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Comment by JoshTriplett | Hacker News Reader

People who own a home, and don't have plans to move, would benefit from housing prices falling everywhere: property taxes go down, and other prices correlated with housing go down.

Two categories where people don't want pricing to go down:

If you have plans to move and prices aren't falling everywhere, the proceeds of a sale aren't enough to buy elsewhere.

And if your bank owns the home rather than you, falling prices screw you over because you owe far more to the bank than you could make by selling.

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That's not how property taxes work.

The cost/student doesn't go down just because local housing prices go down--which is where a lot of local taxes go to--and, in fact, the cost/student often goes up if you increase the population density.

That depends on the region. In many places they're based on property value, and in many of those places if your property value goes down you can apply to have your home re-assessed and get taxed according to the new value. (Conversely, if your property values go up your property taxes may go up accordingly, which can in some cases take people's homes from affordable to not affordable.)

Not if everybody's goes up or down.

> And if your bank owns the home rather than you, falling prices screw you over because you owe far more to the bank than you could make by selling.

So like what 99% of homes? If you rent you don't own it, if you own a condo you don't own it, if you own a house outright you are probably close to 1%.

Most of Barcelona is rent/condos. There is not a ton of 250m2 mansions in downtown Barcelona.

Also, people who own multiple homes, and people who are in the biggest house they are likely to own and expect to downsize.

> people who are in the biggest house they are likely to own and expect to downsize

That's covered by the case of "property values go down everywhere"; you only have a problem if your property value goes down but the value of property you want to buy doesn't.

No, if you have a $1m house and you're intending to downsize to a $500k house, and they both lose half their value, that's $250k less in your pocket for retirement.

Too bad prop 13 means prices would have to drop significantly before any longterm CA homeowner would see any drop. And the valuation dropping that much wiping out so much of their "on paper" wealth would be very unpopular.

> People who own a home, and don't have plans to move, would benefit from housing prices falling everywhere

Right… you go and make that pitch. Run for mayor with it.

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