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Sounds like you want a super liquid asset that's not actually an asset because it doesn't appreciate, and also it needs to be really easy to buy, cheaply. That's unlikely to happen and what we have right now is probably as close as one can get to that.

I wasn't saying that coops or TICs are ideal, just that they show what happens when you remove the speculative and investment aspect as well as the subsidy of below-market interest rates and mortgages that any idiot can qualify for. The result is prices which are lower by 10-20%.

People seem to want an engineered, top-down, state provided solution that makes homeownership more affordable. But we've already tried many of those solutions and they just inflate prices and encourage speculation and securitization.

A better approach might be to end the various implicit and explicit subsidies on mortgages and homeownership, keep speculators, investors, and big developers out of the market, and focus on owner occupied dwellings. I think this would disinflate the housing market and allow it to get back to where it should be.

discuss

awongh|6 months ago

> end the various implicit and explicit subsidies on mortgages and homeownership, keep speculators, investors, and big developers out of the market, and focus on owner occupied dwellings

Yes, totally agree. I think my impression of TIC is that it's a legal loophole because condo-izing buildings isn't politically tenable, but offering a worse option is. A TIC owner still owns an asset but now it's just devalued because it's harder to sell.

My original thought was that a true co-op without the pressure of the owners accumulating pent-up capital in their home would be a healthier situation. Maybe that lost value can basically be recouped to make the overall cost of ownership lower. Maybe a different co-op legal structure makes it easier to pay a true market rate to live in an owner occupied dwelling, for a slightly different definition of "owner" (someone who doesn't plan to profit off the appreciation of their home, but still "owns" a place to live).