Speaking with The Free Press back in December, Thiel pointed to the ideas of 19th-century economist Henry George to explain why homeownership is becoming a pipe dream for younger generations while older homeowners reap the benefits.

The Housing Market's Broken Math.

Thiel lays it out simply: When a city's population grows by 10%, housing prices can spike by 50%. But wages? They don't rise nearly as fast. So while the economy might be expanding, the real winners are homeowners—especially older generations, specifically boomers—while young and lower-middle-class Americans find themselves locked out of homeownership, struggling to compete in a market that keeps pushing prices higher.

"And it's a massive hit to the lower middle class and to young people who can never get on the housing ladder," Thiel said.

Why Rent, Not Eggs, Is the Real Inflation Problem.

People love to talk about inflation when egg prices jump a few bucks, but according to Thiel, that's not the real issue. "The really big cost item is the rent," he said. Even when grocery prices fluctuate, most people—especially the lower middle class—aren't seeing those costs eat up the bulk of their paycheck. Housing, on the other hand, is a different story.

Thiel argues that rent inflation has been ignored for too long. While some blame rising costs on immigration, he points to zoning laws and excessive regulations that make building new homes nearly impossible. If demand keeps growing and supply can't keep up, prices surge—leading to what he calls an "incredible wealth transfer" from young renters to older landlords and upper-middle-class homeowners.

What Needs to Change?
Thiel believes fixing the housing crisis starts with zoning reform—making it easier and cheaper to build homes. Right now, restrictive policies choke supply and drive up costs, leaving younger Americans priced out of the market. Without serious change, the gap between homeowners and renters will only widen, with long-term economic and social consequences.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/billionaire-peter-thiel-warns-looming-170746602.html

by coinfanking

31 comments

  1. I’m guessing if you ask him if rent or housing prices should decrease you’d get a very different answer. What he’s after is legislation that funnels more government money into inflating those rent and housing prices and which saddles renters and buyers with more debt. He’s not seeking to lower prices and make things easier for people to own.

  2. I understand that a lot of people respect Peter Thiel as an entrepreneur. Much as they have respected Elon Musk up until recently.

    However, we should really start to question his deeper motives and the role he is playing in the world. Which means we should also start to question his opinions on everything and stop idolizing him as an entrepreneur.

    Example:
    “But I must confess that over the last two decades, I have changed radically on the question of how to achieve these goals. Most importantly, I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible. By tracing out the development of my thinking, I hope to frame some of the challenges faced by all classical liberals today.”

    https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/education-libertarian/

    https://newrepublic.com/article/183971/jd-vance-weird-terrifying-techno-authoritarian-ideas

  3. He then took a newborn baby from under the podium and drained it of its life essence.

  4. If Peter Thiel said “water is wet”, I’d have serious doubts.

    Ending zoning is another of those long-held libertarian beliefs that are debatable.

  5. Bit late to the game, but OK.   Zoning laws alone ain’t gonna fix that problem.  

    Secondly we barely have any population growth, suggesting there certainly are other factors involved such changing preferences such as whether to live with other people.

    He needs a tax break and no regulations to make more $.  

    We need to sit back and wonder what exactly this USA looks like after the suburbs expand out 5 times where they currently are.

  6. He just want to pressure Powell to lower the rates. I am sure that lowering the rates in a period of high inflation will be great.

  7. It’s inflation, end of story. When you look across the range of assets, housing looks pretty good relative to all other choices. In fact, some would say it’s at the very top.

  10. What would happen if we prohibited companies from owning residential homes? Or at least limit it to a reasonable amount? I’m pretty sure they own millions of uninhabited homes now.

  11. I hate him with a passion, but he’s not entirely wrong here.

    Tackling the housing crisis is gonna take a multifaceted approach; cutting the red tape is a big piece of it.

  13. F that guy and everything that comes out of his tech-nazi mouth.

  14. This guy also needs his head cut off
    You could call it a spinal ‘catastrophe’

  15. Wages don’t rise as fast cuz people like thiel pay then out like molasses

  16. Though a lot needs changing, Thiel is not who I’m taking advice from. He does highlight some key data points that I will note.

  17. Don’t want to sound like a broken record seeing all the other reactions, but I wouldn’t trust that guy on anything related to common good. If you aren’t sure why, besides being a greedy techno oligarch, he follows the nut job Curtis Yarvin who reads like an incel teenager living in his parents’ basement who thinks he is smarter than anyone else in the world and obviously has never seriously read any philosophy.

  18. Yep, I’ve heard that regulations and red tape essentially add 35% to the price of a home. Great for bureaucrats, terrible for homebuyers.

  20. There’s no zoning in Houston, but that hardly means low rents.

  21. Older homeowners are not the beneficiaries when they have to pay private LTC fees of $5-10k/month for a bed in a retirement home. You made $1 million on your property? Better not live longer than 15 years after you sell it, bc that money will be in the hands of the LTC corporations by then, and when you’re broke, you’re on the street.

    This fuck, like any fuck who wants deregulation, wants it so he can do whatever tf he wants in regards to building materials and environmental impacts.

    How about we get rid of, or at least put limits on, VC in homeownership? Or tax AirBnBs enough that homes aren’t sitting empty half the year. Or instead of making statements like “wages don’t keep up” actually taking steps to significantly tax wealth so workers aren’t making 1/1200th of what CEOs make?

    Thiel is not a serious person.

  22. Why does Thiel “care”? If the housing market crashes, he & his super-rich dick friends will just buy up properties and start charging ass-gouging rent…that’s capitalism, right?

  23. Most people don’t realize this, but Peter Thiel is one the primary architects behind Project 2025. He is a big subscriber of [Curtis Yarvin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Yarvin)’s radical “techno feudalism”. Essentially he believes that only businesses / corporations should have any legal power or any vote in government affairs. Not only that, but they believe the government itself should be essentially a monarchy with a power structure exactly like that of a corporation. Of all the conspiratorial billionaires out there to be terrified of, Peter Thiel should near the top of your list. Anything he says or warns of should be taken with a truckload of salt.

  24. Plenty of housing in Vegas.

    Just owned by corporate investors

  25. “The cost of home ownership is too high, come and live in my corporate city on my recently purchased-at-a-discount federal land where all of your needs will be taken care of (as long as you work for the company)”. Proceeds to recreate slavery with more steps.

  26. The problem with the price of homes is that other people have more money than you, or want them more than you, so they buy them at prices you’re unwilling or unable to go to. The cure is to build our way out. When there are more available homes than buyers the price comes down.

    There’s another way to reduce the buyers to homes ratio but it’s antisocial so I will leave it as an exercise for the reader. It might come to that

  29. Peter Thiel is a behind the scenes oligarch more dangerous than musk or trump.

  30. And that’s how he starts building his company towns

  31. Ah, it’s for the people for which he has struggled to find an “alternative to genocide.” Certainly nothing to do with his “grey zones.” /s

    So depressing that I expect those currently cheering their own demise will believe this as well.

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