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A rent-stabilized 1 bedroom apartment for $1,100 In NYC? broker's fee is $15K

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Re: A rent-stabilized 1 bedroom apartment for $1,100 In NYC? broker's fee is $15K

#141
post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Property tax on owner-occupied residential property everywhere should have a "replace it with a lien against the property" option - some states have it. The exact situation you're referring to caused Prop 13 in CA, and something has to be done before something like that gets enacted.

California has the California Tax Postponement Program which predates Prop 13 and specifically protects poor old grandma. Prop 13 wasn't passed as a law to help the unfortunate. It was anti tax hatred of the government. Jarvis wanted a "tax revolt" which is why all property in the state, even oil fields and golf courses, gets the tax break.

> Prop 13 wasn't passed as a law to help the unfortunate

No, but it was sold to the public that way of course.

Re: A rent-stabilized 1 bedroom apartment for $1,100 In NYC? broker's fee is $15K

#142
post #87

What does one have to do to secure a $1100 a month apartment in NYC? I'm sure everyone else wants it. Get drawn from a rental lottery at random? Offer your first born child? Supplement your rent with sexual favors to the landlord?

It sounds like you need to pay $15K. I would assume you will start to see short-term/hard-money loans for the 15k as we've seen in the bay area for all cash offers on homes.

Right. $15K is about the difference between the rent stabilized price and the market price per month, multiplied by 12 months.

Re: A rent-stabilized 1 bedroom apartment for $1,100 In NYC? broker's fee is $15K

#143
We left NYC in 2012 due to layoffs, but getting an apartment back then was incredibly difficult. I don’t think people who live in other areas of the US would understand it (except maybe SF folks). Competition for apartments is fierce, and pricing was through the roof even then. We lived in Manhattan for 9 years and then got priced out. A brief move to Sunset park, then further out to Bay Ridge. Bay Ridge was reasonable and not too hard to find a place, but it is an hour from Manhattan via subway.

The situation seems to be much, much worse now 12 years later from what I have read.

Re: A rent-stabilized 1 bedroom apartment for $1,100 In NYC? broker's fee is $15K

#144
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a fan as long as we also continue building. Build, build, build as long as demand is there.

They did that in China and housing prices are still sky high. As long as "number go up" is the belief in housing you'll have speculators and empty housing. Now you could tax empty (non-rented dwellings without a declared tax residence) and that would lower prices and increase supply.

Fair enough though there's a lot more behind China's construction boom than just market forces. Property taxes + ease of building still seems like a panacea for the rest of the world to me.

Re: A rent-stabilized 1 bedroom apartment for $1,100 In NYC? broker's fee is $15K

#145

If landlords are scum the brokers can be dragged out to the street and shot. If a politician wanted to score major brownie points, breaking the broker cartels would be a major win. Put up with this sheisse in Boston. First, last, security, and broker fees. It's the reason I left the east coast and never looked back.

NYC recently tried and failed.

Re: A rent-stabilized 1 bedroom apartment for $1,100 In NYC? broker's fee is $15K

#146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in Texas, a state with pretty high property tax. We've also seen a ton of appreciation in recent years. Booming economy, transplants from other states, then the COVID factor. We also have a near free market on rent; I've been a landlord and not aware of any limitations. There are a couple limits on property taxes (namely a cap of 10% increase per year on "homesteads", and an Agriculture exemption for rural proper…

> I personally think it's awful to see elderly people getting priced out of a house they've owned for decades Housing being seen as this generational I own it forever thing that Americans have doesn’t also square with the American narrative of housing as an investment. It’s one or the other. If you want housing to be seen as something that more or less “always goes up” but you can’t be taxed in the increased value th…

> Housing being seen as this generational I own it forever thing that Americans have doesn’t also square with the American narrative of housing as an investment.

I agree with this part. Viewing it as investment is the wrong choice.

Re: A rent-stabilized 1 bedroom apartment for $1,100 In NYC? broker's fee is $15K

#147
post #65

Rent control fundamentally cannot work, which is why it never works. Malicious noncompliance is a red herring.

Rent control ideally wouldn’t need to exist. But since no one is fucking building anything - you need it to prevent landlords from just extracting more money from the pockets of laborers without having done any labor themselves. My landlord didn’t provide any more utility this year even though they jacked up my rent $1000/month this year. Nothing about my place got any better and I’m not getting anything out of it. T…

> End of the day, landlords don’t deserve more money and I don’t know why anyone here argues for it. It’s like you want bezos to have even more money - it’s super weird.

See, to me, this vitriol is what seems super weird. It seems like you must be talking about some sort of property shark that owns 8+ figures in property and extracts the maximum possible from the poor peons that dare to want a roof over their heads. Maybe with some large company thrown in the mix for good measure.

My father and grandfather are both in rental (well, they did whatever they could to make their way, primarily carpentry; rental is only part of the picture). Both of them started with nothing and managed to bootstrap their way into some properties, fixing them up as they went. They do all the work on their respective properties themselves. There isn’t a management company involved. They aren’t some evil men trying to extort the populace, the goal is just to live, provide for family, etc. Yet by definition, they are landlords - that thing that so many here despise unilaterally with such passion.

Probably there is considerable diversity (or at least two classes of landlords). But laws are going to apply to both groups.

Re: A rent-stabilized 1 bedroom apartment for $1,100 In NYC? broker's fee is $15K

#148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Land Value Tax: Make it financially unfeasible to speculate, to withhold units from the market, and to withhold unused land from the market. Let prices freely fluctuate with the market. Increases in rent derived from externalities (i.e. Amazon HQ2 setting up shop nearby or a new subway station) go back into public coffers, while increases in rent derived from landlord actions (i.e. renovations, building bigger, bette…

I'm in Texas, a state with pretty high property tax. We've also seen a ton of appreciation in recent years. Booming economy, transplants from other states, then the COVID factor. We also have a near free market on rent; I've been a landlord and not aware of any limitations. There are a couple limits on property taxes (namely a cap of 10% increase per year on "homesteads", and an Agriculture exemption for rural proper…

The property taxes should be placed proportionally towards those who are making money from owning properties and therefore have an ability to pay them.

If grandpa and grandma are just living in their house in Texas and surviving on the last of the pension, they're not even vaguely in the same category as a property owner deciding which of the next condo buildings to buy.

Re: A rent-stabilized 1 bedroom apartment for $1,100 In NYC? broker's fee is $15K

#150
post #127
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The landlord put in a new kitchen for you? When I lived in several different towns in Germany every single flat was rented without kitchen...I bought more than one and had to dismount the kitchen when leaving. One of German absurdities I don't miss... "Apartments don’t come with kitchens in Germany" - https://alisajordanwrites.com/2018/08/06/apartments-dont-com...

I agree that it's dumb to have to buy a new kitchen when moving in (and tear it down when moving out). In most cases, though, you talk to the next person that moves in and, depending on the quality of the kitchen and social factors, sell it to them or just give it away. That is, when it's not part of the lease, which does exist in Germany, even if it's not mandatory. Student housing, for example, is usually fully equ…

Yes of course I talked to the new tenant. And guess what they replied? ;-)... ..."We already have our kitchen we had to take out form our previous accommodation!"
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