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

251–257 of 257 posts

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

#251

Post by sgerenser »

nubbins wrote: post #190
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.

That may be a perk of having had an aristocratic ruling class, the first industrial revolution, and global empire (not being sarcastic- I'm a big Hidden Houses of Wales fan, would love to renovate an old castle). The UK was historically wealthy and has amazing old houses. In the US every decade has had significantly better housing stock with increasing standards of living, so its much less appealing to get an older h…

Polybutylene piping, asbestos and lead paint everywhere, ungrounded electrical outlets, leaky doors and windows...

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

#252

Post by sgerenser »

tehjoker wrote: post #241
yibg wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lived in a country where housing (at the time) was provided by the government. It's not as great as it might sound. Want to move? Do the paper work and wait for a few years. Want a bigger place? too bad. Not to mention single room for the whole family, shared kitchen and washrooms.

The quality of the housing is going to be proportional to the wealth of the country per capita. In the US, we simply allocate quality of housing based on ability to pay, so many people have incredibly bad housing conditions.

It doesn’t take very many years of communism to reduce the wealth of the country per capita until everyone has equally bad housing conditions.

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

#253

Post by cudgy »

hoseja wrote: post #204
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.

Americans build shoddy wooden shacks that barely last a generation, you have to remember.

Non-American homes are all well built estates that last for a thousand years and need no improvements. Asia and Africa are full of particularly well built estates.

Seriously...All homes must be maintained or they will deteriorate.

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

#254

Post by banannaise »

cudgy wrote: post #253
hoseja wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Americans build shoddy wooden shacks that barely last a generation, you have to remember.

Non-American homes are all well built estates that last for a thousand years and need no improvements. Asia and Africa are full of particularly well built estates. Seriously...All homes must be maintained or they will deteriorate.

America has ready access to a building material that many of these places don't: softwood. Softwood really just does not cut it if you're trying to build something that lasts hundreds to thousands of years. So they don't build for that.

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

#255

Post by deek »

marc__1 wrote: post #231
mc32 wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

That is a great question and one that the book speaks about. Some points to consider without going too deep: - Italians and other European communities also faced with xenophobia and racism. Italians even founded 'the bank of Italy' (which is now BofA) because there were lack of institutions who financed and provided debt to them. Some laws have deliberately pushed to integrate white europeans to 'white american' soci…

Also of note are the Landsmanschaft and Jewish mutual aid societies, especially prevalent in early 20th century NYC. Contrary to stereotype many Jewish immigrants came here poor and Talmud encourages (requires?) an observant Jew who is able to lend money interest-free to help others get on their feet.

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

#256

Post by sombremesa »

sidlls wrote: post #33
wideareanetwork wrote: post #9

Because by definition rich means “can buy house”, and poor means “no choice but to rent”. What sort of rich person rents a house, except whilst between selling old and new? It’s a strange question to ask .... who doesn’t see this as self evident?

I recently won the IPO lottery--went from nearly zero net wealth to a solid seven figure net wealth. I could buy a house in the bay area and give up > 50% of my cash for it, or I could give up 15-25% of my net wealth with a down payment on a a mortgage and pay (PITI) 110% or more of what I could pay in rent for a similar home. Or I could continue renting and put that 15% - > 50% of my net worth in appreciating assets…

> Or I could continue renting and put that 15% - > 50% of my net worth in appreciating assets and income producing investments.

Property is a leveraged investment (as well as the loan being a hedge against inflation, depending on the rate you negotiate - with a 7 figure NW you should never have to use market rate). Unless you're using a large amount of margin on these "appreciating assets", the appreciation should be compared at a 1:5 rate.

Be careful not to become one of those people who "win the lottery" and then lose it all in their hubris. I'd stop saying things like "people with absolutely no money sense at all" - for all we know, that's you.

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

#257

Post by Railsify »

colinmhayes wrote: post #172
scottm01 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>A portfolio of that size will easily throw off 500k in dividends a year. Where are you "easily" getting 5% dividends? Are those mythical W2 boomers suddenly into sketchy crypto "funds"? Vanguards "Dividend Growth" fund is yielding 1.71%. Total stock 1.33%

ATT 7% yield raised every year for the past 50 years.

Thanks! I was imagining an actively managed portfolio. There are very few set it and forget it hole in one investments.
Post reply on HN