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Why Rent Is So High and Pay So Low

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11–20 of 229 posts

Re: Why Rent Is So High and Pay So Low

#11
How many people died during WW2? It all seems like supply and demand to me. If we want lower housing prices in major cities we need more supply. Anecdotal, L.A. is built to the max horizontally. If L.A. would allow more vertical space to be used prices would drop.

Re: Why Rent Is So High and Pay So Low

#12
post #6

This article doesn't answer the question and seems primary based on nostalgia. My theory: the Fed's zero interest rate policy is very good at inflating asset values: S&P500, housing, you name it. Rising income is a second-order effect: we hope that rising asset values will lead to increased wages. That used to be the case, but no longer is. Why? Because of automation and globalization probably. So, the Fed has the pe…

The reason asset prices rise first in a fed led recovery is because new money enters the system through bank loans. Naturally, banks want to lend against hard assets, so the first thing that new money buys is property, stocks and other income producing assets.

Re: Why Rent Is So High and Pay So Low

#14

you dont know high cost of living with low salary if you haven't lived in vancouver, bc. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/1/d/18UwaThgGikSXzinn... You can see based on that the average is around $45~50k CAD (if the salary field is blank assume $50k or less as these are less well known, smaller companies with tighter budgets) rent for studio or 1 bedroom apartment in downtown area where lot of jobs are located i…

Portland, OR is getting pretty bad as well. Average cost to own a home in 2015 is $313,000[1]. I can't find a current house hold income figure but I know it's pretty low. Definitely below the national average IIRC.

The thing to note is that many of those houses selling for ~$300k are very small (1. http://www.movingtoportland.net/wp-content/uploads/AverageMe...

Re: Why Rent Is So High and Pay So Low

#15
post #6

This article doesn't answer the question and seems primary based on nostalgia. My theory: the Fed's zero interest rate policy is very good at inflating asset values: S&P500, housing, you name it. Rising income is a second-order effect: we hope that rising asset values will lead to increased wages. That used to be the case, but no longer is. Why? Because of automation and globalization probably. So, the Fed has the pe…

This is not a bug it is a feature. The rich are a lot smarter today than when they were the descendants of feudal landlords - 100 years of meritocracy combined with assortative mating makes for a very clever ruling class. Edit. Spelling.

Not exactly true, back in feudal times just being able to read was quite a privilege. They also had a lock on information.

We're much more on equal footing in terms of ability to gain information. Whether we act on the information is another issue.

Re: Why Rent Is So High and Pay So Low

#16
(60 * 12) / 5000 = 14.4% which is about 1/7th not 1/10th.

Kinda depressing where there is a glaring math error in the 2nd sentence.

Edit: Well I suppose the NY median wage could have been higher than the US median wage that he quotes, but who knows? He doesn't even say.

Re: Why Rent Is So High and Pay So Low

#17
post #6

This article doesn't answer the question and seems primary based on nostalgia. My theory: the Fed's zero interest rate policy is very good at inflating asset values: S&P500, housing, you name it. Rising income is a second-order effect: we hope that rising asset values will lead to increased wages. That used to be the case, but no longer is. Why? Because of automation and globalization probably. So, the Fed has the pe…

The reason asset prices rise first in a fed led recovery is because new money enters the system through bank loans. Naturally, banks want to lend against hard assets, so the first thing that new money buys is property, stocks and other income producing assets.

This time is different. The new money enters the system via central bank asset purchases, which lower the returns on those assets. These purchases push investors into asset classes with higher returns, raising the prices of all assets as a result.

Re: Why Rent Is So High and Pay So Low

#18
post #6

This article doesn't answer the question and seems primary based on nostalgia. My theory: the Fed's zero interest rate policy is very good at inflating asset values: S&P500, housing, you name it. Rising income is a second-order effect: we hope that rising asset values will lead to increased wages. That used to be the case, but no longer is. Why? Because of automation and globalization probably. So, the Fed has the pe…

> If you asked the person in the street, “Why are interest rates so low?”, he or she would likely answer that the Fed is keeping them low. That’s true only in a very narrow sense...

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/ben-bernanke/posts/2015/03/30...

Re: Why Rent Is So High and Pay So Low

#19
Funny, if you look at news and popular media from the 1970s you get the impression is was an awful time economically and pretty much everyone agreed we were doomed. Rents were cheap in NYC in the 1970s? I don't doubt it; ever seen "Taxi Driver"? Yes rent control is great for people in rent controled apartments. The flip side is that as demand rises everyone who hasn't been in NYC for 40 years is SOL...which seems analogous to the complaint the author makes at the end about middle aged home owners vs new renters. As a renter, I agree the current situation is ridiculous but the author doesn't explain it. He just notes who has incentive to favor the current situation and winks

Re: Why Rent Is So High and Pay So Low

#20

you dont know high cost of living with low salary if you haven't lived in vancouver, bc. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/1/d/18UwaThgGikSXzinn... You can see based on that the average is around $45~50k CAD (if the salary field is blank assume $50k or less as these are less well known, smaller companies with tighter budgets) rent for studio or 1 bedroom apartment in downtown area where lot of jobs are located i…

What is the typical rent and the typical salary (For developers) in Vancouver?
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