<story><title>The Great American Single-Family Home Problem</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/01/business/economy/single-family-home.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lisper</author><text>Some people want to live in a place that looks like this:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.unitedcountry.com&amp;#x2F;CountryHomes&amp;#x2F;img&amp;#x2F;Country_Homes_7.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.unitedcountry.com&amp;#x2F;CountryHomes&amp;#x2F;img&amp;#x2F;Country_Homes_...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;and some people want to live in a place that looks like this:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cmgsite.com&amp;#x2F;wp-content&amp;#x2F;uploads&amp;#x2F;2015&amp;#x2F;03&amp;#x2F;Presidio-Landmark-0031.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cmgsite.com&amp;#x2F;wp-content&amp;#x2F;uploads&amp;#x2F;2015&amp;#x2F;03&amp;#x2F;Presidio-...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;and some people want to live in a place that looks like this:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;upload.wikimedia.org&amp;#x2F;wikipedia&amp;#x2F;commons&amp;#x2F;2&amp;#x2F;23&amp;#x2F;Hong_Kong_Skyline_Restitch_-_Dec_2007.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;upload.wikimedia.org&amp;#x2F;wikipedia&amp;#x2F;commons&amp;#x2F;2&amp;#x2F;23&amp;#x2F;Hong_Kon...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;The problem is that someone who moves to the first type of place doesn&amp;#x27;t want to have to move again when it turns into the second type of place, and someone who moves to the second type of place doesn&amp;#x27;t want to move again when it turns into the third type of place.  It&amp;#x27;s not entirely unreasonable.</text></item><item><author>leggomylibro</author><text>People are selfish; if they make a big investment and you&amp;#x27;re about to reduce its value, they will fight tooth and nail. Any conversation about &amp;#x27;right&amp;#x27;, &amp;#x27;wrong&amp;#x27;, &amp;#x27;moral&amp;#x27;, it all goes out the window.&lt;p&gt;It really sucks that so much of peoples&amp;#x27; value is often tied up in a single property. It would be a gobsmackingly terrible investment decision, if you didn&amp;#x27;t need shelter to live reasonably well.&lt;p&gt;So let&amp;#x27;s be clear. These people are being incredibly selfish, and that is reprehensible. But they also don&amp;#x27;t really have a good alternative that wouldn&amp;#x27;t lose them a lot of money in a time where, if they&amp;#x27;re not in the class that owns multiple houses, they&amp;#x27;re already struggling. And that is sort of ameliorating imo.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bradleyjg</author><text>I rent my apartment. I know that I might have to move. The people that own the building might want to do something else with it and since they own it that&amp;#x27;s their choice.&lt;p&gt;Single family homeowners own their own homes. It can&amp;#x27;t get sold out from underneath them. But they don&amp;#x27;t own the plots next store or across the street. If their happiness with their living situation is dependent on those plots having the same buildings on them then they need to buy those plots too. Then they get to decide what happens to them.&lt;p&gt;A homeowner NIMBYite is exactly the same as a renter that agitates for imposing rent control.</text></comment>
<story><title>The Great American Single-Family Home Problem</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/01/business/economy/single-family-home.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lisper</author><text>Some people want to live in a place that looks like this:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.unitedcountry.com&amp;#x2F;CountryHomes&amp;#x2F;img&amp;#x2F;Country_Homes_7.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.unitedcountry.com&amp;#x2F;CountryHomes&amp;#x2F;img&amp;#x2F;Country_Homes_...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;and some people want to live in a place that looks like this:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cmgsite.com&amp;#x2F;wp-content&amp;#x2F;uploads&amp;#x2F;2015&amp;#x2F;03&amp;#x2F;Presidio-Landmark-0031.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cmgsite.com&amp;#x2F;wp-content&amp;#x2F;uploads&amp;#x2F;2015&amp;#x2F;03&amp;#x2F;Presidio-...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;and some people want to live in a place that looks like this:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;upload.wikimedia.org&amp;#x2F;wikipedia&amp;#x2F;commons&amp;#x2F;2&amp;#x2F;23&amp;#x2F;Hong_Kong_Skyline_Restitch_-_Dec_2007.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;upload.wikimedia.org&amp;#x2F;wikipedia&amp;#x2F;commons&amp;#x2F;2&amp;#x2F;23&amp;#x2F;Hong_Kon...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;The problem is that someone who moves to the first type of place doesn&amp;#x27;t want to have to move again when it turns into the second type of place, and someone who moves to the second type of place doesn&amp;#x27;t want to move again when it turns into the third type of place.  It&amp;#x27;s not entirely unreasonable.</text></item><item><author>leggomylibro</author><text>People are selfish; if they make a big investment and you&amp;#x27;re about to reduce its value, they will fight tooth and nail. Any conversation about &amp;#x27;right&amp;#x27;, &amp;#x27;wrong&amp;#x27;, &amp;#x27;moral&amp;#x27;, it all goes out the window.&lt;p&gt;It really sucks that so much of peoples&amp;#x27; value is often tied up in a single property. It would be a gobsmackingly terrible investment decision, if you didn&amp;#x27;t need shelter to live reasonably well.&lt;p&gt;So let&amp;#x27;s be clear. These people are being incredibly selfish, and that is reprehensible. But they also don&amp;#x27;t really have a good alternative that wouldn&amp;#x27;t lose them a lot of money in a time where, if they&amp;#x27;re not in the class that owns multiple houses, they&amp;#x27;re already struggling. And that is sort of ameliorating imo.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Groxx</author><text>Not entirely unreasonable, definitely.  But it seems somewhat expect-able over the course of a lifetime.  A lifetime ago the world was a rather different place, and I imagine the same was true of the lifetime before that.&lt;p&gt;Seems like you either stay and fight (which history implies does not work) or keep moving to new similar-to-before places.  Always.  Expecting otherwise is not entirely reasonable either.</text></comment>