Earlier quoted context omitted.
Zoning laws are actually by and large a relatively modern idea, with the oldest zoning regulations in America in place for only 100 years, with the aggressive zoning codes we have in place today generally only stretching back to the 70's and 80's. Aggressive zoning, by my estimation, is a bad influence on housing costs. It's restrictive (by it's nature) and generally serves one and only one purpose : keeping neighbor…
>Zoning laws are actually by and large a relatively modern idea, with the oldest zoning regulations in America in place for only 100 years, with the aggressive zoning codes we have in place today generally only stretching back to the 70's and 80's. Not even close. In most of the developed world, you can't turn a home in a residential neighborhood into a slaughterhouse. I think you mean "density restrictions", a subse…
The Rise of Renting in the U.S
301–310 of 380 posts
Re: The Rise of Renting in the U.S
#302Earlier quoted context omitted.
But that speculation only affects the value of a property. It doesn't affect rent levels, which are determined by short term supply/demand. The increased supply may not make it easier to buy, but it sure makes it cheaper to rent a place.
Speculation affects rent because many buyers have debt. If an owner can raise rents that cover the interest and costs, they will; that is their baseline for how low they will go. Large amounts of speculation will increase rents even with increases supply because owners need to service their debts (up until the point where renters won't pay and owners default).
That's not been my experience as landlord or as a tenant. Rents are negotiated within a narrow band (+/- 10%) based on the market rent for a comparable property at the time.
The landlord's decision (forced or not) about whether to dispose of the property is independent of the rent-setting process.
Residential rents in Beijing don't cover landlords' mortgage interest unless the debt-to-value ratio is low.
Re: The Rise of Renting in the U.S
#303Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
I think you should write a book, but don't go through the vanity press ripoff. Publish it yourself. I have known people who live out of a van/truck camper until cops realize what's going on. They will harass you to no end. The tickets are expensive. The days of " Just move on." are over. That said, in most counties, there is nowhere to park a vechicle overnight. We need to desiginate areas, in commercial areas, where…
This reminds me of this story of a Google employee living in a truck:
http://www.businessinsider.com/google-employee-lives-in-truc...
Re: The Rise of Renting in the U.S
#304I'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…
I'm very similar.
I wound up spending two years driving from Alaska to Argentina [1], and now I'm setting off to spend two years driving around the perimeter of Africa.
I strongly believe time is much more important than money, and I'm very careful about how much money (time) I spend on "things".
[1] http://theroadchoseme.com is my blog of the trip(s)
Re: The Rise of Renting in the U.S
#305Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Zoning laws are actually by and large a relatively modern idea, with the oldest zoning regulations in America in place for only 100 years, with the aggressive zoning codes we have in place today generally only stretching back to the 70's and 80's. Not even close. In most of the developed world, you can't turn a home in a residential neighborhood into a slaughterhouse. I think you mean "density restrictions", a subse…
http://www.citylab.com/politics/2012/06/birth-zoning-codes-h...
I know. Something under the name "zoning" is recent. My point was that the general concept (municipal governments not just letting you build whatever you feel like because of the surrounding area) is much older and more universal.
Re: The Rise of Renting in the U.S
#306Earlier quoted context omitted.
My yearly property tax is barely a bit more than half of what people pay for one month's rent for a similar place. Tax being 1/3rd of rent indicates rather low rents or rather high tax.
Absurdly high taxes (my parents pay half my tax on a non-rural property twice as big about 120 miles north of me), but still, owning a home is hardly a fiscally ruinous proposition around here. My property taxes this year were ~$4200 on an average sized lot and home, or roughly $350/month. My last apartment cost $1050/month for a small two bedroom condo rental.
This is similar to my situation. Renting a crappy 2BR apartment was $1700/month thanks to the tight rental market. Mortgage and taxes on a townhouse in a nicer part of town? $1200/month. And theoretically after 30 years I would have an asset I could sell, unlike the renters. Renting just didn't make sense unless you're highly itinerant and don't stick around any one area for more than a year or two.
Re: The Rise of Renting in the U.S
#307Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why non-male? I'd think a highly educated white collar white female would be able to pull it off just as well if not better. (To be honest I have trouble imagining one would want to though...sexist of me I suppose.)
Fear of violent crime. I'm not saying it's reasonable (statistically speaking), just that it's there.
Why would women fear crime more than men? Statistically, men are more likely to get robbed, beaten up and killed.
Re: The Rise of Renting in the U.S
#308Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think this works, because 30 year mortgages have a higher rate of interest than 15 year mortgages do.
Pedantically true, but in practice with interest rates what they are there's only a few thousand difference between in the long term a 4% 30-year that is paid off in 15 years, and an actual 15-year at 3%. (Source; I'm doing this with mine, and ran the numbers)
Yeah, I'm doing this. The nice thing about the 30 year but pay extra every month plan is that if you get slammed by some major unexpected expense you can dial down your mortgage payments until your bank account catches back up. It gives you a buffer so you don't make yourself inadvertently house poor.
The interest rate difference was like 0.15%.
Re: The Rise of Renting in the U.S
#309Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
"You will never get ahead if you live in SF, period" I like the way you think, but this isn't absolutely true. I live in a high cost of living area (NYC) and I manage to invest a large portion of my take home. I find it's easier to control one's spending than it is to control one's income based on location.
Out of curiosity (I live in London but am interested in NY long-term), where approximately do you live, and how moch do you spend for (1) housing, and (2) life (food, groceries, ...)?
Re: The Rise of Renting in the U.S
#310Earlier quoted context omitted.
He will probably not win, but he is doing much better than anyone expected. Same with Trump (except he has an outside chance at winning this year).
They said the same of a certain junior senator from Illinois. Why do people think Sanders can't win when all evidence points to the contrary. Sanders is sticking to the core liberals. That solid 25-35% that will actually vote. Hillary is trying to pursue centre, swing voters and losing the liberal core. Trump is doing the same on the right. Hillary and Jeb assumed they had the left and right core voters, respectively…
Sanders can't seem to connect with Black and Latino voters, and if you can't do that you aren't going to win a Democratic primary. Minorities love Hillary, for reasons that are not entirely clear to me.
Also, Bernie supporters skew very young, and young people are relatively bad at making to their polling places, especially in primary races.
He has basically no chance of taking Nevada for example, and will probably be down by tens of points. If the election is close at all there it will be a major win for him.
Also, the establishment Democrats see him as George McGovern 2.0 and are terrified of giving Donald Trump a 49 state sweep.