51–60 of 166 posts
Housing can not be both affordable AND an investment. Interest rates need to rise, and soon.
I also agree that interest rates need to rise, but there unfortunately doesn't seem to be any political or monetary will for that to happen.
At first, I considered a few mobile homes, but I soon learned to ignore them. The houses themselves were cheap, but the association fees were outrageous. I ended up getting a town home instead, which was valued much higher but the monthly payments ended up being comparable thanks to the much lower association fees. I have more property rights, more of that money goes into equity, I get a much bigger and nicer home, and I don't have to worry as much about tornadoes, derechos, and other nasty Iowan weather so much.
With the prevalence of town homes and cheap housing here, I don't know how trailer parks keep their residents.
> The financial industry[...] is undermining one of the country’s largest sources of affordable housing. 1. Yeah, I made an opinionated omission there. Sue me :D 2. That last part (the country’s largest sources of affordable housing) is even more damning than the rest. :( In a country that big, and that rich, with a frontier ethos like that, how the f*k does anyone think this is acceptable?
Acceptable that trailer parks are the country's most affordable housing, or that it's being allowed to be squeezed for profit?
Of course trailer parks are (hopefully) always among the most affordable housing options.
However, living in one should be a choice of the individual, and the fact that there is a notable population in these places tells me that these are not exactly free choices à la "I shall live frugally" but rather a systemic problem.
So: "acceptable that trailer parks are more than a mere curiosity of vanishing proportion in the story of housing in the US in 2021."
I spent my early years living in a trailer park, and to be honest, it wasn't bad at all (at least back then). We knew most of our neighbors and most people looked out for each other (like helping out people suffering from food insecurity). That place had some of the most generous people I'd ever met. I have pretty fond memories of living there. I got my first bike from a really, really nice single mom who noticed tha…
Would you live there by choice?
I actually live in a relatively low-income area now. I just like the general "realness" of working class people and don't much care if people look down at me when I tell them where I live.
The US are such a weird country... on one hand, Silicon valley et al, producing the coolest tech & the shiniest toys, and on the other hand... people who can only afford to live in trailer parks, even with a full time job. It never ceases to amaze & depress me simultaneously.
The oddest part about it is how much of a mess the Bay Area is. Typically you’d expect centers of wealth to be excessively clean, filled with expensive architecture and monuments, etc. to the point of being boring. Dubai, for instance. Somehow SV just decided to not bother with that at all.
California has such a mild climate, that you can build a house out of ticky-tacky, skip the insulation, and people won't care because they have a lemon tree growing in their yard.
Nowadays code won't allow you to skip insulation (or solar), but with earthquakes and high land prices you still aren't getting stone or brick homes.
Housing can not be both affordable AND an investment. Interest rates need to rise, and soon.
The US are such a weird country... on one hand, Silicon valley et al, producing the coolest tech & the shiniest toys, and on the other hand... people who can only afford to live in trailer parks, even with a full time job. It never ceases to amaze & depress me simultaneously.
The oddest part about it is how much of a mess the Bay Area is. Typically you’d expect centers of wealth to be excessively clean, filled with expensive architecture and monuments, etc. to the point of being boring. Dubai, for instance. Somehow SV just decided to not bother with that at all.
With RHNA (and state law attempts like SB50) this may be starting to change, but the people responsible for the economic success are not the ones with the political power to fix housing policy.
Most of these issues stem from bad housing policy and incumbents restraining supply.
How can individuals compete against institutional money? Housing prices are skyrocketing in my area and there are stories on the news about investment firms buying up homes and putting them up for rent. What's to stop these well financed institutions from buying up more and more real estate and forcing more people into renting?
They can't. Nothing and they are already are doing it. Blackrock raised billions during COVID on the idea that once the evictions kick off, lots of homeowners will lose their homes and those tenants with black marks will have to pay more and more to rent. Every person abusing the COVID moratorium just to screw over the "landlord" who owns one property is just one more nail in the US clusterfuck coffin. Edit: it's Bla…
Here in Norway, businesses are entitled to financial aid if their income has been affected by COVID.
Meanwhile, the real-estate market is white hot at he moment, while the rental market is slow/stagnating. People with money want to purchase, while poor people can't afford to rent.
Turns out, rental companies and investors have speculated that if they just keep their rental units vacant, instead of lowering rent and attracting new tenants, they can apply for financial aid. win/win for them - they can sit on appreciating assets, without having to deal with wear/tear, administration, etc. on their units. All while getting bailed out by the gov.
And once small landlords/owners can't cover their costs due to broke tenants going for months/years without being able to pay their rent, no doubt there are investors and REPE firms lined up to buy those units.
Just another transformation of wealth.
Housing can not be both affordable AND an investment. Interest rates need to rise, and soon.
The US are such a weird country... on one hand, Silicon valley et al, producing the coolest tech & the shiniest toys, and on the other hand... people who can only afford to live in trailer parks, even with a full time job. It never ceases to amaze & depress me simultaneously.
The United States is the land of high variance. We let people crash and burn, but we also let people soar. A society that permits the former is unremarkable — letting people suffer is the default in poverty, and most countries are relatively quite poor. But the latter, letting the tall poppies stand proud with not much more than heckling for their height, is something special, and it's a big part of how we've become…