Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Rents are plunging in the most expensive U.S. markets

businessinsider.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 352 posts

Re: Rents are plunging in the most expensive U.S. markets

#131

Post by gragas »

branchless wrote: post #116
morgante wrote: post #45

Amazing, supply and demand actually works! Someone should tell all the protestors who opposed construction of new luxury condos because they thought it would somehow increase rents.

Yes, rents are set by wages as you have to pay them out of your wages. Supply and demand also works for buying. Because central banks have ran with ultra-loose monetary policy since forever credit supply is huge and prices detach from wages. What a total mess these guys have created. Easy on the way down, chaos on the way back up.

> rents are set by wages as you have to pay them out of your wages.

Are you implying that there's some sort of grand-scale collusion on rent prices? If most rent takers think "hey, the median salary is X so I'll just charge X * 0.33" then what's stopping another rent taker from drastically undercutting that price?

Re: Rents are plunging in the most expensive U.S. markets

#132

Post by ameen »

s_q_b wrote: post #120
ryanSrich wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Odd. 4 years ago I paid almost $2400 for a 700sqft studio in DC. Have things changed? (Haven't lived in DC since).

I had a 2 bedroom lease in Adams Morgan, one block off 18th, for $2500 last year. We've since bought a place a few blocks away, so I'm unsure if it's risen.

How expensive was it to buy vs. to have continued the lease?

Re: Rents are plunging in the most expensive U.S. markets

#133

Post by kevinburke »

morgante wrote: post #45

Amazing, supply and demand actually works! Someone should tell all the protestors who opposed construction of new luxury condos because they thought it would somehow increase rents.

For what it's worth - Four of the eleven Supervisors (in San Francisco) were just up for re-election. Some of the candidates were much better than the others.

Marjan Philhour, a pro-housing candidate in District 1, lost by 1000 votes. If she won, pro-housing SF Supervisors would have had a 6-5 majority on the board. We were 1000 votes away from a much better housing situation in SF.

If you live in SF, the way we change this is by electing better Supervisors and kicking off the NIMBY's. Sandra Lee Fewer (the "progressive" candidate who wants zero new housing) had volunteers on every Geary street corner the day of the election. Get involved in your local races, donate money, volunteer to call people. Also, call/write your Supervisor when they try to pull crap like this: http://missionlocal.org/2016/11/in-stunner-city-strikes-down...

Re: Rents are plunging in the most expensive U.S. markets

#135

Post by hkmurakami »

xor1 wrote: post #122

Los Angeles though... :( One of my friends just moved here and is sharing a 5-bedroom home with 25 other people. I thought he was bullshitting me, and I still couldn't believe it when I went over. He's paying $600 a month to share a bedroom with four other guys. He told me it was the best thing he could find on 1-day notice. He pays for rent online, and he has no idea who the actual owner is, nor who is actually rece…

I've heard of "hacker house" type places in the Bay Area which sound exactly like this. I think the rate was something like $30/day or so.

I've also heard of operators of these places who will sign a regular rental contract with a landlord, "convert" the place to such a high density dorm, milk it until the landlord finds out, and when the landlord does, apologize, end the contract, then find another rental to rinse and repeat.

Re: Rents are plunging in the most expensive U.S. markets

#136

Post by oneplane »

xor1 wrote: post #122

Los Angeles though... :( One of my friends just moved here and is sharing a 5-bedroom home with 25 other people. I thought he was bullshitting me, and I still couldn't believe it when I went over. He's paying $600 a month to share a bedroom with four other guys. He told me it was the best thing he could find on 1-day notice. He pays for rent online, and he has no idea who the actual owner is, nor who is actually rece…

Woah, I knew about things being bad in the USA, but I didn't know living conditions are going towards third-world standards :/ Where I live (The Netherlands) there are laws that even protect foreign workers (i.e. from Poland) from all being stuffed in a single room.

At this point it's starting to look like even jail cells have more room and privacy.

Re: Rents are plunging in the most expensive U.S. markets

#137

Post by davidgay »

fennecfoxen wrote: post #83
pmoriarty wrote: post #13

Have there been any experiments in legislating ceilings for housing prices? If so, what has been the effect?

> Have there been any experiments in legislating ceilings for housing prices? If so, what has been the effect? As Assar Lindbeck put it, "next to bombing, rent control seems in many cases to be the most efficient technique so far known for destroying cities." For instance, in 1970s when the Bronx was burning, a major contributing factor was New York City rent control. In some neighborhoods of the Bronx and in Harlem,…

> As Assar Lindbeck put it, "next to bombing, rent control seems in many cases to be the most efficient technique so far known for destroying cities."

Doesn't seem to have had much success in destroying Swiss cities. Maybe the neutrality helps prevent bombing-like effects?

https://sites.tufts.edu/uep284chsustainabilities/files/2015/... for some discussion...

Re: Rents are plunging in the most expensive U.S. markets

#139

Post by 13of40 »

gragas wrote: post #131
branchless wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, rents are set by wages as you have to pay them out of your wages. Supply and demand also works for buying. Because central banks have ran with ultra-loose monetary policy since forever credit supply is huge and prices detach from wages. What a total mess these guys have created. Easy on the way down, chaos on the way back up.

> rents are set by wages as you have to pay them out of your wages. Are you implying that there's some sort of grand-scale collusion on rent prices? If most rent takers think "hey, the median salary is X so I'll just charge X * 0.33" then what's stopping another rent taker from drastically undercutting that price?

You could argue that home prices are tied to wages and rent is tied to home prices.

Re: Rents are plunging in the most expensive U.S. markets

#140

Post by i_call_solo »

oneplane wrote: post #136
xor1 wrote: post #122

Los Angeles though... :( One of my friends just moved here and is sharing a 5-bedroom home with 25 other people. I thought he was bullshitting me, and I still couldn't believe it when I went over. He's paying $600 a month to share a bedroom with four other guys. He told me it was the best thing he could find on 1-day notice. He pays for rent online, and he has no idea who the actual owner is, nor who is actually rece…

Woah, I knew about things being bad in the USA, but I didn't know living conditions are going towards third-world standards :/ Where I live (The Netherlands) there are laws that even protect foreign workers (i.e. from Poland) from all being stuffed in a single room. At this point it's starting to look like even jail cells have more room and privacy.

This is in one of the most expensive areas in the US. I wouldn't call this third world status. In most areas you can easily find a 1BR apartment for that much.
Post reply on HN