Rents are dropping across the US • Hacker News Board

Re: Rents are dropping across the US

#261

Post by closeparen » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 12:28 AM UTC

asveikau wrote: post #88

spamizbad wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Maybe not so good for those who were especially attached to either the vibrant city life or busy office life. I don't understand this reasoning. Was city life not vibrant when rents were 1/3rd the price? If anything, "hypergentrification" tends to have a sterilizing effect on city life. To be honest I'm kinda looking forward to it. Nothing against HENRYs (High earners, not rich yet)... but their "cultural tastes" a…

Maybe this sounds strange, but I think there is also a category of people who prefer suburbs or exurbs and are really bitter that the pendulum has swung back to cities in the last ~20 years. They are really eager to see a trend out of small amounts of data. Or proclaim urban life dead, now and forever. I personally feel strongly in the other direction. We had the infamous "white flight" and car-centric communities an…

How does the pendulum affect you?

Re: Rents are dropping across the US

#262

Post by novok » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 12:29 AM UTC

rpmisms wrote: post #238

christiansakai wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a HENRY but my cultural tastes are low for most of my peers standard. McDonalds I'm lovin' it.

Same, man. I'm HENRY for my age (18), and really enjoy my $500 apartment, while parking an ancient Tesla outside it

I wouldn't call teslas ancient by any sort of term. Maybe a car from the mid early 90s now.

Re: Rents are dropping across the US

#263

Post by Finnucane » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 12:29 AM UTC

chiefalchemist wrote: post #140

Finnucane wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, I have to wonder if empty apartments held by investors as ‘safe deposit boxes’ will start to appear on the rental or sale markets if the value drops. And this will have an effect on new construction: if demand weakens, construction will drop off.

I think you're both correct about the increase in supply. There is, of course, also the decrease in demand. It will be interesting to see if this affects home prices as well. I suppose it depends on how many single / two-family homes are rentals.

Around here it seems like some listings are seeing price cuts, not huge, but some. And this of course should be peak selling time normally.

Re: Rents are dropping across the US

#264

Post by ska » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 12:30 AM UTC

rpmisms wrote: post #238

christiansakai wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a HENRY but my cultural tastes are low for most of my peers standard. McDonalds I'm lovin' it.

Same, man. I'm HENRY for my age (18), and really enjoy my $500 apartment, while parking an ancient Tesla outside it

Only an 18 year old could consider a Tesla ancient.

Re: Rents are dropping across the US

#265

Post by novok » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 12:31 AM UTC

toofy wrote: post #194

_bxg1 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I miss the dives, the open mic nights, the hole-in-the-wall restaurants that have been slowly getting replaced with gleaming Ikea-fever-dream "fast-casual artisan eateries" and the like. (If I'm being honest the latter have a certain appeal to me too, but I think it's a travesty when they supplant things that are irreplaceably more human)

This is what most people are referring to when they say “cosmopolitan.” Where you have the perfect stew composed of a high mixture of all walks of life, from economic background, educational background, ethnic background, cultural background, etc..., and until someone figures out how to combat the change, it always seems to be overrun by gentrification. I’ve seen a few higher reaching accounts over the past couple of…

Gentrification happens because a demand boom hits a supply shock. If the supply shocks don't happen, the price doesn't change and people don't have a reason to move out in the first place.

But another thing to keep in mind is that things change constantly. The reason why a cute cultural enclave is not anymore might of been because of a disaster back at the home country isn't happening anymore and the second generation kids are all now doctors and engineers now.

The opposite of gentrification can happen too (ex detroit), and TBH it's even worse. The only thing that you can guarantee is that the city and culture you grew up with will not be the same city 10 or 50 years later in many ways.

Re: Rents are dropping across the US

#266

Post by closeparen » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 12:31 AM UTC

taylorhou wrote: post #94

If I were a renter right now and in an urban area with a lease renewal coming due, I'd 1000% call the mgmt co's bluff. Context: my firm provides back office services to 50k+ rental units across the nation and unless you're in some oddly hot market, most mgmt companies currently are holding their breath that their renters don't say anything and renew at the same price. If you're reasonable, you can easily negotiate a…

I didn’t try to negotiate down, but I did move up to a much nicer apartment for essentially the same price.

Re: Rents are dropping across the US

#267

Post by jackcosgrove » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 12:32 AM UTC

asveikau wrote: post #114

treeman79 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kids change mindset. Kids love yards. They love the little creek that runs past. I love the safety. Small neighborhood, we all know each other and look out for the kids that run around playing.

Everyone says this, as if none of us who advocate for urban life understand having kids. I have two kids. Also, they raise plenty of kids in other countries where they haven't oriented life around suburbs. Also, this was more true in the United States before white flight, and the US raised plenty of healthy kids then. So I don't think the kid thing makes as much sense as they say. But the state of US school systems d…

Violence and distracting behavior in schools are bad. But school scores, prestige, etc. don't matter as much as most people think. Your home environment matters more than the school. High achieving magnets and wealthy suburban schools are that way because of the selection profile for students, not because the school itself is transformative.

Re: Rents are dropping across the US

#268

Post by ska » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 12:32 AM UTC

theduder99 wrote: post #201

xbmcuser wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The pandemic is here for at least 1-2 years in that time many businesses will have perfected WFH/remotely where possible. So I don't think they will go back to previous way of doing things that easily. Another thing is this pandemic also has shown the risk factor of having most of your workforce in one place/city. So even if businesses don't do wfh they would probably go for more satellite offices in smaller cities.

1-2 years lol

It's a reasonable lower bound - and they did specify "at least"

Re: Rents are dropping across the US

#269

Post by closeparen » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 12:33 AM UTC

Pxtl wrote: post #38

Seems silly to discuss the falling rental prices in prestigious cities without even a nod to AirBNB. AirBNB rentals have collapsed , and so a lot of owners have moved their properties into conventional long-term rental. This has created a glut in the rental market, and is driving prices down. https://www.straight.com/news/some-vancouver-airbnb-units-ar...

Then we should see a larger drop in cities where AirBNB is unrestricted vs. those where it’s heavily regulated. Do we?

Re: Rents are dropping across the US

#270

Post by drewnick » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 12:33 AM UTC

wmeredith wrote: post #243

mortenjorck wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Expensive" and "coastal" are critical caveats. Looking at the full Zumper report ( https://www.zumper.com/blog/rental-price-data/ ), there are surprisingly high year-over-year increases in a lot of other metro areas: Arizona sees nearly 8% increases in both Scottsdale and Tucson; Austin, TX is up almost 7% while even California has seen sizable increases in its second-tier cities like Sacramento (7%) and Bakersfield…

I don't know about rent, but home prices are spiking in the Kansas City metro as people aren't putting their homes on the market because of uncertainty. The demand is far outstripping the supply. People are getting multiple offers at or above list the same day they go to market and with special add-ons like inspection waivers. It's crazy.

Same thing in SoCal. Same exact house model selling for $200,000 higher than a few months back, under contract in 1 day. Demand high, supply very very low.