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The Rise of Renting in the U.S

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Re: The Rise of Renting in the U.S

#221

Post by lowglow »

lawpoop wrote: post #200
lowglow wrote: post #64

I've sorta turned my back on the standard american dream. Racing to new areas of growth, working to build someone else's dream, getting paid well immediately for performance, paying high rent, etc to afford the image of success, and making friends that participate in this same high ambition culture. Instead of making markets, markets start making you. All the rules, and "norms" we've collected around ourselves to par…

Where do you park your van, and how often do you shower? Also, do you worry about your van being broken in to while you're not there?

I park it wherever, but mostly try to stick to cities where it's legal to sleep in your van. While I have parked in San Francisco, Redwood City, and San Jose, right now I'm crashing in and around Palo Alto, CA.

I shower every morning at my local 24 hour super sport gym. I'm a sucker for hygiene.

I don't really worry about my van being broken into because I think I tend to stay in low crime neighborhoods. I'm also not really attached to any material possessions contained within. Things come and go, no need to worry about them while they're here.

I'm writing a tongue-in-cheek book about the van life experience tentatively called "Tech Bubble Burst: A survival guide to living in and out of your van." It's been a blast of experience so far. :)

Re: The Rise of Renting in the U.S

#222

Post by Tsagadai »

rhapsodic wrote: post #121
Animats wrote: post #117

Cheerleading for higher house prices used to be widespread, and was a big part of the problem. It's inflation, people. It's still the same house, for more money. The median house historically costs about 2.2x the median income. That number hit 4x nationally in 2007, and 10x in California. It's not that high this time, but it's still very high by historical standards.[1] San Francisco hit 10.5x in 2007, and now it's a…

> It may be time to look at applying antitrust laws to rental real estate. Or better yet, look at repealing or modifying the laws that keep the supply of housing from rising along with the demand.

Have you been to China lately? Many Chinese cities are what happens when you allow supply to meet demand. Prices don't necessarily come down with increased supply because it also increases speculation (and contrary to economists believes we are not rational actors). Demand also follows supply, if you increase supply there is often an increase in demand because now people can move to $desirable_location.

Re: The Rise of Renting in the U.S

#223

Post by Tsagadai »

Kluny wrote: post #173
rm_-rf_slash wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are dead right about small cities. There are like 3 landlords aside of the (big) colleges where I live, and rent is a nightmare. It doesn't help that one very infamous landlord prefers to leave storefronts in vital communities vacant instead of lower the rates, just because he still makes money by leveraging his properties for his investments in China.

Sounds like Vancouver, or maybe Victoria. I wish they would tax the everliving fuck out of vacant storefronts. Whatever price the owner intends to rent for, they have to pay that amount to the city every single month the place is vacant, with strict enforcement and publishing the rent prices so that they can't jack it up once someone moves in. And let the tax money go to homeless shelters for all the people who are o…

I wish my local government would do this. Businesses and industrial sites should be taxed at significantly higher rates if they are vacant to encourage businesses or repurposing. This would encourage owners to lease sites or sell them up for redevelopment instead of just holding onto them and allowing them to flourish as ruins in the middle of otherwise vibrant areas.

Re: The Rise of Renting in the U.S

#224

Post by entee »

kilbuz wrote: post #24

The statistic that went most against my intuition is that San Francisco has the one of the lowest 'rent burdens' in the US. That is, rent as a percentage of income is on the low end and equivalent with many Midwestern cities. I'm guessing that the typical SF renter paying 25% of income on rent may be dealing with a lot less space (and more roommates) compared to someone in Pittsburgh or Minneapolis.

I think it's also that SF has fairly high income inequality, which means that their statistics for rental burden a prone to being misleading.

Re: The Rise of Renting in the U.S

#225

Post by seizethecheese »

Tsagadai wrote: post #222
rhapsodic wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It may be time to look at applying antitrust laws to rental real estate. Or better yet, look at repealing or modifying the laws that keep the supply of housing from rising along with the demand.

Have you been to China lately? Many Chinese cities are what happens when you allow supply to meet demand. Prices don't necessarily come down with increased supply because it also increases speculation (and contrary to economists believes we are not rational actors). Demand also follows supply, if you increase supply there is often an increase in demand because now people can move to $desirable_location.

> Many Chinese cities are what happens when you allow supply to meet demand.

Um, no. Chinese cities are a direct result of government policies to boost GDP through construction and are the supply of housing has little to do with market forces.

Re: The Rise of Renting in the U.S

#226

Post by nether »

seivan wrote: post #89
lowglow wrote: post #64

I've sorta turned my back on the standard american dream. Racing to new areas of growth, working to build someone else's dream, getting paid well immediately for performance, paying high rent, etc to afford the image of success, and making friends that participate in this same high ambition culture. Instead of making markets, markets start making you. All the rules, and "norms" we've collected around ourselves to par…

How does it work with having a companion. It might be easier to find someone with the same outlook. But if you're already in a relationship it's going to be an uphill battle.

There was a guy on Reddit living in a van who answered this. He said the vast majority of women he met responded extremely negatively to his living situation.

Re: The Rise of Renting in the U.S

#227

Post by AjithAntony »

rocky1138 wrote: post #97
blhack wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm about to get basically kicked out of a house I've been renting for 5 years. My lease expires in April, and I haven't been able to get a response back from the owners about renewing it. I understand, though... My neighborhood basically grew up around me, and my house is by far the cheapest rent in the neighborhood. The owners want to kick me out, remodel/demolish/rebuild the place where I live, and rent it for twi…

If you're in Ontario, after your lease ends, it becomes a month-to-month agreement by default. You don't have to do anything. Landlords cannot evict a tenant after a lease is finished without a valid reason.

> month-to-month

This literally means the landlord doesn't need a reason. It just means you need to give them 30days notice.

Re: The Rise of Renting in the U.S

#228

Post by batbomb »

lowglow wrote: post #64

I've sorta turned my back on the standard american dream. Racing to new areas of growth, working to build someone else's dream, getting paid well immediately for performance, paying high rent, etc to afford the image of success, and making friends that participate in this same high ambition culture. Instead of making markets, markets start making you. All the rules, and "norms" we've collected around ourselves to par…

It doesn't really sound like you've turned your back on the American dream, as low crime neighborhoods are highly correlated with home ownership.

Or, put more bluntly, your living scenario is highly correlated with low crime, home ownership, and the "standard american dream".

Re: The Rise of Renting in the U.S

#229

Post by dcw303 »

lowglow wrote: post #64

I've sorta turned my back on the standard american dream. Racing to new areas of growth, working to build someone else's dream, getting paid well immediately for performance, paying high rent, etc to afford the image of success, and making friends that participate in this same high ambition culture. Instead of making markets, markets start making you. All the rules, and "norms" we've collected around ourselves to par…

Australia has cloned the great American dream as well. When I lived in Sydney, real estate was all anybody ever talked about. Are you renting? Oh, too bad. Got to get on the property ladder, y'know. Yeah, my commute's about an hour and a half, if there's no trouble on the M5. I toughed it out on an oppressive mortage for thirty years out in the sticks, why can't you? Kids these days want it all. etc, etc.

Coming to Tokyo was great. Sure, people still ask where you live, but the proximity to the train station is more important than how many bedrooms/entertainment centers are in your McMansion. The only time I've been asked if I own or rent is when relatives came to stay. I don't know if it's the after effect of the property bubble bursting, because the cheap construction materials means housing stock is not built to last, because good inner city locations are still too expensive to buy (despite said bubble bursting) so everyone rents, or just a culture that does not place much social cachet on property ownership. But it suits me.

Re: The Rise of Renting in the U.S

#230

Post by cmdrfred »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #140
hueving wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, you have a high paying job so it's easy for you to sit on a perch well above the median and tell people how simple it is.

It's simple the same way exercise is simple: knowing what to do is easy, having willpower to do it is hard. Being financially independent can be done on a median wage, full stop. https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ "Is that all too fluffy and philosophical? OK, fine. Here’s how to cut your life costs in half. Start by getting rid of your Debt Emergency if you have one. Live…

I believe you are correct with it being possible on a median wage (with a great deal of scrimping and saving at that level for a decent period of time) but half of people make much less than that. So it isn't really possible for 150 million Americans or so.
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