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What happens when private equity buys homes in your neighborhood

(www.npr.org)
61 points pseudolus | 1 comments | 09 Sep 25 17:32 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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taeric ◴[09 Sep 25 18:20 UTC] No.45186175[source]▶
Glad to see the final section basically cover that this is not actually a problem. I sort of wish the headline was more of the "Why you shouldn't be worried about private equity buying your neighborhood."

Why and how did that ear worm infect so many people?

replies(2): >>45186253 #>>45187121 #
xnx ◴[09 Sep 25 18:24 UTC] No.45186253[source]▶
> Why and how did that ear worm infect so many people?

It's a story they want to believe.

The big bad out-of-town corporation is causing the housing crisis and not the complex web of dozens of factors: existing owners wanting to protect their largest asset, more people wanting to live in fewer places, inflation, tariffs on Canadian lumber, safety standards, etc.

replies(2): >>45186474 #>>45186536 #
Dig1t ◴[09 Sep 25 18:37 UTC] No.45186536[source]▶
Lumber is a tiny fraction of the cost of a house, the US produces a huge amount of lumber on its own. I don’t think there’s any real evidence to show that lumber tariffs have had a measurable impact on housing costs. Most housing is built with lumber from here.

Also the tariffs are new this year, housing costs have been a problem for much longer than just this year.

replies(2): >>45186649 #>>45187036 #
bombcar ◴[09 Sep 25 19:02 UTC] No.45187036[source]▶
Here's a "kit" for a 1,400 sq ft house: https://www.menards.com/main/building-materials/books-buildi...

$90k for materials.

Around here a 1,400 square goes for $385k (half a house, but there you go).

So materials are somewhere around a quarter of the cost. Land + foundation + utilities is another quarter; the rest is labor and profit.

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1. Dig1t ◴[09 Sep 25 19:14 UTC] No.45187242[source]▶
Yes very true, and lumber is a sub-category inside materials and it is not very expensive compared to the other materials like concrete, siding (fiber cement, stucco), roof material (metal, asphalt, tile), drywall, paint, plumbing, electrical. Of all those things lumber is a cheap line item.