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Apartment rent growth is declining, shifting the market to the tenant’s favor

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Re: Apartment rent growth is declining, shifting the market to the tenant’s favor

#42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you live in NY without an income like that?

What I always found interesting about Tokyo was that you could live in all of the various hotspots around the city, alone, on a semi reasonable middle class salary. You would live in a tiny little box, but you could be a 10 minute walk to the middle of Shinjuku or Shibuya. If you are single and don't care about cooking at home it really seemed like a great option. I don't know why in the US we have to be priced out o…

I suspect it's because most Americans don't want to live in a little box; culture is just different here. And not having a kitchen seems like a deal-breaker for many people (myself included; even when I was in my 20s and ate out most of the time, I don't think I would have tolerated that). And I believe some municipalities in the US won't consider a space legal to rent out if it doesn't include access to a kitchen.

Of course, the real reason you have to be rich to afford a decent space in our biggest cities is because there isn't enough housing to satisfy the demand. Build more (and, critically, make it not incredibly expensive to build more), and prices will go down.

Re: Apartment rent growth is declining, shifting the market to the tenant’s favor

#43
post #28
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you can't afford a home with a 40 hour job I think this has always been the difference between a "job" and a "career". My first full time job was making pizzas. I worked 40 hours a week, dropping sauce and toppings onto squished bread. Nobody would have been able to afford a pizza if I would have been able to afford a home, in my state.

Have you actually examined that math? At say, 15 pizzas per person per hour, increasing your wages to $15/hour above where it was before (netting you $2500/mo for housing on top of previous wages before considering taxes/assistance) would add $1 to each pizza. There are countries that have decent access to housing for the working class which aren't somehow impossible to dine in.

I'm assuming OP means a pizza restaurant not a factory?

Not a restaurant owner but I'm curious how a pizza place consistently sells 15 pizzas/hour @ 8 hours a day... let alone more

More likely what's going to happen is you have "bursty" rush times where you need more people to scale up and dead times where you have minimal sales?

Re: Apartment rent growth is declining, shifting the market to the tenant’s favor

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the recent hit on Vanguard I have seen going around? Aren't they mostly investing in indexs which would necessitate blindly buying stock in companies and of course they do it on a massive scale due to their size? Is Vanguard in some way encouraging companies to do evil things?

It has to do with their investment in RE/RBMS as an asset class, outside of their usual purview of asset management in traditional securities (though Blackrock is much more known/hated/publicized for it)

Thx still not understanding. Some Google Fu is telling me people aren't happy with Vanguard because they invest in fossil fuel industry and they don't vote enough for social based shareholder resolutions. Sorry but that is how passive investing works.

Re: Apartment rent growth is declining, shifting the market to the tenant’s favor

#45
post #30
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you can't afford a home with a 40 hour job I think this has always been the difference between a "job" and a "career". My first full time job was making pizzas. I worked 40 hours a week, dropping sauce and toppings onto squished bread. Nobody would have been able to afford a pizza if I would have been able to afford a home, in my state.

Are you sure? Restaurant labor usually works out to a small percentage of the price of the food. Besides that, people could afford pizza back when minimum wage was much higher adjusted for inflation.

I think the GP meant that their pizza job paid so poorly, if their wage had been increased enough for them to be able to buy a home, the cost of the pizza itself would have to be increased quite a bit in order for the pizza shop to stay afloat.

Re: Apartment rent growth is declining, shifting the market to the tenant’s favor

#46
post #8

I wish the government would do more to control this terrible situation. If you can't afford a home with a 40 hour job, something is sick in this country. Even an apartment is beyond reach. Blackrock and Vanguard are blights on this planet.

Completely agree about Blackrock and Vanguard. But didn't the government create this situation by making it hard to build, thus keeping supply down? While at the same time near 0 interest rates to boost demand. While at the same time inflating the supply of money.

What do you agree with on Vanguard, what are they doing?

Re: Apartment rent growth is declining, shifting the market to the tenant’s favor

#47
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I always found interesting about Tokyo was that you could live in all of the various hotspots around the city, alone, on a semi reasonable middle class salary. You would live in a tiny little box, but you could be a 10 minute walk to the middle of Shinjuku or Shibuya. If you are single and don't care about cooking at home it really seemed like a great option. I don't know why in the US we have to be priced out o…

I suspect it's because most Americans don't want to live in a little box; culture is just different here. And not having a kitchen seems like a deal-breaker for many people (myself included; even when I was in my 20s and ate out most of the time, I don't think I would have tolerated that). And I believe some municipalities in the US won't consider a space legal to rent out if it doesn't include access to a kitchen. O…

Eating out in the US is also much less affordable than it is in Asia, even countries like Japan.

Re: Apartment rent growth is declining, shifting the market to the tenant’s favor

#48
post #30
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you can't afford a home with a 40 hour job I think this has always been the difference between a "job" and a "career". My first full time job was making pizzas. I worked 40 hours a week, dropping sauce and toppings onto squished bread. Nobody would have been able to afford a pizza if I would have been able to afford a home, in my state.

Are you sure? Restaurant labor usually works out to a small percentage of the price of the food. Besides that, people could afford pizza back when minimum wage was much higher adjusted for inflation.

You have it backwards. Labor is the single largest cost of running a restaurant, followed by lease. Cost of ingredients is usually the lowest cost of running a restaurant. I know you are trying to divide all those costs up by dish, but it doesn't work that way.

Source: me. I used to co-own a restaurant.

Re: Apartment rent growth is declining, shifting the market to the tenant’s favor

#49
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Blackrock and Vanguard are blights on this planet. Corporate landlords weren't the ones saying "you can't build here because it ruins the neighborhood's 'character.'"

Housing as an investment vehicle is government policy - if the oligarchy insisted on a different policy it would be implemented.

There might be some corporate actors in favor of this, but housing as an investment is wildly popular among most Americans. I wouldn't be surprised if most renters support it because they see it as a vehicle to wealth rather than what prices them out of the market.

Re: Apartment rent growth is declining, shifting the market to the tenant’s favor

#50
post #11

I wish the government would do more to control this terrible situation. If you can't afford a home with a 40 hour job, something is sick in this country. Even an apartment is beyond reach. Blackrock and Vanguard are blights on this planet.

1031 exchange Capital gains exemption Mortgage interest deduction 30 year fixed rate mortgages Depreciation deduction Opportunity zones The list seems to go on forever. The government uses tax cuts to juice real estate investment at everyone else's expense.

Don't some of these benefit individuals more than companies? Loans aren't as subsidized as they are for individuals.
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