One reason I am so rabidly pro-WFH for my career: I have hard data that shows I'm much more relaxed and at ease.
@nocoursewalks I just plain am not going to invest financially in going to work in person somewhere if every fluctuation in the stock market/investor sentiment is a 1 in 5 chance of getting laid off. I would need something a lot more solid to ever want to mess with that when I got the legendary 2% mortgage deal.
@h_thoreson @nocoursewalks It's fascinating to think about how all the period of all-time low mortgage rates affects the broader economy.
- risk averseness in the labor market (as you identified)
- reluctance to sell
@h_thoreson @nocoursewalks the fact that we have 30-year fixed-rate mortgages is pretty remarkable. But the fact that you can't sell your position as the debtor nor shift the mortgage to a different property affects liquidity of housing.
@h_thoreson @nocoursewalks Yeah, liquidity is relative. But it seems suboptimal to have people not selling when they would otherwise want to if they're golden handcuffed to a sweet mortgage.
It's certainly also debatable whether 30yr fixed mortgages are good policy, to begin with. There are a lot of externalities.
Also, in the bigger picture, it seems like a land value tax would help with more efficient land use.
@acjay @nocoursewalks Real estate isn't ever going to be a liquid asset, it's worth remembering that loads of RE wealth is tied up in commercial assets, empty farmland/speculative holdings for future development, etc that can't really be used as housing or anything either. But somebody out there owns all that stuff too and either leverages that stuff effectively (or not)