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Comment by refurb | Hacker News Reader

Hilarious. Do governments not realize when you broadly offer things that improve affordability it just increases prices but doesn’t really get people into houses (except for a few first movers)?

It’s like fighting inflation by giving out money.

Canada offered 40 year mortgages (federally insured) and then quickly stopped when prices jumped with people maxing out their “lower payments”.

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They realise, they just care more about their older home owning voters than the younger ones.

What good are rising house prices unless you sell your house, and don't buy a new one? Presumably the vast majority of those older home owning voters still need their sole house to live in, so they don't benefit from rising prices (and may be harmed by them if property values are used to assess taxes).

I think the traditional narrative was that when you were ready to retire, you'd dramatically downscale your housing. Any children you raised were (presumably) moved out, and you no longer had to consider a commute, so you could sell the four-bedroom family house in an older, closer-to-the-city suburb for $N, and buy a two-bedroom condo/house/manufactured house in a further-afield retirement community for $N/3.

easy, you just gotta have more than one house.

Real estate are great investments, just don’t count your own residence as one.

> when you broadly offer things that improve affordability it just increases prices

reminds me of how 0-interest financing and 72-month loans have pushed vehicle prices ever higher.

I love the F-150 and they’re great trucks but I always felt it’s f*ked up a higher trim can easily cost more than an entry level Porsche

In the Scandinavian countries (excluding Denmark which is more of an issue of limited land) 50 year mortgages are the norm and they have high rates of home ownership.

There is nothing wrong with 50 year mortgages, my point is just that it does nothing for affordability once the market reaches equilibrium.

What is a normal downpayment percentage there?

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