61–70 of 136 posts
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This has been disproven so many times. There’s more vacant homes in the US than homeless people. But homes == money. As someone who is a real estate investor, it’s no secret, we are jacking up the prices. It’s what we do for a living.
The homes aren't where the jobs are, though. Who cares if there are vacant homes in downtown Detroit for sale or rent? If you moved there you wouldn't be able to get a job
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There's something very gross about owning a home you don't live it.
OK, I’ll bite: why should you care about what other people own?
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I'm not convinced remote work is better than the market solution from an environmental point of view. Seems like having people as densely concentrated as they can be is best from an environmental standpoint. Remote is definitely better than the status quo of subsidized suburbs housing car commuters though.
If we grind down humans into fine dust, we could fit trillions of people into San Francisco.
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Rents are rising far faster than costs. Vacancies are rising because landlords gouge.
Maintenance, sewer, trash, mortgage and taxes have doubled or tripled. Get out with this nonsense.
This is basically the late stage of us continually not building enough housing for years and years. I'm not sure how anyone thought this would turn out differently. As long as housing is an "investment", which in turn means that people lock up big portions of their net worth into housing, and then vote against policies that would make housing cheaper (it's the rational thing to do) then this will be the outcome. Just…
And what happens when we run out of places to build? Or when we build so much it will take an hour or more to go to the grocery shop to buy milk? Simply “build” is not the answer. “Building smart” would be a better answer. Build “vertically” instead of “horizontally”. Build 10+ stories residential buildings. And build shopping malls vertically too. Build walkable cities so that people don’t have to rely on cars. Etc.
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Maintenance, sewer, trash, mortgage and taxes have doubled or tripled. Get out with this nonsense.
Mortgage rates do not go up for landlords on existing properties. Get out with this nonsense.
You also failed to say, “nothing needs to be fixed at MY property! Why did my rent go up!?”
Because it takes several years to save up to replace an HVAC system or a rotten deck or plumbing failure and I have to charge based on the projected cost.
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I'm not convinced remote work is better than the market solution from an environmental point of view. Seems like having people as densely concentrated as they can be is best from an environmental standpoint. Remote is definitely better than the status quo of subsidized suburbs housing car commuters though.
If we grind down humans into fine dust, we could fit trillions of people into San Francisco.
Notice I didn't say that we should only look from the environmnental standpoint.
A useful starting point in dealing with this (and the housing crisis in general) would be to determine what proportion of homes are not being used as a primary residence. I suspect it has risen dramatically over the past couple of decades. If it turns out that that is the case, the next step would be to find out why.
1. Homes that are vacant for more than 6 months out of the year 2. Homes that are short-term rentals for more than 6 months out of the year
Incentivize owners to either get long-term tenants in, or sell.
AirBnB is making things much worse. Landlords have discovered that turning a house into a short-term rental property is more lucrative than having a long-term tenant. That's horrible for the long-term rental market when everyone does that.
We don't need to make it illegal. Just tax the shit out of it and disincentivize it.
This is basically the late stage of us continually not building enough housing for years and years. I'm not sure how anyone thought this would turn out differently. As long as housing is an "investment", which in turn means that people lock up big portions of their net worth into housing, and then vote against policies that would make housing cheaper (it's the rational thing to do) then this will be the outcome. Just…
> Just look at the 30 year fixed rate mortgages. They're an insane subsidization for homeowners. Canada is in worse shape, and doesn't have 30 year fixed mortgages (most are 5 years), and you can't write off mortgage interest expenses. In other words, our homeowner incentives are worse, and yet the house crisis is also worse. That's leaves what you mention off-the-hop: we aren't building enough. But why? Is it a supp…