RE: Supercharger on Loan

Wow those interest rates are fantastic to the ones we are seeing over here. Hopefully the housing market is not as nuts there too. 2020 would have been a great time to get into the market here as prices managed to blow up over Covid due to lack of demand and the rich snapping up bargains at the hands of those in financial peril due to lockdowns and such.

I was lucky enough to get into the housing market 20 years ago. Back then it seemed I was probably paying too much but the prices are 4x what they were then so it was a good investment. Even carpetbagging my initial investment to move to a small town and get twice the house at half the price has worked out well. Even in this house, the value is 3x what we spent on it at least and that is in a slightly cooling market.

As supply has been screwed with by investors buying extra properties, they have compounded the problem by converting them into air BnBs, effectively taking them off the market for renters. So, prices are way up to buy, and so is rent as so many of them sit empty 80% of the time so that they can become hotel rooms.

I feel sorry for those starting their lives and families out of school. Entry level salaries are probably close to what they were 20 years ago and prices on homes and rentals are at least 4x. That math does not work. I believe I may have kids living at home after college! AGH!

While having a big capital asset with not that much mortgage remaining is a good thing, it certainly doesn't help with disposable income or lifestyle! I will sit on (in?) that investment like I do on my Hive capital!

I was lucky enough to get into the housing market 20 years ago.

As was I! - 25 actually - but it got sold after I came to Finland to help cover my mum's expenses due to cancer. That same house now is about 3x as well... crazy.

As supply has been screwed with by investors buying extra properties, they have compounded the problem by converting them into air BnBs, effectively taking them off the market for renters.

This has been a massive issue in Australia from what I hear. Renters can't afford to rent or buy, and there are heaps of empty apartments, making their money being rented out a couple days a week.

Entry level salaries are probably close to what they were 20 years ago and prices on homes and rentals are at least 4x.

This was an interesting article from a few months back:

A house used to cost the same as 6000 slabs of VB in the 1980s, so buying a house meant giving up buying 6000 slabs of VB. That’s a six-pack every day for 65 years! That might seem like a lot of beer, but what you give up now is even more: a house costs the same as 16,000 slabs of VB!

"Slab of VB" = 24 pack of Victoria Bitter beer.

https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/australian-economy/how-many-slabs-of-vb-it-takes-to-buy-a-house/news-story/89b555ef2685ba51ed6e20616aeef8c6