I decided to look up our CA house on Zillow

[DawnM]

It is 1450 sq. ft.   It was $250k in 2001.  We spent about 50K fixing it up.    It sold for $600k in 2005.   It is on Zillow for $1.1m now.

One of the reasons we decided to move out of CA was because we were worried our boys would not be able to afford to live near us when they grew up.

Of course, this area in NC is shooting up as well, but we are more like 2001 CA prices now here, so it is somewhat doable.

Edited February 5, 2022 by DawnM

[Roadrunner]

Yep. We are still here. If i had remote work, I would be somewhere else. 

[Carrie12345]

The thing that kills me is that those CA increases make my area’s increase look perfectly acceptable, when they’re really not!  

[Roadrunner]

Nowhere to run anymore. 
CA only went crazy after tech boom. It was expensive before, but most problems started with Silicon Valley. Life has become unbearable cost wise and crowd wise since tech boom. I think Texas is starting to see how “wonderful” attracting high tech sector can be. 

[Arcadia]

My husband is already looking at the tech hub area in Utah and thinking if it makes sense to move. Mine is a condo and even my neighbors are selling or sold recently at double the 2005/2006 price when this complex was completed.  

[teachermom2834]

And here in small town TN our house prices are going crazy - cash buyers from CA. At least that is what everyone is blaming it on. Really unheard of prices and really cash buyers is pretty unheard of too. We want to move and we have plenty of equity for a nice upgrade but it isn’t really possible to jump in without a ton of cash. Can’t really buy with a contingent home sale as a down payment anymore. So much cash from out of town- or at least that is what the word on the street is. We are pretty lower middle class folk here and it is hard to understand!

[Jean in Newcastle]

Don't you mean 1.1m now? 

[Carrie12345]

My childhood home sales data is wild. 3bd/2ba (2nd bath wasn’t finished in 2000; just sink and toilet. A hometown friend tells me one owner finished the basement at some point, and my best guess is that it eventually flooded. Because it floods!)

2000- 122,500
2002 - 173,900
2006 - 283,000
2010 - 144,000 

Today’s Zestimate - 321,900

[SeaConquest]

We've been trying to buy since 2016, and have just given up for the time being. No one wanted to take my VA home loan entitlement because they all wanted 15 day mortgages and all cash buyers, paying 100k over list. It was just too depressing, so I took my emotional cards off the table. I got burned in the last recession by buying at the top of the market. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, yeah, no. So, now we are renting for $4400/month. It's a ludicrous amount of money, but at least I can sleep at night. <Bangs head on table>   

[Hilltopmom]

Wow. My tech kid says he wants to move out there in a few years, I’m trying to explain the costs. He currently lives in a small former upstate NY industrial town where you can buy a starter home for $40,000- he has NO idea about HCOL areas! 

[Roadrunner]

I raised my kids in under 1k sf. It’s is now worth about a million. Every inch of the house is crumbling and yet I could walk out today with a million in cash. It’s not normal. We worry about our children not being able to afford anything in CA and partly the reason why I am looking at Midwest/east for schools for DS. There is only so much premium on good weather. 

[rebcoola]

Yes super nuts my grandma's 3 bedroom ranch in Sunnyside Ca sold for 1.7mi and they were planning to tear the whole thing down and build.

[Arcadia]

34 minutes ago, Hilltopmom said:

Wow. My tech kid says he wants to move out there in a few years, I’m trying to explain the costs. He currently lives in a small former upstate NY industrial town where you can buy a starter home for $40,000- he has NO idea about HCOL areas! 

He can try to get an internship where I am (silicon valley). The rent would take up a chunk of the internship stipend unless he is willing to have roommates. Interns we know do bike or take the company busses 

[Arcadia]

12 minutes ago, rebcoola said:

Yes super nuts my grandma's 3 bedroom ranch in Sunnyside Ca sold for 1.7mi and they were planning to tear the whole thing down and build.

My husband’s issue with old homes is lead, thick electric wires and earthquake retrofitting. If we see an old home in a desirable location (near medical care and work) at an affordable price, we would go for the demolish and rebuild option too.

[Bootsie]

5 hours ago, DawnM said:

It is 1450 sq. ft.   It was $250k in 2001.  We spent about 50K fixing it up.    It sold for $600k in 2005.   It is on Zillow for 1.1k now.

One of the reasons we decided to move out of CA was because we were worried our boys would not be able to afford to live near us when they grew up.

Of course, this area in NC is shooting up as well, but we are more like 2001 CA prices now here, so it is somewhat doable.

$600K to $1.1 million sounds like a large jump--but over 17 years that is about a 3.6% increase per year.  From an investment standpoint, the person who bought it has not seen a great return.  

[DawnM]

5 hours ago, DawnM said:

It is 1450 sq. ft.   It was $250k in 2001.  We spent about 50K fixing it up.    It sold for $600k in 2005.   It is on Zillow for 1.1k now.

One of the reasons we decided to move out of CA was because we were worried our boys would not be able to afford to live near us when they grew up.

Of course, this area in NC is shooting up as well, but we are more like 2001 CA prices now here, so it is somewhat doable.

 

2 hours ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

Don't you mean 1.1m now? 

Isn't that what I said?

[DawnM]

20 minutes ago, Bootsie said:

$600K to $1.1 million sounds like a large jump--but over 17 years that is about a 3.6% increase per year.  From an investment standpoint, the person who bought it has not seen a great return.  

The house we currently live in sold in 2019 (when we bought it) for less than it sold in 2005, when it was built.   We were lucky.   It is now worth almost 50% more.

[SeaConquest]

10 hours ago, Roadrunner said:

I raised my kids in under 1k sf. It’s is now worth about a million. Every inch of the house is crumbling and yet I could walk out today with a million in cash. It’s not normal. We worry about our children not being able to afford anything in CA and partly the reason why I am looking at Midwest/east for schools for DS. There is only so much premium on good weather. 

I dunno. I look around with the climate changing and I think these issues are going to be playing a greater and greater role going forward. There are issues related to erosion, sea level rise, and hurricanes (in some places) if you are on the water. There are issues related to drought and increasing fire danger. There are shifting weather patterns affecting increasing temperatures and the severity/path of winter storms, etc. It seems prudent IMHO to buy with climate change in mind, but it's very local with lots of little micro climates. You cannot just say it's wise to buy in X city or avoid Y state because there are so many regional micro climates.

But, most of the time, I am quite happy to pay the sunshine tax to avoid dealing with the daily weather hassles that most everyone else thinks of as normal (aka seasons). I never knew how spoiled I was, having grown up in So Cal, until I stepped outside of my little bubble, and realized that most of the rest of the world doesn't get 10 inches of rain/year and 72F avg daily temps with +/- 10 degrees. https://www.sandiego.org/plan/weather.aspx      

Edited February 6, 2022 by SeaConquest

[Laurel-in-CA]

We moved here in 2010, around the bottom of the housing dip, paid $400K and complained how this area north of SF was so  much more expensive than SoCal. The home we sold for $300K is now listed at $850K and our current home (more square footage, smaller lot) is listed at $800K. In 12 years, we've seen *a lot* of appreciation. Fixer-uppers in our area, even those needing a lot of work, are now in the $500K range. But our equity still won't be enough to allow us to move near family, so we are looking outside of the west coast for retirement. Sigh.

OTOH, I am so very thankful to still be IN the house after the 10 months of unemployment in 2020!! Much to be grateful for.

 

[Jean in Newcastle]

32 minutes ago, DawnM said:

 

Isn't that what I said?

No. You said 1.1k.   But I think that everyone knows what you meant. 

[DawnM]

2 minutes ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

No. You said 1.1k.   But I think that everyone knows what you meant. 

See, I didn't even catch it!

[Roadrunner]

1 hour ago, SeaConquest said:

I dunno. I look around with the climate changing and I think these issues are going to be playing a greater and greater role going forward. There are issues related to erosion, sea level rise, and hurricanes (in some places) if you are on the water. There are issues related to drought and increasing fire danger. There are shifting weather patterns affecting increasing temperatures and the severity/path of winter storms, etc. It seems prudent IMHO to buy with climate change in mind, but it's very local with lots of little micro climates. You cannot just say it's wise to buy in X city or avoid Y state because there are so many regional micro climates.

But, most of the time, I am quite happy to pay the sunshine tax to avoid dealing with the daily weather hassles that most everyone else thinks of as normal. I never knew how spoiled I was, having grown up in So Cal, until I stepped outside of my little bubble, and realized that most of the rest of the world doesn't get 10 inches of rain/year and 72F avg daily temps with +/- 10 degrees. https://www.sandiego.org/plan/weather.aspx      

I grew up with seasons and miss them very much.

Well we were evacuated last year from fires, and fire danger and lack of water  is a real issue locally. Yet home prices don’t factor any of that into it. I am telling my shack, which is exactly what it is, is worth a million. You want to price in the climate change? It should be a 1/4 of its price. 

Edited February 5, 2022 by Roadrunner

[Sneezyone]

7 hours ago, DawnM said:

It is 1450 sq. ft.   It was $250k in 2001.  We spent about 50K fixing it up.    It sold for $600k in 2005.   It is on Zillow for $1.1m now.

One of the reasons we decided to move out of CA was because we were worried our boys would not be able to afford to live near us when they grew up.

Of course, this area in NC is shooting up as well, but we are more like 2001 CA prices now here, so it is somewhat doable.

Same thing has happened with our first home. We bought it in 2001 for 117k, put 25k into moldings, paint, carpet, bathrooms and siding. We sold it for $185 in 2007/8. It’s now valued at 450k+. The maple kitchen I installed hasn’t changed…at all. Neither has the exterior.

Edited February 5, 2022 by Sneezyone

[Faith-manor]

According to our real estate agent, the house we closed on at the end of July is worth $40,000 more than we paid already, and she expects it appreciate another $60,000 in the next six months. I don't think Dd and hubby will ever be able to buy without our assistance at this rate of speed. I am thankful that we invested in a home that can comfortably house us, them, the grandmas, and our adult sons if needed. We do want to add a 3/4 bath in the basement, and the refrigerator from this house will eventually go there as well. One more shower and an extra fridge will be very handy if the whole group lives together for a time.

The place we are in now though in Michigan will never be worth a dime. This area is depopulating rapidly.

[Hilltopmom]

4 hours ago, Arcadia said:

He can try to get an internship where I am (silicon valley). The rent would take up a chunk of the internship stipend unless he is willing to have roommates. Interns we know do bike or take the company busses 

I’ll suggest internship, but he’s already working in his field full time so I dunno if he’ll want to go back to intern status 🙂

roomates would be good, regardless, since he’d be new to the area

[Arcadia]

6 minutes ago, Hilltopmom said:

I’ll suggest internship, but he’s already working in his field full time so I dunno if he’ll want to go back to intern status 🙂

roomates would be good, regardless, since he’d be new to the area

I was thinking internship because its a 3 to 6 month commitment while landing a job and finding that the HCOL is really steep would be more challenging. A one bedroom rental apartment is easily $3k here.

A nearby newly built rental apartment complex is charging 

“1 Bedroom • 1 Bath (1 unit left)
Approx. 813 sq. ft. $3,880

1 Bedroom • 1 Bath (2 units left)
Approx. 753 sq. ft. $4,030”

 

[Sneezyone]

1 hour ago, Arcadia said:

I was thinking internship because its a 3 to 6 month commitment while landing a job and finding that the HCOL is really steep would be more challenging. A one bedroom rental apartment is easily $3k here.

A nearby newly built rental apartment complex is charging 

“1 Bedroom • 1 Bath (1 unit left)
Approx. 813 sq. ft. $3,880

1 Bedroom • 1 Bath (2 units left)
Approx. 753 sq. ft. $4,030”

 

This is why Capitol Hill internships are so skewed in favor of the children of wealthy people too. SMH. 

[Resilient]

House #1 bought 1988 $145k sold 1997 for $350k now $2.5M 
 

House #2 bought 1997 $635k sold 2013 1.3M. Now $3.9M—and they’re doing a giant remodel on it. 
 

House #3 bought 2013 $650k, now $1.6M. But where would we go if we sold?  
 

and the property taxes on the houses? 
1=$20k

2=$17k

3=$10K

 

 

[madteaparty]

We are in NY and bid 200k over ask for a tear down and it wasn’t close. 
some of the tax bills posted are an outright bargain. 

[Farrar]

That's a very similar appreciation arc to our home in DC. The house next door either just sold or is about to go on the market (not sure). I'm dying to know how much.

[Hilltopmom]

1 hour ago, Arcadia said:

I was thinking internship because its a 3 to 6 month commitment while landing a job and finding that the HCOL is really steep would be more challenging. A one bedroom rental apartment is easily $3k here.

A nearby newly built rental apartment complex is charging 

“1 Bedroom • 1 Bath (1 unit left)
Approx. 813 sq. ft. $3,880

1 Bedroom • 1 Bath (2 units left)
Approx. 753 sq. ft. $4,030”

 

Yes, I agree! A short term internship would let you get the feel for the area. 
I can’t even with those prices- just, wow.

Thanks for the idea

[Forget-Me-Not]

9 hours ago, Arcadia said:

My husband is already looking at the tech hub area in Utah and thinking if it makes sense to move. Mine is a condo and even my neighbors are selling or sold recently at double the 2005/2006 price when this complex was completed.  

Utah’s in a housing crunch with prices going up like crazy too. Especially the Lehi area, which is the area people are calling Silicon Slopes. You do probably get a bit more house for your money there, but it’s an extremely competitive market. 

I have family that lives ~40 min from there.  Their house is worth almost three times what they paid for it about ten years ago. And I have other family members building a house in that same area. When they started looking for houses, the realtors wouldn’t even show unless an offer was put in first, and houses were put under contract so fast that you almost couldn’t get there to see them anyway. People are putting in cash offers and buying sight unseen. 

Edited February 6, 2022 by Forget-Me-Not

[Arcadia]

9 minutes ago, Forget-Me-Not said:

Utah’s in a housing crunch with prices going up like crazy too. Especially the Lehi area, which is the area people are calling Silicon Slopes. You do probably get a bit more house for your money there, but it’s an extremely competitive market. 

Something like this $709k home in Lehi would be tempting to my husband.

https://www.coldwellbankerhomes.com/ut/lehi/3271-w-mitchell-dr-602/pid_45365619/

[Roadrunner]

So this is inflation and a bubble all rolled together? Crazy making. 

[fairfarmhand]

12 hours ago, Carrie12345 said:

The thing that kills me is that those CA increases make my area’s increase look perfectly acceptable, when they’re really not!  

Same. We're getting lots of transplants from CA here in TN. They can easily outbid the locals because they sell their homes out West and pocket thousands while still buying a nicer, bigger home here in Middle TN. I wonder how my kids will buy homes here.

[Roadrunner]

38 minutes ago, fairfarmhand said:

Same. We're getting lots of transplants from CA here in TN. They can easily outbid the locals because they sell their homes out West and pocket thousands while still buying a nicer, bigger home here in Middle TN. I wonder how my kids will buy homes here.

My friend from NC is telling me the same. She said real estate price increases are making people not be able to afford paying taxes on their homes.  Everybody hates CA transplants.
We locally blame everything on tech workers. 
I wonder if we all end up in multigenerational homes at some point. 

Edited February 6, 2022 by Roadrunner

[Sneezyone]

1 hour ago, Roadrunner said:

So this is inflation and a bubble all rolled together? Crazy making. 

It’s not a bubble. There’s a shortage of housing, building materials and labor. Housing prices aren’t expected to stabilize until the interest rates go up again but they aren’t expected to come back down anytime soon. Investors are buying up homes to rent them.

[SeaConquest]

2 hours ago, fairfarmhand said:

Same. We're getting lots of transplants from CA here in TN. They can easily outbid the locals because they sell their homes out West and pocket thousands while still buying a nicer, bigger home here in Middle TN. I wonder how my kids will buy homes here.

They won't. They will experience what we have been experiencing in the larger cities for quite some time: increasing homelessness, wealth disparity and greater concentration in fewer [older gen] hands, and increases in deaths of despair.

[SeaConquest]

1 hour ago, Sneezyone said:

It’s not a bubble. There’s a shortage of housing, building materials and labor. Housing prices aren’t expected to stabilize until the interest rates go up again but they aren’t expected to come back down anytime soon. Investors are buying up homes to rent them.

The best us poor folk can do is own real estate ETFs. Since we can't afford to, you know, own actual real estate anymore.  At least we can make some money back on them fleecing us.

[Roadrunner]

We could fix this if there was a political will. Tax the crap out of home purchases that aren’t primary residences, 50% tax on foreign purchases…. same with corporate purchases of residential properties…. I haven’t thought this through, but there are things we can do. We really need to prioritize primary residential purchases. 
 

[DawnM]

6 hours ago, Roadrunner said:

My friend from NC is telling me the same. She said real estate price increases are making people not be able to afford paying taxes on their homes.  Everybody hates CA transplants.
We locally blame everything on tech workers. 
I wonder if we all end up in multigenerational homes at some point. 

My friend from SoCal just moved to Reno.   They brought a new construction home and most of the neighborhood is multi-generational construction.

Her parents moved in too.   One side of the house has a one bedroom apartment and then the rest of the house is the for her family.

They were able to pay cash.

[Pawz4me]

8 hours ago, Sneezyone said:

Investors are buying up homes to rent them.

I'm in NC. Last week we received a letter from a well regarded local real estate agency stating they're representing an "institutional client" who is buying property in the area. They offered a price for our house that would represent a 37.5 percent profit over what we paid for it less than five years ago. Our house is a fairly typical family home for this area--3 beds, 2.5 baths, on half an acre in a 1980s/1990s non-HOA neighborhood. It's not the type of neighborhood that historically in this area has rentals. But I think we're going to start seeing rentals pop up all over.

[Happy2BaMom]

5 hours ago, Roadrunner said:

We could fix this if there was a political will. Tax the crap out of home purchases that aren’t primary residences, 50% tax on foreign purchases…. same with corporate purchases of residential properties…. I haven’t thought this through, but there are things we can do. We really need to prioritize primary residential purchases. 
 

This.

In my Midwestern city, an article in the paper a few months back described a new corporation, one that has just finished raising 1.6 BILLION, all for the purposes of buying homes for rentals and/or AirBnBs. All in the Midwest. When I travel, in the days when I did AirBnb or VRBO (I rarely do either anymore), I saw more and more and more homes owned by corporate interests, or individuals/couples who owned 5+ homes and just ran them as a business. AirBnb was originally created to help homeowners who had an extra room to rent. Now it's mostly big corporate money, or people running it as a business.

Yes, people moving from out of state can drive up real estate. But not as much attention is paid (IME) to the fact that MANY home purchases anymore are not individuals seeking a primary residence.

And correcting that will take legislation and government intervention. LOL. Like that's ever going to happen in this country. Cue the incendiary headlines and commercials over BiG gUberMint.

 

Edited February 6, 2022 by Happy2BaMom

[Carrie12345]

10 minutes ago, Happy2BaMom said:

And correcting that will take legislation and government intervention. LOL. Like that's ever going to happen in this country. Cue the incendiary headlines and commercials over BiG gUberMint.

It actually surprises me that there isn’t much intervention on this at higher levels.
Locally, it’s been incremental. A lot of townships in my area have come down on short term rentals, whether by actually restricting them, or putting a lot of fees and permits on them.  In my township, private developments have additional restrictions and/or fees.

(We’re moving from a development that says “Whatever, just give us money for it” to one that only permits leases of 6 months or more. And I’m very happy about it!)

 

[Faith-manor]

54 minutes ago, Carrie12345 said:

It actually surprises me that there isn’t much intervention on this at higher levels.
Locally, it’s been incremental. A lot of townships in my area have come down on short term rentals, whether by actually restricting them, or putting a lot of fees and permits on them.  In my township, private developments have additional restrictions and/or fees.

(We’re moving from a development that says “Whatever, just give us money for it” to one that only permits leases of 6 months or more. And I’m very happy about it!)

 

We need this in Michigan. The number of homes along the lakes being snapped up for vacation rental only is staggering. I want to see state and local authorities get wickedly strict with zoning, and tax the freaking crap out of it to the point it is a losing proposition to invest in short term rentals. I also want to see a Coast Guard, First Responder fee of tens of thousands of dollars added to every one of those non-primary residence purchases so that we recoup the cost of all of the search and rescue, body recovery we do in this state for every dingaling who thinks swimming in the Lakes is no different from their backyard pool at home, kayaking on them having never kayaked before is cool, and other such nonsense that costs those of us living and working here an ungodly amount of money from Memorial Day to Labor Day to provide. There is a $1500 fee for dune climbing at Sleeping Bear if someone has to be rescued off the hill. It should be about $10,000. The current fee is a drop in the bucket to the actual cost of the rescue. 

 

[Carrie12345]

19 minutes ago, Faith-manor said:

We need this in Michigan. The number of homes along the lakes being snapped up for vacation rental only is staggering. I want to see state and local authorities get wickedly strict with zoning, and tax the freaking crap out of it to the point it is a losing proposition to invest in short term rentals. I also want to see a Coast Guard, First Responder fee of tens of thousands of dollars added to every one of those non-primary residence purchases so that we recoup the cost of all of the search and rescue, body recovery we do in this state for every dingaling who thinks swimming in the Lakes is no different from their backyard pool at home, kayaking on them having never kayaked before is cool, and other such nonsense that costs those of us living and working here an ungodly amount of money from Memorial Day to Labor Day to provide. There is a $1500 fee for dune climbing at Sleeping Bear if someone has to be rescued off the hill. It should be about $10,000. The current fee is a drop in the bucket to the actual cost of the rescue. 

 

That’s actually brilliant, and I’m going to noodle on that a bit to see about wording a proposal.
There aren’t an overwhelming number of actual rescues that happen here, but there are TONS of calls for people who don’t know how to operate things and wind up with smoke, “gas smell”, and false alarms.
I know the regional police wind up with tons of other complaints to deal with, but those don’t set off signals throughout my whole house!

[DawnM]

4 hours ago, Pawz4me said:

I'm in NC. Last week we received a letter from a well regarded local real estate agency stating they're representing an "institutional client" who is buying property in the area. They offered a price for our house that would represent a 37.5 percent profit over what we paid for it less than five years ago. Our house is a fairly typical family home for this area--3 beds, 2.5 baths, on half an acre in a 1980s/1990s non-HOA neighborhood. It's not the type of neighborhood that historically in this area has rentals. But I think we're going to start seeing rentals pop up all over.

That doesn't surprise me

I got a notice from a friend who is a realtor telling me she can get more than Zillow prices on my house.   First of all, we just renovated for my dad, so we aren't interested, but 2nd of all......where are we supposed to go?   everything is going up.

And 3rd of all, by the time I pay all the realtor fees, etc....what benefit would it be?

Edited February 6, 2022 by DawnM

[Bootsie]

10 hours ago, Roadrunner said:

We could fix this if there was a political will. Tax the crap out of home purchases that aren’t primary residences, 50% tax on foreign purchases…. same with corporate purchases of residential properties…. I haven’t thought this through, but there are things we can do. We really need to prioritize primary residential purchases. 
 

Why do we need to prioritize primary residential purchases?  Home ownership has been prioritized in the US for the past century, but it has not in many other countries.  Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Denmark, for example, have lower home ownership rates than the US.

[Roadrunner]

15 minutes ago, Bootsie said:

Why do we need to prioritize primary residential purchases?  Home ownership has been prioritized in the US for the past century, but it has not in many other countries.  Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Denmark, for example, have lower home ownership rates than the US.

Because my neighboring district has 10 percent of kids who are homeless. They have been completely priced out from the rental market. Because if we didn’t buy our home, we couldn’t afford to pay rent now. And my children’s music teacher works full time at 75 and fears daily her rental will be sold to flippers (as her previous three rentals). Because most people would love to own a home, and having entire neighborhoods built and sold to overseas buyers who aren’t even here while people who actually live here are living in one room squalor doesn’t make sense. Because we have land and could use it better to develop than stupid McMansions. 

I am not for rent controls and while I really think public housing projects can really serve people well, most of us don’t want to live in them, and given the choice, people would rather work and own a little piece of their own house than be stacked up in soulless European projects depending on government largess.

I also have a Swiss friend who tells me they aren’t allowed to buy there because they live here. So I am not sure there are no priorities given to people who actually reside in Switzerland. But overall I won’t claim to be an expert on something I am not - how Europe handles its housing. I hear people aren’t all that happy there either. My family outright owns their apartments there though, so no rent or mortgage, but they live in multigenerational homes. And I don’t really understand why Europe is always being given as a better example in things I am not sure they are doing any better. Plus European densities are very different from ours. 

[Bootsie]

3 hours ago, Roadrunner said:

Because my neighboring district has 10 percent of kids who are homeless. They have been completely priced out from the rental market. Because if we didn’t buy our home, we couldn’t afford to pay rent now. And my children’s music teacher works full time at 75 and fears daily her rental will be sold to flippers (as her previous three rentals). Because most people would love to own a home, and having entire neighborhoods built and sold to overseas buyers who aren’t even here while people who actually live here are living in one room squalor doesn’t make sense. Because we have land and could use it better to develop than stupid McMansions. 

I am not for rent controls and while I really think public housing projects can really serve people well, most of us don’t want to live in them, and given the choice, people would rather work and own a little piece of their own house than be stacked up in soulless European projects depending on government largess.

I also have a Swiss friend who tells me they aren’t allowed to buy there because they live here. So I am not sure there are no priorities given to people who actually reside in Switzerland. But overall I won’t claim to be an expert on something I am not - how Europe handles its housing. I hear people aren’t all that happy there either. My family outright owns their apartments there though, so no rent or mortgage, but they live in multigenerational homes. And I don’t really understand why Europe is always being given as a better example in things I am not sure they are doing any better. Plus European densities are very different from ours. 

I agree that homelessness is a difficult social issue that society needs to address; I am less convinced that prioritizing home ownership helps address that issue.   I did not mean to suggest that European countries are doing better.  I wanted to suggest that although the US had placed a relatively high priority on home ownership over the past century, compared to other countries, I do not see that our outcome is convincingly better.  I have concerns that the US prioritizing home ownership has had downsides and that prioritizing it even more may result in even further problems.