The problem is getting worse as new jobs are mainly created in cities. They also offer a more attractive infrastructure such as fast internet speeds and shorter commutes, than rural areas. There are of course many other advantages, but I think these are some of the most significant ones. This creates an unhealthy growth, which we see now manifests in the completely out-of-control rents worldwide. The only way this problem can be tackled is to invest massively in the rural infrastructure and stop this disturbing trend towards growing megacities and sparsely inhabited rural areas. Rising rents contribute to an large extent on social inequality. As a renter will only get living space for each month but nothing else of value in return, as opposed to buying a house/flat. The calculation for renting has been fine in the past decades as renting was often cheaper than buying a house, but this changed as we see now.
Rising Rents Are Pushing More Tenants Past the Breaking Point
51–60 of 312 posts
Re: Rising Rents Are Pushing More Tenants Past the Breaking Point
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
So what's your point? Do you want to eliminate rent? Should people who either can't afford to purchase a house, or who simply don't want to, be forced into homelessness? Personally I've paid over $115,000 in rent over the past 12 years, but I don't begrudge my landlord their money. I attained utility in exchange for the rent I paid, and have no problem with the arrangement. Not, of course, to say that I'm happy when…
Land Value Tax. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_value_tax This is distinct from a property tax in that it only measures the value of the soil it sits on, so doesn't punish the landlord for improvements. The value of the land itself is almost entirely outside of the landlord's control, it's determined by the community around it. As a result, this is one of the least distortive taxes.
> This is distinct from a property tax in that it only measures the value of the soil it sits on, so doesn't punish the landlord for improvements. The value of the land itself is almost entirely outside of the landlord's control, it's determined by the community around it. As a result, this is one of the least distortive taxes.
When land value is taxed at a higher rate than property value, it creates a perverse incentive for landlords - especially those who don't live in the area in which they own property - to encourage blighting and sabotage the value of the land, while instead reinvesting this money into improvements on the property itself. That concentrates wealth even further in the hands of people who can afford to own these insular properties in otherwise "undesirable" areas.
Actively blighting a neighborhood to depress values and make it easier to purchase land for new properties (either on the market or via eminent domain) is already a problem, and one that significantly skews power towards the extremely wealthy and massively-capitalized institutions. Taxing the value of the land separately from the property that sits on it (and at a higher rate) would exacerbate this unbelievably.
Re: Rising Rents Are Pushing More Tenants Past the Breaking Point
#53In large cities across the US (and probably most of the world), there is some very large scale foreign speculation in the housing market going on. This is leading to rising rents and rising home prices. In Seattle, for example, many (newly) wealthy Chinese people are buying houses purely for investment purposes. I know some of them. One of them has purchased 10 houses, and lives in only one of them (when they are in…
Here's NZ's proposed (extreme) response to the foreign buyer problem: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-41745129
Re: Rising Rents Are Pushing More Tenants Past the Breaking Point
#54Rising rents doesn't seem to effect the number of applicants though, every time I've viewed a place here there was a lineup of 20+ other renters there waiting as well. They pushed us through in under 10 minutes then another 20+ people showed up for the second appointment already gathering outside. There was no time to dispute the lease they dangled which stipulated you had to vacate the day the lease expired in order…
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Re: Rising Rents Are Pushing More Tenants Past the Breaking Point
#55Rising rents doesn't seem to effect the number of applicants though, every time I've viewed a place here there was a lineup of 20+ other renters there waiting as well. They pushed us through in under 10 minutes then another 20+ people showed up for the second appointment already gathering outside. There was no time to dispute the lease they dangled which stipulated you had to vacate the day the lease expired in order…
it's called the free market.
Re: Rising Rents Are Pushing More Tenants Past the Breaking Point
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
> He renders no service to the community, he contributes nothing to the general welfare, he contributes nothing to the process from which his own enrichment is derived. The value landlords provide is the assumption of risk. The premium you pay to rent is in exchange for vastly limiting your exposure to said risk. This is why offloading the risk onto creditors (ie purchasing real estate with borrowed money under an LL…
> The value landlords provide is the assumption of risk. The premium you pay to rent is in exchange for vastly limiting your exposure to said risk. In hot housing markets, the value they provide is having access to the capital necessary to own property. A 30 year old hairdresser in Seattle isn't renting because they don't want to deal with risk - they are renting because they can't save up a $XY,000 downpayment, and…
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Re: Rising Rents Are Pushing More Tenants Past the Breaking Point
#57In large cities across the US (and probably most of the world), there is some very large scale foreign speculation in the housing market going on. This is leading to rising rents and rising home prices. In Seattle, for example, many (newly) wealthy Chinese people are buying houses purely for investment purposes. I know some of them. One of them has purchased 10 houses, and lives in only one of them (when they are in…
> To me, this is absurd. This is a human rights issue (homelessness is growing by a large amount). This is also a national security issue; this speculation cannot happen forever. Our economy will very likely crash when this speculation is no longer profitable. This is my biggest concern with wanting to dip my families toes into their first home purchase. We lived in Seattle last few years and the market is stupid, we…
Yep, your career really does take you where it takes you. I'm in the same boat.
I've lived here for 5 years and have been saving, was getting pretty close to being able to afford a house, and the last year or so has seen such a huge increase in home prices and a decrease in availability that I've given up hope.
Re: Rising Rents Are Pushing More Tenants Past the Breaking Point
#58Rent is an amazingly effective means of redistributing wealth upwards. I have easily paid over £100k rent in my life, always to people substantially richer than I am. Always enjoyed this Churchill quote - from 1909! Roads are made, streets are made, services are improved, electric light turns night into day, water is brought from reservoirs a hundred miles off in the mountains -- and all the while the landlord sits s…
I love how some folks complain about paying rent as if they have no choices, as if they're somehow indentured servants or serfs beholden to the landed gentry or something. The truth is you do have choices, even in tough times. Find a way to save money for a down payment and buy some property. Maybe even become a landlord yourself.
Sorry, the truth is that many people simply don't earn enough to save money for a down payment.
Re: Rising Rents Are Pushing More Tenants Past the Breaking Point
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
They may have lost money but they got their $ elsewhere (tax write offs etc)
The tax write offs helped, but they still shouldered most of the loss. And we're not talking a few thousand, but rather $100K+. As a renter, it was great to just be able to pack my stuff up, turn in the keys and let them deal with the financial implications.
You're talking about imaginary money. Had they only owned the place where they lived, there is no profit or loss that matters.
Re: Rising Rents Are Pushing More Tenants Past the Breaking Point
#60In large cities across the US (and probably most of the world), there is some very large scale foreign speculation in the housing market going on. This is leading to rising rents and rising home prices. In Seattle, for example, many (newly) wealthy Chinese people are buying houses purely for investment purposes. I know some of them. One of them has purchased 10 houses, and lives in only one of them (when they are in…
>In Seattle, for example, many (newly) wealthy Chinese people are buying houses purely for investment purposes.
Same thing in Los Angeles (the entire county) and Irvine.