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Tgo01
06-07-2014, 01:34 AM
This kind of puts things into perspective. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/06/walmart-buy-seattle_n_5460930.html?icid=maing-grid7|responsive|dl25|sec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D485384)


Walmart’s founding family could afford to buy every home in Seattle. Literally.

The Walton family's combined wealth of $154.8 billion is enough to purchase all 241,450 homes in the Emerald City, which are worth a total of $111.5 billion, according to an analysis published Thursday by real estate brokerage firm Redfin.

The Waltons' wealth is also more than enough to buy every single-family house, condo and townhouse in Dallas at $109.4 billion, Washington, D.C. at $109.2 billion or Miami at $92.8 billion.

“Given that the average American struggles to afford a home, we wanted to illustrate just how many homes the wealthiest among us could buy,” Tommy Unger, a data analyst at Redfin, wrote in a blog post. “For the sake of this illustration, we assumed that wealthy families, such as the Waltons of Walmart or the Koch brothers, would pool their money if they were going to purchase an entire city.”

Redfin used Forbes' wealth research and their own data on home prices in its analysis.

A representative for the Walton family did not immediately respond for comment.

Some cities could go to a standalone billionaire buyer.

Bill Gates -- with his $78.4 billion, according to Forbes’ most recent calculation -– would have money left over if he bought all 114,212 homes in Boston for $76.6 billion.

Investment titan Warren Buffett, valued at $65.8 billion, could buy up all 280,214 homes in Charlotte, North Carolina, the financial hub of the South, for $56.1 billion.

Google co-founder Larry Page, worth $30.8 billion, could afford all 99,964 homes in Boca Raton -- Florida’s flashy vacation spot for the wealthy –- for $29.5 billion.

“In this fictional real estate investment, the 30 billionaires on our list, with a combined fortune of $582 billion, could afford to own a staggering 6 percent of the total U.S. home equity,” Nela Richardson, Redfin’s chief economist, said in a statement.

Holy heck! I knew rich people were rich but god damn, that's kind of obscene.

Whatever happened to Bill Gates and Warren Buffett giving away half of their fortune? How are they the first and third richest person in the world again?

Androidpk
06-07-2014, 01:49 AM
Stop paying them so much to cut your grass.

Tgo01
06-07-2014, 01:54 AM
Stop paying them so much to cut your grass.

But they do such a good job :(

Warriorbird
06-07-2014, 07:36 AM
This kind of puts things into perspective. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/06/walmart-buy-seattle_n_5460930.html?icid=maing-grid7|responsive|dl25|sec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D485384)



Holy heck! I knew rich people were rich but god damn, that's kind of obscene.

Whatever happened to Bill Gates and Warren Buffett giving away half of their fortune? How are they the first and third richest person in the world again?

Even after giving away ridiculous amounts.

Latrinsorm
06-07-2014, 11:21 AM
The Waltons' wealth is also more than enough to buy every single-family house, condo and townhouse in Dallas at $109.4 billion, Washington, D.C. at $109.2 billion or Miami at $92.8 billion.Rockefeller's wealth would have been enough for all three. Thank goodness we embraced socialism around his time!

Valthissa
06-07-2014, 12:08 PM
the fictional part of the analysis is where the home prices stay static as they are bought up by one investor

crb
06-07-2014, 12:17 PM
the fictional part of the analysis is where the home prices stay static as they are bought up by one investor

... and how it is assumed they have that wealth in cash, instead of stock. The Walton's for instance, own more than 50% of Walmart's stock, which is the lion's share of their wealth. Just as the home prices go up as someone tries to buy every last house, if the Walton's tried to sell all their Walmart stock the stock would crash and they'd get pennies on the dollar.

Which also answers the prior question of how Bill Gates and Warren Buffet can still be so rich. It takes time to liquidate, donate, and transfer that kind of money, Bill cannot just sell ALL of his Microsoft stock at the drop of a hat. Plus, they only promises to do so on their deaths, so Bill's got time, and Buffet has a few weeks at least, though his mind is starting to go.

Tgo01
06-07-2014, 01:29 PM
the fictional part of the analysis is where the home prices stay static as they are bought up by one investor

They could do what Walt Disney did when he bought up land in Florida to build Disney World; hire lots of people to act as independent investors to buy up the houses so it doesn't rouse any suspicion and drive up the prices.


... and how it is assumed they have that wealth in cash, instead of stock. The Walton's for instance, own more than 50% of Walmart's stock, which is the lion's share of their wealth. Just as the home prices go up as someone tries to buy every last house, if the Walton's tried to sell all their Walmart stock the stock would crash and they'd get pennies on the dollar.

I'm sure they could liquidate their stocks a little at a time to have a minimal impact on their net worth.


Which also answers the prior question of how Bill Gates and Warren Buffet can still be so rich. It takes time to liquidate, donate, and transfer that kind of money, Bill cannot just sell ALL of his Microsoft stock at the drop of a hat.

I don't buy that. Couldn't he just donate shares directly to his own foundation? He doesn't have to sell the stocks first then donate the money.


Plus, they only promises to do so on their deaths

Actually the pledge is to donate half their fortune either during their life times or after they die.

Of course it's just a pledge and not like a contract or anything which is why Gates and Buffett are still raking in the dough. Just kind of makes them look like douche bags in my opinion. But they're rich Democrats so that kind of goes without saying.

/rimshot!

Dwaar
06-07-2014, 03:42 PM
Love articles like this. How dare someone be rich and successful!

If you are jealous of their wealth, then come up with an idea, sell/market it, then be relentless in developing it to astronomical heights.

http://www.incomediary.com/top-young-entrepreneurs

Lets take all their money too. How dare they be under 30 and that rich. Just isn't right, not when I still have college loans to pay off! (me being sarcastic).

Methais
06-07-2014, 04:33 PM
This kind of puts things into perspective. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/06/walmart-buy-seattle_n_5460930.html?icid=maing-grid7|responsive|dl25|sec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D485384)



Holy heck! I knew rich people were rich but god damn, that's kind of obscene.

Whatever happened to Bill Gates and Warren Buffett giving away half of their fortune? How are they the first and third richest person in the world again?

It's because of all the racism!

Latrinsorm
06-07-2014, 06:09 PM
Love articles like this. How dare someone be rich and successful!

If you are jealous of their wealth, then come up with an idea, sell/market it, then be relentless in developing it to astronomical heights.

http://www.incomediary.com/top-young-entrepreneurs

Lets take all their money too. How dare they be under 30 and that rich. Just isn't right, not when I still have college loans to pay off! (me being sarcastic).The article itself merely observes the wealth in question, it's value-neutral. Terry of course goes off on one of his dopamine-addled liberal biased rants about it, but that's not the article's fault.

Methais
06-08-2014, 12:20 AM
Terry of course goes off on one of his dopamine-addled liberal biased rants about it, but that's not the article's fault.

But he didn't mention anything about rich white non-liberals people being racist!

Latrinsorm
06-08-2014, 03:44 PM
He didn't type it, but he gives long narration out loud while he posts, complete with sarcasm. It's all he ever talks about.

Dwaar
06-08-2014, 03:47 PM
He didn't type it, but he gives long narration out loud while he posts, complete with sarcasm. It's all he ever talks about.

White people problems! :)

Tisket
06-08-2014, 04:13 PM
What a landlord's nightmare.

Dwaar
06-08-2014, 04:53 PM
What a landlord's nightmare.

Hmm.... wondering about this. Say someone did buy a whole city. Could they then receive the taxes collected in that city? That might work out if you got to double dip the rent and the taxes.