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Comment by forz877 | Hacker News Reader

It's still not enough to dispute the parent's comment.

There isn't anyone poor getting rich off unemployment. It's not the reason for the housing boom.

You could buy houses in cash in half the cities in Ohio for 6 months unemployment + 3 stimulus checks. There are plenty of places like this in the US - Alabama, Mississippi, etc.

Sure - that is not the reason house prices in Marin are up 30%.

That's probably got more to do with central banks pushing up equities >30%. And probably because when you cut mortgage interest rates by 1 percentage point (which they did), you can afford ~15% more house.

In real terms - monthly payments for new housing purchases are down.

Sure, you could buy a house in the extremely small cities of Ohio with little to no jobs or economic future. I doubt many are. Almost all the population growth in the US is in major metro areas. If those cities are close to commute to Cleveland, Columbus, or Cincinnati, sure.

You could literally buy houses in Cleveland for less than $30k. 6 months of unemployment plus stimulus in Ohio was >$25k.

This is even more true for Detroit.

I live in the rust belt. No one is buying those 30k homes. Why? They're unmaintained, falling apart, need completely rewired, completely new plumbing. The housing stock in the rust belt is OLD. This is what makes prices "so cheap" to you lot looking in from the coasts.

But the reality is no one is buying the discount properties that need major work. They're in run down neighborhoods with vacancies everywhere and sit on the market for months. They're almost unsellable - many are held onto with the hope that a neighborhood will get gentrified. Cities like Detroit and Cleveland see Pittsburgh's resurgence and think that will happen there. But for every expensive Pittsburgh neighborhood there's a Clairton and McKeesport.

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