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Comment by sbov | Hacker News Reader

Speaking personally, the value of my house means little to me. I plan to live in this region for a long time - when my house goes up, other houses in the region go up. When my house goes down, other houses in the region go down. My house may be worth $1million, but selling it and buying another will get me the same house as when it was worth $500k.

It only matters if I decide to sell it AND move somewhere else. Which probably isn't going to happen.

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I just want to make it clear that this is a choice you're afforded because of the value of your home.

You (quite literally) have a million-dollar offer on the table to move to, say, Austin, TX (or dozens of other great cities). The fact that you choose not to accept that offer does not negate the existence of the offer. The offer is always there. And this is a very real asset that you have (that, I hope it's clear, most people don't have), whether you choose to acknowledge it or not.

Not if your source if income isn't there, or if needed amenities aren't nearby.

I'm sorry, but no. If you have a million-dollar gold statue of a pig that you're unwilling to sell, your unwillingness doesn't even enter into it. You still have the million-dollar statue and it's still worth a million dollars. It doesn't matter what rationale you provide for not selling it. It just doesn't matter. Those reasons seem important to you. But they aren't important in assessing the value of the statue.

You can't live in a statue of a pig.

Value of primary residence isn't even considered part of your net worth. It exists, but it's not fungible like other assets.

This response is why you should never use analogies.

I used the pig statue analogy in the same sense as your original.

Anything you own that has value, but is not your primary residence, is intrinsically different from your primary residence.

And that difference is reflected in standard financial metrics.

Speaking of moving - a downside of prop 13 is that people used to upgrade / downgrade their houses. Have kids? Get a little bigger house. Retire? Downsize.

So now people buy in and don't move.

IIRC you can usually transfer your tax advantaged status to the same county if you buy a smaller place. It's a little restrictive but it still enables you to downgrade.

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