• bassomitron@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I doubt it’d fix the housing crisis here, but it would certainly help. I’m not sure how many people would warm up to it, though. A large part of our problem is that there isn’t any affordable housing. The fact the average house cost in 2023 was around $450,000 is insane, especially given the median income in the US was roughly $75,000 in 2022.

    So yes, being able to buy back our mortgage’s bonds at their market value may be a boon, but the fact that the Dane’s require at least 20% down for their system to work would be a nonstarter for so many people. Roughly 65% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. A small minority of people are going to have the ~$80,000 to required to put down on a $450,000 house. Ultimately, turning housing into such a profitable investment option has led us to this situation, as having fewer houses means the existing houses are worth more and will only increase in value, making it a much more attractive investment than building new housing en masse.

    • GiddyGap@lemm.eeOP
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      5 months ago

      require at least 20% down for their system to work would be a nonstarter for so many people.

      That’s not really how it works, though. You actually only have a to put down 5 percent or more in Denmark. Much like the US.

      The difference is that, in Denmark, the mortgage (the loan with the covered bond) can only finance 80 percent of the value, the rest can be financed by a regular bank loan. So 80 percent mortgage and 15 percent bank loan.

      • bassomitron@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        I was going off of the article, which stated that 20% is required in Denmark. Seems that they didn’t specify that well, so I apologize for the ignorance.

    • space@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      5 months ago

      A much bigger impact would have tearing down all the stupid parking spaces and changing zoning regulations to build higher density housing. The urban sprawl is unsustainable long term.