzzzle]

2 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

The "I see a few cranes so obviously there must be tons of housing being built" fallacy. There's new stuff going up everywhere, but it's nowhere near as much new stuff as we need to see going up. Like in the Cuba example, if you let in 10 brand new Toyotas a year, do you think that's really going to have a huge impact on the desirability of the pre-embargo cars?

 

And I think vacancy taxes are also missing the point because people have big misunderstandings about the tax writeoff situation for empty apartments, and because you don't actually want the vacancy rate to hit 0 because then nobody could move. I'm pretty sure the Vancouver vacancy tax was also passed mostly because people convinced themselves that there was tons of housing sitting empty due to Chinese investors. I don't think it's actually had any particularly noticeable impact on housing costs there.

That is something to consider.

 

As for empty housing, it's hard to say as it's not like landlords are required to report how much of their housing is unoccupied, so we don't really know. And even if we did require landlords to report that information, enforcing it would be laughable. I do know multiple people in my area who moved into apartments in buildings where they were the first occupant in a unit that had existed for 2 years.

 

In the UK they have policies where vacant housing is basically uninsurable (if that's a word), so if you have a vacant lot and it gets flood damage, you're on your own. I would assume that only applies to single family homes, though (though in the UK, detached single family homes basically aren't a thing unless you're way out in the country).

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

 

The Fed -- like all other sensible humans -- obviously sees little-to-no risk of "runaway inflation" in 2021.  Suck on that, Larry.

[Jason]

 

[SaysWho?]

9 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

 

Members Only story.

 

I ought to subscribe to a few of these, though.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

til state and local government is roughly about half the size relative to gdp now as compared to the entirety of my life before I graduated high school

 

 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

 

 

 

 

[CitizenVectron]

lol

 

 

Summary from Resetera user:

 

Quote

So yesterday, Republican Senator Ron Johnson forced Democrats to read out loud the entire Covid relief bill, some 628 pages. So that is exactly what Democrats did. Several Democratic aides took turns reading the bill yesterday from about 3:30 PM until about 2:00 AM. This delayed progress on the bill for at least 11 hours.

 

At that late hour after the bill reading, Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen from Maryland steps up to the plate with no Republicans left in the Senate.

 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

 

 

 

[Jason]

2 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

 

 

 

 

So I guess with the tax forgiveness it's a net win?

[Chris-]

That seems fine at face value, but maybe the math doesn’t work out. 

[Uaarkson]

That's horseshit. People need this money NOW, not next tax season.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

If the trade-off is between tax forgiveness, because UI benefits are taxable (?!?!?!?), And lower benefit but for a longer period, take the tax forgiveness, especially if there are plans for future stimulus in infrastructure for instance

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

Especially if vaccination really takes hold by June or so and things start picking up again, hopefully the UI can be extended if necessary

[Jason]

Just now, Chris- said:

That seems fine at face value, but maybe the math doesn’t work out. 

 

Just now, Uaarkson said:

That's horseshit. People need this money NOW, not next tax season.

 

I think the forgiveness is retroactive to last year? Still doesn't help you if you're first losing your job though. Seems like it'd be better to just keep the $400 and still have the forgiveness.

 

It's ultimately just beyond belief though that they're spending so much time getting down in the weeds over fucking pennies.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

Just now, Jason said:

 

 

I think the forgiveness is retroactive to last year? Still doesn't help you if you're first losing your job though. Seems like it'd be better to just keep the $400 and still have the forgiveness.

 

It's ultimately just beyond belief though that they're spending so much time getting down in the weeds over fucking pennies.

This is what happens when you are forced to legislate through the reconciliation process. You can't spend more you have to stay within the budget.

[Ghost_MH]

7 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

If the trade-off is between tax forgiveness, because UI benefits are taxable (?!?!?!?), And lower benefit but for a longer period, take the tax forgiveness, especially if there are plans for future stimulus in infrastructure for instance

 

This night about break, so yes, tax forgiveness is the better route. Folks can opt to not get taxed on their current UI benefits knowing they won't be penalized next year.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

15 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

 

I think the forgiveness is retroactive to last year? Still doesn't help you if you're first losing your job though. Seems like it'd be better to just keep the $400 and still have the forgiveness.

 

It's ultimately just beyond belief though that they're spending so much time getting down in the weeds over fucking pennies.

It is retroactive so if you've been on UI last year when you file taxes you'll get a better return than you otherwise would

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

 

 

[Anathema-]

30 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

If the trade-off is between tax forgiveness, because UI benefits are taxable (?!?!?!?), And lower benefit but for a longer period, take the tax forgiveness, especially if there are plans for future stimulus in infrastructure for instance

 

Yeah it seems like a good trade especially since nobody opts in to have their benefits pre-taxed. It'll save a ton on IRS overhead too.

[Jason]

5 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said: