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

Rents for the rich are going down, rents for the poor are going up. Why?

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 257 posts

Re: Rents for the rich are going down, rents for the poor are going up. Why?

#151

Post by GlennS »

chrisseaton wrote: post #133
roguecoder wrote: post #17

While the article is interesting, there is one dynamic it missed: tech debt. Starting around 1975, housing supply stopped keeping up with the growth of housing demand. It picked back up fifteen years later, around 1990: https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-goldilocks-problem-of... (But that is on a national level: in the West, in comparison, housing growth hasn't been sufficient to house the new households formed a…

> Since many cities currently lack the recently-aging housing that would normally be filtering down market right now Huh.... in the UK house prices go up for older houses. You'd pay a premium to get an interwar house, or a 19th century house. Do people not like old houses in the US? They're usually better built, with more character, built on more land, in my experience.

I've heard that usually the price of the land goes up faster than the price of the building goes down.

But I guess if the building is unique or listed or has high enough build quality that it won't be knocked down in the foreseeable future, then maybe the building's price goes up to.

Re: Rents for the rich are going down, rents for the poor are going up. Why?

#152

Post by Supermancho »

imtringued wrote: post #106
TuringNYC wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment is spot on. Rent premiums are often not greed, but just a risk premium and buffer-collection for a catch all of issues from future non-payment to other BS.

Prices are negotiated. Two parties must agree on the price. If there is a "greedy" landlord overcharging people there must also be a person "willing" to pay the overpriced rent. Of course there are cases of vacant properties but I don't think this is a problem for most rental markets.

> Prices are negotiated. Two parties must agree on the price.

Yeah, that's true of hostage negotiations too. The issue is one of choice and efficiency. Moving is a larger risk (via cost, opportunity, travel, etc) than changing rent or services performed, usually.

Re: Rents for the rich are going down, rents for the poor are going up. Why?

#153

Post by tptacek »

offtop5 wrote: post #88
gnicholas wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interestingly, if landlords were allowed to use larger security deposits, some would choose to do this instead of raising the monthly rent. My friend is looking to rent out an ADU, and the first idea was to have a sizable security deposit in order to filter applicants who fully intended on paying rent from those who would be more likely to use the eviction moratorium. But apparently California tightened the rules aro…

That's horrible to hear, I was only able to get my first apartment in California since I could offer a double deposit. Chicago on the other hand has fantastic housing supply and so many rules on security deposits, most buildings just don't do it. Access to housing permeates every aspect of a culture, people are significantly nicer when they can afford a place to live. Has your friend been able to get out of Californi…

What rules are you referring to regarding security deposits? Are they new? I have had only abusive experiences in Chicago (and, to be fair, Michigan and California) with security deposits.

Re: Rents for the rich are going down, rents for the poor are going up. Why?

#154

Post by flukus »

sidlls wrote: post #65
nostrademons wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The housing market here is suited best..." Or people who've put down roots here. Some people value family, friends, and community more than economic maximization. The Bay Area has excellent schools, being nerdy makes you cool, immigrants and people with different skin colors are accepted, there are a wide variety of cultural attractions, the weather is always nice, and you can get out in nature quickly. If I were st…

All of the cultural items can be had by renting here, too, as my family does, and deploying the rest of the capital in ways that aren't financially illiterate. The decision to buy in the bay area, for the vast majority of people, is damaging to their financial health.

> All of the cultural items can be had by renting here, too

I have a few older retired friends that thought this, then the area started gentrifying, prices went up and they've had to move out of the area they've lived in all there lives.

Re: Rents for the rich are going down, rents for the poor are going up. Why?

#155

Post by tptacek »

rogerdickey wrote: post #13

It's not "rents for the rich" it's "rents for higher priced apartments" and it's basic supply & demand. This headline stokes unnecessary class conflict. WaPo should be ashamed.

It's better not to fulminate. If the market restricts access to housing for working class people, we can't just wave our hands and say "oh, well, markets". Chicago doesn't have rent control. The implication of the story is that the market is failing in Chicago, and that's a problem, whether or not it's the product of top-down policy or bottom-up market dynamics.

Re: Rents for the rich are going down, rents for the poor are going up. Why?

#156

Post by unishark »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #135
chrisseaton wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Since many cities currently lack the recently-aging housing that would normally be filtering down market right now Huh.... in the UK house prices go up for older houses. You'd pay a premium to get an interwar house, or a 19th century house. Do people not like old houses in the US? They're usually better built, with more character, built on more land, in my experience.

Old houses in the US come with a lot of costs. They're usually poorly insulated, need to be brought up to code when renovations are performed, can have electrical and plumbing systems that need to be replaced in their entirety, and sometimes are just hard to insure in general (insurers can cancel your homeowners policy on any home in Florida over 40 years old at their discretion when your policy comes up for renewal)…

I think that's mainly only known to savvy people, other that perhaps general stuff about energy efficiency, which can go both ways in terms of gas versus electric or whatever. All things being equal in terms of cost, the average person still prefers the modern architecture of big kitchens, big windows, master bathrooms, walk-in closets, etc. It helps to sell your house if you add these things.

Re: Rents for the rich are going down, rents for the poor are going up. Why?

#157

Post by mc32 »

marc__1 wrote: post #126
Lammy wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever seen people talk about how the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution outlaws slavery "except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted", leading to the modern prison-industrial complex that overwhelmingly targets black Americans with arrests for petty crimes and traps them in The System? https://sites.lib.jmu.edu/civic/2020/09/17/slaves-of-the-sta... The ECOA makes it il…

A book that goes deeper into this conversation is The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap Well worth the read, the story had a lot of nuances https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34758210

That raises a question. How do other impoverished groups escape the poverty trap more quickly? Historically Chinese and other immigrants's needs were served by their own official and unofficial institutions. What can be done to keep dollars within a community to grow wealth within?

Re: Rents for the rich are going down, rents for the poor are going up. Why?

#158

Post by anonuser123456 »

panic wrote: post #139
hsitz wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

??? In what economy do most people not have to pay just to live somewhere?

Our highways are free for everyone to use and maintained using tax money. It's not inconceivable that housing could work the same way.

Gas taxes pay for roadways.

Re: Rents for the rich are going down, rents for the poor are going up. Why?

#159

Post by _carbyau_ »

gugagore wrote: post #90
gnicholas wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interestingly, if landlords were allowed to use larger security deposits, some would choose to do this instead of raising the monthly rent. My friend is looking to rent out an ADU, and the first idea was to have a sizable security deposit in order to filter applicants who fully intended on paying rent from those who would be more likely to use the eviction moratorium. But apparently California tightened the rules aro…

> exacerbates this problem To clarify, the problem you're talking about is that it's risky to be a landlord, and maybe more so now than a few years ago. > as landlords adjust the only lever they have left At least some landlords also have the option of pulling the lever labeled "sell the unit".

This is me.

Low end 1 bedroom apartment, moratorium on eviction = suddenly no rent paid. Here in Australia there was significant $ from Government for those in such a position, including rental assistance. We got nothing. And I am not about to hound a person financially at the bottom who likely lost their job and had enough shit already.

But no point messing around with the lowest end market now that we can afford not to. Sell it.

Re: Rents for the rich are going down, rents for the poor are going up. Why?

#160

Post by unishark »

WalterBright wrote: post #141
roguecoder wrote: post #17

While the article is interesting, there is one dynamic it missed: tech debt. Starting around 1975, housing supply stopped keeping up with the growth of housing demand. It picked back up fifteen years later, around 1990: https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-goldilocks-problem-of... (But that is on a national level: in the West, in comparison, housing growth hasn't been sufficient to house the new households formed a…

> Starting around 1975, housing supply stopped keeping up with the growth of housing demand. That correlates with the boomers entering the housing market.

Was going to say the same thing. Plus the Vietnam war had just ended.
Post reply on HN