• Scientist

  • Beer Drinker

  • Advocate for distributed / user-supported communities and media

I wish that I was skinnier but I love beverages.

  • 2 Posts
  • 48 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 10th, 2023

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  • I’m not saying mortgages should completely go away. I’m sure a mortgage is the right decision for many people’s situations. It’s just the way that people talk about buying a house, a mortgage seems to be assumed. If it wasn’t just assumed then maybe people would put more thought into whether they want to save for a larger down payment (or the full price) or whether they want to pay $750,000 for a $400,000 house.
    I don’t know, maybe people see these numbers and think its a great deal. All I see is a bank making a huge amount of money from me that I would rather keep for myself. Also, if people stopped stretching their budget to the absolute limit with financing nonsense (3% down, variable rate loans, rate buydowns), in aggregate there would be less demand for houses at these high prices and sellers would have to start accepting lower offers.



  • That’s a good point. But the US is not offering this same path to citizenship to anyone willing to buy a house in rural Alabama. I assumed these visa programs were aimed at attracting wealthy foreigners which is why the US has something similar for anyone willing to invest $800K in a commercial enterprise. That’s why I was curious if $263K is considered relatively wealthy in Greece and could buy a house even in desirable areas. The fact that apparently this is not the case makes the goals of this program unclear.







  • Could you please elaborate on the claim that loans are essentially required for modern life in the US? You might be able to make the argument for a mortgage but even that is not absolutely required. Possibly student loans could be seen as required but those are largely government subsidized/administered and typically given out to younger people who haven’t yet gone through a bankruptcy.