Google, Amazon and other powerful groups are renaming American cities and neighborhoods. That may make the area more appealing to newcomers – but, in many cases, residents aren’t happy.
The Conversation played host to really important new ideas in 2018. Some will take years to develop. Others will never come to fruition. But they’re important.
Flooding due to climate change may make coastal homes less valuable.
AP Photo/Julio Cortez
Most renters are happy with their landlords and happy with the quality of their accommodation, but they would like better security of tenure and cheaper rent.
A cleverly-designed auction can make sure strata-titled apartment blocks are only sold when all of the owners are happy.
Tom Rabe/AAP
It’s not fair to evict people against their will. On the other hand, one holdout shouldn’t be able to derail the sale of an entire strata-titled apartment block. Now an international team has come up with an ingenious solution.
Whether there is a floor beneath which cuts in interest rate are ineffective depends in part on house prices.
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It is thought that it doesn’t help much to cut official interest rates toward or beyond zero, and maybe it doesn’t, but new research suggests the answer has a lot to do with the housing market.
Vendors in Australia are not legally obliged to tell prospective buyers about past crimes such as murder committed on the property.
Dan Peled/AAP
It’s still mostly a case of ‘buyer beware’ when it comes to finding out about a property. But many buyers feel they should be told if, for example, it was the scene of a violent murder.
Beach erosion in Nags Head, North Carolina, photographed May 15, 2005.
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Many US coastal towns are building defenses to protect against rising seas and storms. This can encourage people to stay in place when they should be moving inland.
Selling a home can trigger capital gains.
Reuters/Mark Blinch
The Trump administration is considering a change to how capital gains taxes are calculated that would save investors roughly $100 billion over a decade.
The U.S. is the biggest destination for Chinese foreign investment.
Jason Lee/Pool Photo via AP
Chinese investment in the US has never been high, but the ongoing trade war could dampen it further, with significant long-term repercussions.
Millennials dream of home ownership. In expensive cities like Toronto and Vancouver, they’re saving up to buy homes by living with their parents or taking on tenants once they save up enough to buy.
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Canada’s millennials want to own homes in the country’s most expensive cities, Toronto and Vancouver. Here’s how they’re managing to do so, but is it sustainable?
Will Sydney’s property market calm down now? Don’t bet on it.
AAP Image/Joel Carrett
Foreign investment in Australian property has plummeted by more than half, signalling an apparent end to the China-fuelled real estate frenzy. Along the way we learned some useful lessons about boom and bust.
Being a property investor or house hunter appears to make Sydneysiders more supportive of foreign investment in residential real estate.
Tracey Nearmy/AAP
You’d perhaps expect property investors not to mind foreign investors who might push up prices. More surprisingly, house hunters are also more supportive than those who are not looking to buy.
The report examined housing affordability in Perth through individual transaction records over a six year sample period.
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