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submitted 4 weeks ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

Squeezed by high interest rates and record prices, homeowners are frozen in place. They can’t sell. So first-time buyers can’t buy.

If buying a home is an inexorable part of the American dream, so is the next step: eventually selling that home and using the equity to trade up to something bigger.

But over the past two years, this upward mobility has stalled as buyers and sellers have been pummeled by three colliding forces: the highest borrowing rates in nearly two decades, a crippling shortage of inventory, and a surge in home prices to a median of $434,000, the highest on record, according to Redfin.

People who bought their starter home a few years ago are finding themselves frozen in place by what is known as the “rate-lock effect” — they bought when interest rates were historically low, and trading up would mean a doubling or tripling of their monthly interest payments.

They are locked in, and as a result, families hoping to buy their first homes are locked out.

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[-] mipadaitu@lemmy.world 42 points 4 weeks ago

Maybe we shouldn't have kept interest rates at near zero for decades, especially when the economy was doing well. Maybe that would have eased the transition a bit.

[-] Bridger@sh.itjust.works 85 points 4 weeks ago

Maybe we shouldn't give tax Advantages to predatory corporate landlords.

[-] mipadaitu@lemmy.world 22 points 4 weeks ago

There's certainly a lot that can still be done, interest rates are just one lever.

Incentives to buy ONE home, but far less of them to get a second (and none, or start making big penalties for 3+)

[-] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 26 points 4 weeks ago

Or just prohibit corporate ownership of single family homes and townhouses. Let them build condos in walkable cities and leave the farmland alone.

[-] assembly@lemmy.world 8 points 4 weeks ago

This is such an obvious solution that I’m surprised there isn’t wider discussion on laws pushing this.

[-] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 13 points 4 weeks ago

Corporate real estate investors own a lot of politicians, and there is no organization or superpac that looks out for literally everyone who isn't rich. We don't have a seat at the table.

[-] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 3 points 4 weeks ago

first_time.jpg

[-] Bridger@sh.itjust.works 5 points 4 weeks ago

Progressive residential property tax rates. The first home, low tax. Second home, a bit higher. Third home, a bigger bit higher and so on until somewhere around the 8th or 10th one the annual rate hits 100% and keeps going.

[-] JJROKCZ@lemmy.world 9 points 4 weeks ago

Maybe we just shouldn’t let corporations own residential property and limit individuals to say 5-10 homes. That way we don’t have 4 corps owning all the homes and rich people can still have vacation homes in half a dozen states

[-] Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 3 points 4 weeks ago

Maybe we should maybe

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this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2024
204 points (95.9% liked)

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