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Millions of Americans skipping payments as wave of defaults and evictions looms

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Re: Millions of Americans skipping payments as wave of defaults and evictions looms

#171

Post by mydongle »

DevKoala wrote: post #143
Alupis wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotal, but I keep hearing about restaurants and other small businesses that can't convince their employees to come back to work. Something about the unemployment benefits + CARES Act bonus being more than they were earning while working...

A friend of my girlfriend is on that situation, $1600/wk is more than what she earned previously, and isn’t looking forward for the store where she worked on to re-open or looking for a different job. It gives me a mixed feeling about the policy because it turns out I personally know the one example conservatives would like to point out. However, I’d like to read a deep study about the impact of the measures taken be…

All that proves is how deeply underpaid those jobs were.

Say that $1600/wk is perfectly livable for her. That means formerly, she was working at a job that did not pay her enough to live, but she was forced to because the alternative is worse. Arguably, for many people, they could live on even less than that.

Countless people who are forced to be in the job market, slaving away at crappy jobs at the threat of poverty and homelessness. They are forced to be at jobs they hate, propping up industries that survive only because of exploitation of human labor, and they don't even get a proper living wage from it. Human life is very limited. Time is the greatest asset we have and it goes away even when we do nothing. Yet we force so many people to trade their time for a pittance.

If these people were provided a base amount of money they could live on and do something else, then those jobs would either be unfilled (and the industries die off) or the businesses will be forced to raise the wage, thus providing more money to people who are willing to work for it.

Re: Millions of Americans skipping payments as wave of defaults and evictions looms

#172

Post by quickthrower2 »

thephyber wrote: post #146
twblalock wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is yet another reason in the long list of reasons why rent control is a bad policy.

I don't disagree, but it's important to remember that when rent control is proposed, it's because some people are very desperate. It would behoove us to suggest viable alternatives every time it's proposed and we shoot it down.

The government could build affordable housing and rent it out at a reasonable price. "Council houses" as they are called in the UK are built very well. They are often ugly, but I'm sure that these days they can be built well, cheaply and made to look OK.

Re: Millions of Americans skipping payments as wave of defaults and evictions looms

#173

Post by r00fus »

fred_is_fred wrote: post #50
jniedrauer wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect not many people are buying trucks right now, used or not. It would be hard to sell. It may not be bright to buy a truck worth more than your annual income, but I don't think the situation can be entirely blamed on consumers. It's a systematic problem. Trucks like this are the only profitable sector left for US car dealerships, and they have gone to great lengths to get people on the hook for them. The resul…

It's the opposite, a crap load of people are buying trucks right now, dealers are begging for more: https://jalopnik.com/not-even-a-pandemic-will-stop-american-... Now - they are drawn by 0% financing which is hard to get on a used truck.

One of the comments on the link indicates the actual situation - Truck sales haven't increased, but are now relatively even more popular to other vehicles which have dropped in sales considerably. Most likely, as you say, by the good deals - 0% financing.

How long this keeps up is hard to tell.

Re: Millions of Americans skipping payments as wave of defaults and evictions looms

#174

Post by wolco »

exclusiv wrote: post #128
tyre wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> when things come easy to people I think you have a very misguided idea of what it's like to live in poverty.

How do you know this? I think their point remains. Someone who gets a hand out, or wins $, as an example, will probably not appreciate it the same as if someone busted their ass for it. Also, people often have a short memories when it comes to people that help them out financially. They might remember and appreciate it more if you help them move, or help them learn a craft.

The rich kid, trust fund baby has great credit and can pay cash. But expect damage and a huge legal fight to evict.

Re: Millions of Americans skipping payments as wave of defaults and evictions looms

#175

Post by photoGrant »

rhexs wrote: post #118
unchocked wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is not a luxury truck. It's an extended cab F-150 with cloth seats, probably an XL. A familiar comparison for someone unused to seeing trucks in ordinary use would be a base model Chevy Malibu. And he's probably underwater on the loan, which makes it hard to sell. NPR wants you to see that a lot of ordinary people who made ordinary life choices are going bankrupt.

What price does that start at?

Passively rhetorical or genuinely struggling to use google or see the point?

Re: Millions of Americans skipping payments as wave of defaults and evictions looms

#176

Post by ponker »

jungletime wrote: post #153
ngngngng wrote: post #47

I'm so extremely grateful that I accepted section 8 tenants into my rental units. Most of these tenants have nearly all of their payment covered by the government and they just have to pay $100 or $200 on top of that to cover what the government won't. These tenants are often not accepted by landlords because they're thought to cause more issues. Mine are great. They keep the units spotless, mow the lawn for me on my…

You're very lucky. Rented to a single mother with two teenage sons. The teenage sons that decided to strip down living trees of their branches, to make bonfires for parties in the backyard. Two trees are severely damaged, and anything that was burnable in the landscape is burnt. I don't even know how to go about pricing out the damage. Insurance is paying for their rent, because the last house they lived in burned do…

Are you that worse off if they burn it down? You won’t have to worry about them resisting eviction and you’ll get an insurance payment.

Re: Millions of Americans skipping payments as wave of defaults and evictions looms

#177

Post by devado »

unchocked wrote: post #86
rhexs wrote: post #8

Guy has what looks like a luxury truck and is apparently having trouble deciding between food and his car payment. Sell the car, get a cheap used beater, reduce expenses, keep looking for a job. Not sure what NPR wants me to take from this example.

That is not a luxury truck. It's an extended cab F-150 with cloth seats, probably an XL. A familiar comparison for someone unused to seeing trucks in ordinary use would be a base model Chevy Malibu. And he's probably underwater on the loan, which makes it hard to sell. NPR wants you to see that a lot of ordinary people who made ordinary life choices are going bankrupt.

The starting price of this is 28k per edmunds. That is quite expensive (even for someone from tech sector).

Re: Millions of Americans skipping payments as wave of defaults and evictions looms

#178

Post by inetknght »

jungletime wrote: post #153
ngngngng wrote: post #47

I'm so extremely grateful that I accepted section 8 tenants into my rental units. Most of these tenants have nearly all of their payment covered by the government and they just have to pay $100 or $200 on top of that to cover what the government won't. These tenants are often not accepted by landlords because they're thought to cause more issues. Mine are great. They keep the units spotless, mow the lawn for me on my…

You're very lucky. Rented to a single mother with two teenage sons. The teenage sons that decided to strip down living trees of their branches, to make bonfires for parties in the backyard. Two trees are severely damaged, and anything that was burnable in the landscape is burnt. I don't even know how to go about pricing out the damage. Insurance is paying for their rent, because the last house they lived in burned do…

I'm not a lawyer but reddit's r/legaladvice seems to enjoy referring to people to tree lawyers. From what I gather there's a lot of money involved in tree laws. And if you've got picture evidence that's especially loved by lawyers.

Re: Millions of Americans skipping payments as wave of defaults and evictions looms

#179

Post by JshWright »

throwaway2048 wrote: post #113
favorited wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They wouldn't have to change it, because that is factored in. The law states: "In determining the lowest gross rental amount pursuant to this section, any rent discounts, incentives, concessions, or credits offered by the owner of such unit of residential real property and accepted by the tenant shall be excluded." So if your rent is $3k/month, and the landlord gives you 3 months rent-free, your rent according to AB…

That doesn't mean the law cant change.

No, but it means the law was expressly with to account for this circumstance, so it isn't a "loophole".

Re: Millions of Americans skipping payments as wave of defaults and evictions looms

#180

Post by thephyber »

tinza123 wrote: post #62

As a passive real estate investor I'm seeing bidding on new sales has actually been more competitive than ever in my area (Atlanta GA). A lot of houses are selling above asking prices with 8-10 offers on the table. I am not sure if people genuinely think it is a good time to buy, or is it mostly FOMO.

I think people who can work from home and who didn't get laid off are fine and the stonks appeared to mostly recover (which may explain some of the money sloshing around the market).

I think there will be massive economic damage in 6 months that we aren't focusing on right now.

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