<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>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>ajross</author><text>&amp;gt; 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&lt;p&gt;These people are &lt;i&gt;property owners in Berkeley, California&lt;/i&gt;.   While I&amp;#x27;m sure yarns can be spun about the difference between asset value and cash liquidity, this is just not an impoverished class, sorry.  They&amp;#x27;ve seen their property values go through the roof, then the trees, now through the first cloud layer into the open sky with eyes toward low orbit.  Arguing that they don&amp;#x27;t have an &amp;quot;alternative&amp;quot; is a little spun.&lt;p&gt;To wit: cry me a river.  Build those homes.</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>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>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></comment>