Seriously though how long after a rent freeze and moratorium on evictions do landlords decide renting isn’t a great business and put the homes back on the market so the renters can buy?
I seriously doubt Sean Hannity( a major US landlord and Fox News freak) will ever cry about tenant’s rights, except for the current tenant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, of course.
When I lived in San Francisco (near the Panhandle), there was an article written in which my landlord was complaining about his flats being rent and eviction controlled. The area was gentrifying, and he wanted to kick us out and get some Google employees in paying a few thousand a month.
Originally, the properties belonged to his father who recognized that there was a need for low-rent housing, especially so to preserve the character of the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, which had traditionally been a refuge for artists and hippies. In fact, one of the store fronts of the building was a dispensary during the Medical Marijuana ID Card program.
My flatmate and I considered writing a letter to the editor, referring to the article and thanking our landlord for letting us live there at pre-gentrification rates because we would never have been able to live in San Francisco otherwise. But the rag was definitely a landlord’s rights periodical and it never would have been published.
Addendum: The flats were a bit of a dive, still having 1890s construction and 1970s electrical wiring. Since we were living there on the cheap, we learned to deal and didn’t complain too much. I’m absolutely sure he was underestimating the cost of remodeling that would be necessary to make the flats appeal to well-paid tech developers.
as long as there is no better way to invest their money. once other investment tool become more attractive, they will start switching.
unfortunately houses and apartments hold value and resist inflation very well, because people simply have no choice, they do need to live somewhere. you can decide not to buy new phone, you can’t decide not to have a roof above your head (technically you can, but the consequences are dire, so…)
The economy is so screwed that this is basically the only sensible way to invest for the middle class. There are no other good way to invest savings unless you are multimillionaire/billionaire.
I’m talking about mom and pop landlords that still go to their regular jobs and likely themselves live in an apartment, not about apartments owned by big corporations.
In the past one would use savings to open a business, now it is much more prohibitive and also much higher risk that one of the monopolies will drive you out of business.
Even with a rent freeze, renting is so exploitative it will continue to be a great business. If we want to be able to buy, we need to take systemic action. We need to exempt owner-occupants from property tax hikes, and then hike property taxes for non-occupant owners/landlord.
The property tax rate needs to target 85% owner-occupancy. Any year it is less than 80%, the non-occupant property tax rate statutorily increases by 5%. Any year owner-occupancy is over 90%, the non-occupant rate decreases by 5%.
The idea of rented housing needs to be killed off. There are much better ways to fulfill temporary and transient housing needs, or to leave maintenance responsibilities to someone else.
Good question. That sounds like a perfect case for some variety of “condominium”. The arrangement there is usually that the interior of the structure is owned by the occupant, while the exterior is shared in some way. Either the exterior is owned by the condo owner association (of which you are a member), or there is some sort of communal easement.
Alternatively, I’ve worked with independent property preservation and maintenance services that basically do the same thing that an apartment complex’s maintenance staff would do. Without widespread renting, there would be a huge demand for such services directly from homeowners You’d basically pay a monthly fee, and they would handle everything. If they try to charge too much, you dump them and find someone else.
In either case, there are alternatives to paying exorbitant fees to a landlord. These are deeded properties; if you’re making monthly payments, they are to a lender of your choice. You can refinance with another lender if you don’t like the one you start with.
Are we factoring in the clownish refunds that are being prepped to go out to ‘reimburse’ landlords for the COVID pandemic moratoriums, which are both absolutely going to end up mostly in the pockets of corporate landlords and for which I also predict another batch of stupid application processes a la PPP processing style? And the precedent they would set?
Different answers between reality being allowed to unfurl as logic and nature dictates and the manufactured fuckery we get to experience.
Seriously though how long after a rent freeze and moratorium on evictions do landlords decide renting isn’t a great business and put the homes back on the market so the renters can buy?
I’ve been seeing landlords crying about tenant’s rights in the local subreddits a lot more lately. Hopefully we’re on the cusp of it.
I seriously doubt Sean Hannity( a major US landlord and Fox News freak) will ever cry about tenant’s rights, except for the current tenant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, of course.
When I lived in San Francisco (near the Panhandle), there was an article written in which my landlord was complaining about his flats being rent and eviction controlled. The area was gentrifying, and he wanted to kick us out and get some Google employees in paying a few thousand a month.
Originally, the properties belonged to his father who recognized that there was a need for low-rent housing, especially so to preserve the character of the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, which had traditionally been a refuge for artists and hippies. In fact, one of the store fronts of the building was a dispensary during the Medical Marijuana ID Card program.
My flatmate and I considered writing a letter to the editor, referring to the article and thanking our landlord for letting us live there at pre-gentrification rates because we would never have been able to live in San Francisco otherwise. But the rag was definitely a landlord’s rights periodical and it never would have been published.
Addendum: The flats were a bit of a dive, still having 1890s construction and 1970s electrical wiring. Since we were living there on the cheap, we learned to deal and didn’t complain too much. I’m absolutely sure he was underestimating the cost of remodeling that would be necessary to make the flats appeal to well-paid tech developers.
as long as there is no better way to invest their money. once other investment tool become more attractive, they will start switching.
unfortunately houses and apartments hold value and resist inflation very well, because people simply have no choice, they do need to live somewhere. you can decide not to buy new phone, you can’t decide not to have a roof above your head (technically you can, but the consequences are dire, so…)
So many homeless families now, living in broken down rvs at best. It’s heartbreaking.
Right when we pull out the trusty old guillotine 👍🏻
The economy is so screwed that this is basically the only sensible way to invest for the middle class. There are no other good way to invest savings unless you are multimillionaire/billionaire.
I’m talking about mom and pop landlords that still go to their regular jobs and likely themselves live in an apartment, not about apartments owned by big corporations.
In the past one would use savings to open a business, now it is much more prohibitive and also much higher risk that one of the monopolies will drive you out of business.
Even with a rent freeze, renting is so exploitative it will continue to be a great business. If we want to be able to buy, we need to take systemic action. We need to exempt owner-occupants from property tax hikes, and then hike property taxes for non-occupant owners/landlord.
The property tax rate needs to target 85% owner-occupancy. Any year it is less than 80%, the non-occupant property tax rate statutorily increases by 5%. Any year owner-occupancy is over 90%, the non-occupant rate decreases by 5%.
The idea of rented housing needs to be killed off. There are much better ways to fulfill temporary and transient housing needs, or to leave maintenance responsibilities to someone else.
What do you do with the people that can afford a house but not the upkeep / maintenance?
Good question. That sounds like a perfect case for some variety of “condominium”. The arrangement there is usually that the interior of the structure is owned by the occupant, while the exterior is shared in some way. Either the exterior is owned by the condo owner association (of which you are a member), or there is some sort of communal easement.
Alternatively, I’ve worked with independent property preservation and maintenance services that basically do the same thing that an apartment complex’s maintenance staff would do. Without widespread renting, there would be a huge demand for such services directly from homeowners You’d basically pay a monthly fee, and they would handle everything. If they try to charge too much, you dump them and find someone else.
In either case, there are alternatives to paying exorbitant fees to a landlord. These are deeded properties; if you’re making monthly payments, they are to a lender of your choice. You can refinance with another lender if you don’t like the one you start with.
Depends, imo.
Are we factoring in the clownish refunds that are being prepped to go out to ‘reimburse’ landlords for the COVID pandemic moratoriums, which are both absolutely going to end up mostly in the pockets of corporate landlords and for which I also predict another batch of stupid application processes a la PPP processing style? And the precedent they would set?
Different answers between reality being allowed to unfurl as logic and nature dictates and the manufactured fuckery we get to experience.