re: Why are homeownership rates precipitously declining?

quote:

---

No its not. In many aspects it may be easier. You are looking to buy a home in a fictitious bubble, that's not life

---

By the time everyone realizes a bubble is a bubble it is too late. That's kinda the nature of the beast. I'm not say there is a huge bubble (if I thought so, I wouldn't be looking). What I am saying is that if you are taking a house as an investment you have to factor in some risk of a downturn in the market.

quote:

---

Rates are super low, in the 80s rates were 8-10%+. Yet many people did it. We have websites like Zillow and the property appraisers are all online now so you can see housing prices and trends almost instantly. You could never do that in the past, without spending days of work you had no idea in the 1990s and before what houses sold for outside of what your Realtor told youl

---

Yes rates are good right now, but making a bad move because you can get a good rate isn't a good choice. That is similar thinking to people getting adjustable rate mortgages. Buy a house you can afford and feel secure in your investment, don't make hasty moves based on rates. Yes we have more access to information now, but that doesn't actually lead to any competitive advantage in the market since everyone has the same information.

quote:

---

Section 8 housing and neighborhoods don't change that much over time. If you buy in a neighborhood of $200k houses they aren't going to turn to section 8, that's a laughable idea.

---

You don't understand how neighborhoods work and how this stuff affects the urban core. Sure they aren't going to go bulldoze $200,000 houses to build Sec. 8 (though $200,00 is probably worth a lot less than you think it is in a big city). They can and will though put Sec. 8 properties in area near your gentrification. You wind up buying into an area you think is up and coming until 5 years down the road, the gentrified area is surrounded by Sec. 8 housing and/or rapidly deteriorating private apartments.

I've been looking at houses. This literally does happen because I've seen it.

quote:

---

I'm not saying you can buy any house and live there forever care free. But there are plenty of ways to conservatively buy a house even if you plan to move every 4-5 years that will get you to owning a home outright between 50-60 years of age.

---

If things go according to plan, yes. If you go upside down on a mortgage or two... Or have to pay some big out of pocket maintenance then that plan can be shot to shite. As I've said I'm looking to buy, so I don't think it is an awful move. Right now the rental market is really good though.

quote:

---

That bubble was a 2 or 3 years in a century type of thing, and if you didn't see the risk at the time you had your head in the sand.

---

This is laughable.