Earlier quoted context omitted.
"If you want to understand the severity of the situation, I suggest just literally googling "homelessness housing crisis bay area" and read all the both qualitative and quantitive reporting done on the issue." As a resident of the bay area I assure you that I read about this topic every single day - and consume a wide range of reporting and editorial.[1] "... the rent went up 100% in one year. Needless to say, they a…
It's not "housing where one most prefers" in this instance, it's "housing where you're already lived for years, and where your children go to school".
Rising Rents Are Pushing More Tenants Past the Breaking Point
281–290 of 312 posts
Re: Rising Rents Are Pushing More Tenants Past the Breaking Point
#282In 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…
I sincerely doubt foreign purchases are the main driver of rent increase, and no study has ever demonstrated as much. The anti-foreigner mindset is extremely dangerous. Rising rents are almost entirely because of local restrictions on creating more housing. The beneficiaries of restricted supply are existing owners and landlords.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/new-zealand-foreigners-buy...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/realestate/wealthy-chinese-bu...
https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahsu/2016/10/31/chinese-inve...
And here's an article talking about a study done in Vancouver indicating these activities are driving rent prices too high:
https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/out-o...
Making assumptions about people because they say something that doesn't fit your world view is just as dangerous as xenophobia itself.
Re: Rising Rents Are Pushing More Tenants Past the Breaking Point
#283Earlier quoted context omitted.
Landlords do not set market rents. Renters and their employers do. Tax changes do not raise or lower rents. They make it more or less likely that new housing will be built, which affects future rents. Land value taxes are so attractive because they avoid changing the incentives to build.
Of course landlords set the rent they're going to charge for their property. They're free to do so, within certain bounds established by the market and based upon the value of the property they are renting. A land value tax, which would be applied to ALL landlords in the area, increases ALL of their costs at the same time, which forces ALL of them to raise their rents at the same time. It would shift the entire marke…
Re: Rising Rents Are Pushing More Tenants Past the Breaking Point
#284Earlier quoted context omitted.
"To me, this is absurd. This is a human rights issue (homelessness is growing by a large amount)." Homelessness is a mental health issue. Nobody is homeless because of foreign speculators. Yes, people are indeed incentivized to relocate to housing markets that Chinese people have never heard of like, for instance, Tacoma . If those people spent half their time working and saving (like their parents did) as they spent…
It probably was the case 5 years ago that most homeless people in the US has some kind of mental problem. These people were almost all men and you would see them sleeping on the sidewalks or parks with almost nothing in the way of possessions. Now, at least in Oakland, there are tents everywhere. From single ones trying not to get noticed to tent cities with 10-50 tents all in one area. Many of these people have a pi…
Re: Rising Rents Are Pushing More Tenants Past the Breaking Point
#285In 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…
Re: Rising Rents Are Pushing More Tenants Past the Breaking Point
#286I really hope the economy shifts toward remote work as the standard (at least in the career tracks where it is possible). The ever increasing share of higher jobs moving to metropolitan regions will continue to make the places on this list worse off. More remote work might also even out the salaries across the US a little bit. One can dream...
Re: Rising Rents Are Pushing More Tenants Past the Breaking Point
#287Re: Rising Rents Are Pushing More Tenants Past the Breaking Point
#288Earlier quoted context omitted.
I had found 1 room shared by bunkbed airbnb's for ~$1500/mo in SF, in a shitty location but forget where specifically about a year ago; and that was pretty cheap for near the heart, afaict $1900/mo got me a 2-story townhouse in chicago just south of the south loop; maybe 15 min by train to the heart of the city, 20 min walk to chinatown Had 3 proper bedrooms and an attic, so with 3 roomates it was more like $450/mo
Funny, I had an airbnb(I hosted) in nashville's downtown that made that rate look dirt cheap. Reason? Outdated zoning laws and hotels were slow to catch up with the tourist industry. It was crazy watching my nearby competitors(the major hotels) adjust prices like the stock market..... $1800 a night for the last suite at the sheraton up from $250-500 normally. Bonoroo and Country Music festival held the same week is w…
Re: Rising Rents Are Pushing More Tenants Past the Breaking Point
#289I really hope the economy shifts toward remote work as the standard (at least in the career tracks where it is possible). The ever increasing share of higher jobs moving to metropolitan regions will continue to make the places on this list worse off. More remote work might also even out the salaries across the US a little bit. One can dream...
It will mostly help India, not the rural US.
Re: Rising Rents Are Pushing More Tenants Past the Breaking Point
#290Heavily regulated (construction) market => high cost of building new (housing) units => low supply => high sale prices + heavily regulated (rental) market => high rents Simple economics, no?