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Rent collections are down in New York

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Re: Rent collections are down in New York

#261

Post by pixelatedindex »

halfxing wrote: post #234
pixelatedindex wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn’t help that the landlords want to squeeze the renter for what they are worth. It’s weird to me that shitty landlords are normalized but shitty tenants get a (rightfully) bad rap. These laws become the way they are because landlords brought it upon themselves for the most part - they’re keeping assets that have massively increased in price and want to extract more and more out of the tenant. If you have a home t…

Totally wrong. A home has a lot of expenses beyond taxes, especially maintenance/upkeep. If the landlord just breaks even, where does the money to repair the roof come from? Also, providing housing is a service that should be done at market rates, and as an investment must yield a return to make sense. Or do you expect stock investments to yield nothing and just retain their value too? Should companies not raise thei…

Homes do have a lot of expenses but it depends on when you bought your home. If you have a cheap mortgage then rents can quite easily cover repair costs. Landlords also minimize the maintenance costs by cutting costs wherever they can. I also never said they shouldn’t make money - they absolutely should, otherwise nobody would want to be a landlord.

But, I think you are overly harsh and your comparisons misplaced. Homes are quite inelastic and a necessity for everyone. They are very unique category of assets. Financial impacts to a landlord vs a renter is also quite lopsided - a landlord has far more “financial padding” to account for macroeconomic shocks compared to a renter, so you end up with some protections in case of sudden job loss. They have morphed into something worse now, but the intent makes a lot of sense.

Re: Rent collections are down in New York

#262

Post by jltsiren »

jpalawaga wrote: post #188
nikkwong wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an insanely bad take. > For instance not renting to the first qualifying tenant is a common root for discrimination. Why wouldn’t you rent to the first qualifying candidate? You should be able to select freely who you want to have live in your house. If you're a building owner, there are reasons that you might want to be able to have freedom of choice in choosing who you have live in your building. When the g…

I've lived in properties with no form of rent control whatsoever. Landlords issuing 10%+ rent increases is awful. it denies you the stability that's granted by fair/consistent rent increases. It erodes the community fabric by having a revolving door of tenants who live there 1-2 years before leaving. I do agree that we should focus on other remedies such as building more. However, even in a market with ample housing,…

I like the approach Finland took when it abolished rent control in the 1990s. Basically, you are not allowed to chain fixed-term leases indefinitely. If the actual intent is that the tenant stays until further notice, the lease agreement must reflect that.

Now, if you have an indefinite lease, the landlord can't increase the rent, unless the basis for the increase is already in the agreement. Typically the rent is tied to a measure of inflation, and the landlord chooses once a year if they should make the increase.

Re: Rent collections are down in New York

#263

Post by nikkwong »

eli_gottlieb wrote: post #189
nikkwong wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not rare. I repeat. It's not rare. I am a landlord in Seattle with ~55 active tenants/leases. Let's just say that I know of many landlords in the circles I run in that have absolutely stopped renting to leftie types because they've had so many issues over the last few years with many of them over litigating everything; and deciding not to pay rent over the smallest non-issues, or just not paying rent at all. I c…

I'd like to try and give you some sympathy, but my last landlord was a well-regarded property management firm who left me with no heat from the end of October to the weekend of Martin Luther King Day in New England, effectively only fixing it once I withheld rent, got on the local news, and was threatening a lawsuit. So, uh... yeah plenty of landlords have done a lot to earn that reputation for the class as a whole.

That's true, but I think when you pick a place to live in, you're not only really only interviewing the living establishment itself, but also the landlord/property management associated with it. I make an effort to do all of the tours of the units myself and establish good repoire with the tenants from the get-go. It's certainly inexcusable if a landlord doesn't fix things that impair living conditions—in Seattle we have a law that things of this nature must be fixed within 48 hours which I think is a reasonable law.

Re: Rent collections are down in New York

#264

Post by mh2266 »

pixelatedindex wrote: post #92
cyberax wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are such people. I have a unit in Seattle that sits empty because I don't want to risk getting stuck with such tenants. In Seattle, you can't: 1. Evict people from November to April (it's "winter"). 2. Evict people with schoolchildren during the school year. 3. Run background checks on prospective tenants. 4. You _must_ rent to the first qualifying tenant. 5. You must offer 3 months in rent as compensation if y…

Apart from maybe being a little more flexible on evictions, none of the other reasons seem problematic. For instance not renting to the first qualifying tenant is a common root for discrimination. Why wouldn’t you rent to the first qualifying candidate? The giving tenant three month rent thing is for a very small circumstance - for example huge rent increases if the tenant income is low, condo remodeling, etc. The wo…

Does this "first tenant" rule not incentivize people to apply immediately, sight unseen, and then they just eat the credit check fee on the apartments that they end up not choosing? Or maybe they can even bail before the credit check is done, if they can see all of their candidate apartments in that time, or at least do see the one they applied for and decide they don't want it?

Re: Rent collections are down in New York

#265

Post by hdgvhicv »

archagon wrote: post #85
sp527 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I guess they think I should save up a few million dollars to buy a condo or abandon my community and move to the boonies. If you can't afford to live in your city, what distinguishes you from the people in the boonies? Why should they be relegated to the boonies while you successfully game the system?

I can afford to live in my city. I’m living in it right now! The nice thing is that I don’t get pushed out by arbitrary economic fluctuations completely out of my control.

If there’s not enough supply to meet demand you have to ration by some means.

I’ve seen money, place of birth, sexual favours, lottery, length of tenure as options to ration. What do you think the best way is?

Re: Rent collections are down in New York

#266

Post by Ekaros »

hdgvhicv wrote: post #256
Ekaros wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't 20% tax on rent just lead to 25% general increase on rents? I don't think there are that much margin around in leveraged landlords. Really better would be just to bump something like income tax and use money from there for same purpose.

If a landlord can charge 1200 instead of 1000 why wouldn’t they? They’ll charge the maximum they can get away with, costs are irrelevant Two landlords, one with a mortgage, one without, will charge the same amount for the same property.

Yes. And the other one is forced to charge 1200. So the other one can charge for example 1190. And the renters will choose the 1190. And then the next renter has to pay 1200.

Or the one without mortgage goes like I only get 800. Maybe instead I just throw this money in government bonds for better gains and save money...

Other option for same outcome could be just to charge any renter 20% on top of their rent. Which they directly pay to this fund. That would push rents down as they are able to pay less. Achieving exactly same effect.

Re: Rent collections are down in New York

#267

Post by hdgvhicv »

Ekaros wrote: post #266
hdgvhicv wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a landlord can charge 1200 instead of 1000 why wouldn’t they? They’ll charge the maximum they can get away with, costs are irrelevant Two landlords, one with a mortgage, one without, will charge the same amount for the same property.

Yes. And the other one is forced to charge 1200. So the other one can charge for example 1190. And the renters will choose the 1190. And then the next renter has to pay 1200. Or the one without mortgage goes like I only get 800. Maybe instead I just throw this money in government bonds for better gains and save money... Other option for same outcome could be just to charge any renter 20% on top of their rent. Which t…

You’re assuming there’s too much supply, both landlords will be able to rent the unit, one will make more money.

Re: Rent collections are down in New York

#268

Post by mmooss »

inigyou wrote: post #171
mmooss wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not an argument: You don't specify which values, don't address my argument, and just repeat an old trope of dictators and their apologists with no support. > Plenty of societies happily trade away one or more of those values for other values. Which ones? Let's hear some evidence. People around the world strongly embrace and defend their freedom, including self-determination; the idea that it's not universal (i…

Democracy isn't freedom. It's quite easily possible for a democracy to be non-free (many current examples) or for a non-democracy to be free (not as many).

We're really splitting hairs, for no purpose other than to avoid the point.

You'd better start standing up for freedom instead of toying with oppressors. Nobody will do it for you.

Re: Rent collections are down in New York

#269

Post by throe939448 »

throwaway27448 wrote: post #209
epsteingpt wrote: post #198

For those looking for the actual data. It's from 2024 - says nothing about the current situation. * ~37K affordable housing units (baseline) across ~400 projects * 89% rent collection rate (down from 90.6% in 2023) * That's 600 units that went 'delinquent' in 2024 - assuming a $24K 'base' rent (just a guess) that's $15M in lost rent. * Deeply troubled projects (that can't survive without this rent) are at 11% - seems…

I don't understand why we can't just copy another country's housing strategy. There are many countries in the world where housing is affordable, relatively high quality, and the homelessness rate is low. What are we doing that makes this problem so seemingly intractable? Why is our approach to public housing seemingly worse than any other approach in history?

You mean like in Sweeden, where you have to wait 20 years for assigned flat?

Europe has no homelesness, because migrants are housed at hotels at great expense!

Re: Rent collections are down in New York

#270

Post by cyberax »

Loudergood wrote: post #110
cyberax wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are such people. I have a unit in Seattle that sits empty because I don't want to risk getting stuck with such tenants. In Seattle, you can't: 1. Evict people from November to April (it's "winter"). 2. Evict people with schoolchildren during the school year. 3. Run background checks on prospective tenants. 4. You _must_ rent to the first qualifying tenant. 5. You must offer 3 months in rent as compensation if y…

I don't understand why you wouldn't sell and invest elsewhere in this case.

I bought the unit from my neighbor as he was moving out. It's a townhouse, so I share a wall with that unit.

To be fair, _some_ anti-landlord laws are relaxed in this case, but not enough to make the worst-case scenario reasonable.

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