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A record number of Americans can't afford rent

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Re: A record number of Americans can't afford rent

#71

Post by cglan »

jan3024 wrote: post #59
gottorf wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This has been disproven so many times. There’s more vacant homes in the US than homeless people. It hasn't been disproven. There being more vacant homes than homeless people just means that the market isn't clearing, because the minimum price acceptable to the landlord is higher than the maximum price acceptable to the homeless. This could be from any number of reasons, none of which "disprove" the fact that the la…

I consider the fact there’s a surplus of housing to disprove the fact that there’s a shortage of housing. Seems obvious to me.

Housing surplus != housing surplus in liveable areas, or at least areas with work

Re: A record number of Americans can't afford rent

#73

Post by janalsncm »

cglan wrote: post #25

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…

Any explanation for the explosion in housing costs cannot simply consider the United States. The U.S. has some idiosyncratic problems, but it’s not the only place with expensive housing.

Re: A record number of Americans can't afford rent

#74

Post by tootie »

waqf wrote: post #36
tootie wrote: post #23

Idk why this is such a mysterious or unexpected thing. Housing construction crashed through the earth following the subprime crisis and the deficit in available housing has not yet recovered. Prices are up due almost entirely to supply and demand. Current pace indicates the problem will probably sort itself out in a few years barring any further disaster. Some YIMBYism could speed it up. https://www.axios.com/2023/12…

I assume you're referring to the graph on the page you linked. Is there an explanation somewhere of exactly how it is calculated? I tried to read the "article" underneath the graph but it just seems to be a disjointed collection of assertions strung together with inappropriate connectives and insane formatting.

The caption is a little vague, but it says the source is census data by which they mean the US Census Bureau which does an estimate of housing every year.

Moodys has a more technical analysis if you have patience to read it all using both census and realtor data:

https://cre.moodysanalytics.com/insights/cre-news/one-good-y...

Re: A record number of Americans can't afford rent

#75

Post by dmazzoni »

brightball wrote: post #50
tmnvix wrote: post #5

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.

You hit the nail on the head here. The simplest way to solve this problem is a stepped increase in property taxes for home which are not the primary residence. Just as an example: Assume a baseline property tax level of say, 6%. Primary residence - 2% discount to 4% Non-primary residence, in same region (county/city) as primary = 6% Non-primary residence, not in same region as primary = increase 2% to 8% Non-primary…

FWIW, the highest property taxes in the country right now are So your idea is fine, but the numbers are way off.

My proposal would be more like:

    Primary residence: 1%
    Rental property with 1y+ lease: 1.5%
    First secondary residence, owner-occupied seasonally: 2%
    Third residence, vacant, or full-time short-term rental: 5%

Re: A record number of Americans can't afford rent

#76

Post by seanmcdirmid »

gottorf wrote: post #48
gcgbcfy wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> This has been disproven so many times. There’s more vacant homes in the US than homeless people. It hasn't been disproven. There being more vacant homes than homeless people just means that the market isn't clearing, because the minimum price acceptable to the landlord is higher than the maximum price acceptable to the homeless. This could be from any number of reasons, none of which "disprove" the fact that the la…

Those houses are also not in places where people want to be. We don't have a nation-wide housing crisis, rather we have a top 20 city housing crisis.

Re: A record number of Americans can't afford rent

#77

Post by phkahler »

aorloff wrote: post #26
pyrophane wrote: post #19

So are landlords making money hand-over-fist or what?

No, because costs are rising and vacancy is rising.

Costs are nothing compared to rent, so those vacant units are wasted income. They seem to be favoring higher rates over higher occupancy.

Re: A record number of Americans can't afford rent

#78

Post by monkpit »

weard_beard wrote: post #67
monkpit wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mortgage rates do not go up for landlords on existing properties. Get out with this nonsense.

So one out of the five costs only applies to some properties? How does that make me wrong? 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.

Sewer, trash are negligible compared to the cost of rent. If they double you’re looking at rent going up by around 3% and that’s if the landlord isn’t making the renter pay those fees directly.

Maintenance costs and taxes are the only ones that could be a factor out of your original 5 - your point is drowned out by the poor supporting facts.

And taxes aren’t even going up, just the valuation of the properties - which drives higher rent anyways.

And since you’re a landlord, you should have a maintenance plan that would reimburse you for things like HVAC.

Re: A record number of Americans can't afford rent

#79

Post by dmazzoni »

ipnon wrote: post #42
darkwizard42 wrote: post #33

Looking to learn more on the subject, but why isn't it in the interest of any city these days to NOT build more housing? They are almost perfectly incentivized to attract working young people and families to help increase their tax base (property tax, income tax, sales tax) and housing would help them do that. Given most large cities are facing huge financial deficits, wouldn't this make sense? (Yes, I'm aware of reg…

The city is incentivized to increase housing supply, but the voters are not because their individual net worths are mostly in their home prices. Since a city is really just a set of geographically constrained voters, housing supply decreases.

In my city in California, developers are replacing old single-family homes with multi-family (apartments, condos, townhomes). It's great, it's needed.

Every time a new development gets started in our neighborhood, Facebook neighbor groups explode. The older generations hate how it's ruining the character of the neighborhood. The younger generations ask where the fuck they're supposed to live when prices are so high.

Thankfully, in the last few years it feels like the YIMBY voices are getting a lot louder.

Re: A record number of Americans can't afford rent

#80

Post by dmazzoni »

pyrophane wrote: post #19

So are landlords making money hand-over-fist or what?

Sadly a lot of landlords have learned that they make a lot more money by doing exclusively short-term rentals on AirBnB. That reduces the supply of long-term rentals and drives prices up even higher.
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