On: Secondary shops flooded with unicorn sellers

[sry_only_anon]

In places like SV and Vancouver housing prices are not strongly connected to the economic reach of the median person.

China has a middle class as big as the entire US, and a huge number of millionaires in USD, and an unstable, opaque state-run economy, so huge numbers of rich Chinese are buying real estate abroad to protect their wealth and to give their kids a life in the US.

I would be happy to see a movement to keep Chinese money out of the U.S. housing market, at least in places like SV.

[eru → sry_only_anon]

Why? If foreigners want to buy stuff, we call that exports. Just produce more of the stuff they want to buy. Ie build more apartments (= higher houses) in SV.

[nickgrosvenor → eru]

It doesn't work like that with housing, it's not a widget, it's fixed (to some degree)

[eru → nickgrosvenor]

Why? Especially SV has lots of tiny bungalows were you could build skyscrapers.

[KannO → eru]

Mostly local red tape, zoning laws, and NIMBYism

[eru → KannO]

Yes. And that's the problem. Not the foreigners.

[TheLogothete → sry_only_anon]

China has 300 million people middle class? Do you stop for a moment to listen to yourself? Middle class where? In China, earning $500/month?

[manigandham → TheLogothete]

Why not just find a source to better explain numbers?

You're right it's not that big but it's the biggest in the world: http://qz.com/523626/chinas-middle-class-has-overtaken-the-u...

[manigandham → sry_only_anon]

Seems more like 100M, not the entire US population: http://qz.com/523626/chinas-middle-class-has-overtaken-the-u...