as seen on tv
Senator
Mortgage rates are going up again but home prices aren't coming down: Why the housing market is out of whack | CNN Business
Popular press to Millennials: “You'll NEVER be able buy a home."
Millennials to boomers: “Drop dead!”
Literally. Drop dead. Some people are saying that the only way Millennials will be able to purchase their first home is when their parents die off, and flood the market with empty boomer homes. Others say the great extinction is already under way. Invasive boomers began overpopulating America in 1946 - especially places like California and Florida. Many of them are now - to put it delicately - Biden's age. Or Trump's. Or other not-dead-yet candidates like RFK Jr (69); Marianne Williamson (71); Mike Pence (only 64, but seems way older); Asa Hutchinson (72); Chris Christie – at age 60 – is the relative kid in this group. But with his eating disorder he could drop dead of a heart attack at any moment.
Don't blame this year's bumper crop of aging, out of touch candidates for skyrocketing home prices. All they did was hang onto life. And don't blame the 2008 housing bubble, like pundits (CNN link above) are trying to do. When has CNN ever gotten anything right about money, anyway? They're virtually bankrupt themselves.
CNN's premise is twofold. We should always have expected fantastic home price inflation after the 2008 housing bubble. And that home prices are still too low. Yes – they really said that. CNN also says people are unwilling to sell the current homes. Because their NEXT one has that newfangled sky-high mortgage rate. That part I can agree with. Which gets us back to the “why aren't you dead yet”? snark from chillen who be livin' in mom's basement. Or hanging in that $3,000 a month two bedroom apartment. And who can't afford to make student loan payments. The great boomer die off might solve the student loan crisis too, eh?
As usual, I have my own theory, which eludes financial experts like CNN, Rolling Stone, and the 15+ people running for president. It has to do with a crazy idea I once read about. It's called “supply and demand”.
Concept one – if NIMBYs continue to use their political muscle to prevent construction of affordable homes near their scenic oases, then there will be a SUPPLY shortage. And possible miles long tent cities, and street defecation, and . . . well, you get the idea.
And if a nation experiences uncontrolled immigration, then DEMAND for housing grows. Provided migrants actually get jobs, and aren't forced to live in tent cities.
If a nation constantly experiences mass immigration, but blocks construction of new homes, you might have the perfect storm.
But don't try to tell that to the boomer candidates named above. Most of them personally own two, or possibly three homes, already. And they've made politically savvy decisions to endorse zoning restrictions and welcome the influx of new migrants. Because the pundits are also chattering that a declining/aging national population is a problem.
Those pundits. Living in their exquisite homes, maintained by migrant lawn crews and tradesmen. You gotta love the way they think, eh? Heaven forbid they should have to mow their own lawns, or drive by an unexpected apartment complex. Their own property values could be adversely affected.
I'm just sayin . . .
