I stayed at an Airbnb recently And I was curious what the actual value of it was so I looked it up on Zillow. Sold in 2015 for 350k, sold again in 2022 for $750k, now listed for sale 1.2 million. It’s a cabin in North Carolina, literally nothing special. I remember back before 2020 there was tons of mountain and cabins and homes and stuff like that anywhere from 2:50 to 500K. Now you won’t find a single one less than 800k…
Regular homes are just as bad. I’m seeing homes in my area that sold for around $200 to 300K in 2019, now they are 500k and above. I don’t understand how this makes any sense? Salaries were not doubled, but somehow the price of all homes are now twice as much. Is this some sort of cost fixing scheme by the real estate industry to just drive up the price of homes and double them or something? Because it doesn’t really make sense to me I guess.
This is a pretty good read and explains that it’s not a supply issue.
https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/24/i-dream-of-gini/
A paradox: in 1970, everyday Americans found it relatively easy to afford a house, and the average American house cost 5.9x the average American income. In 2024, Americans find it nearly impossible to afford a house, and the average American house costs…5.9x the average American income.
Here’s the nested article, i.e. the article your article is talking about: October 23, 2024, By Blair Fix; The American Housing Crisis: A Theft, Not a Shortage
Reads very well, really puts this in perspective. Extreme income inequality is the root of most Americans problems.
Maybe because with Airbnb instead of renting out a house for $2000 a month to someone looking to live there they can rent it out for $1000 a week to tourists and double their profit.
a home I bought in 2010 for around 300k is now 600k+, I couldn’t afford it now, even though it’s exactly the same. we upgraded and expanded the kitchen while living there, added a bathroom. so… yeah, wtf.
Greed. And the genuine belief that “the world is not enough”
- Land is scarce where people want to live, it’s always going to get more expensive as more people want to live there.
- Low interest rates caused large investment firms to seek higher rates by being rental owners instead of mortgage owners. This forced up rent to make returns on investment. As the realities of being a landlord are realized this might get better.
- New building nationally wasn’t keeping pace pre covid, but it was by a negligible amount. Post covid, new building is years behind where it needs to be.
- High interest rates now has effectively got people stuck in existing homes, because a new mortgage would be double the payment.
- Inflation happened, 20% of the increase since 2020 is just inflation.
- Short term rentals have devasted the residential market in popular tourist areas, forcing them to charge hotel taxes and follow those regulations is hopefully going to start correcting this.
