Rent control doesn’t fix the problem of inequitable ownership of housing or the bad incentives that prevent the building of more housing or the lack of support for public housing. Rent control is a bad bandaid
It helps remove the incentive to buy up all of the single family homes. The calculus is pretty simple -
- buy a house
- rent it
- pay the mortgage, insurance, and maintenance with the overinflated rental costs because everyone colluded to jack up rental prices across the board
- eventually own the house entirely off of the back of renters
- repeat
Renting a home shouldn’t cost enough for that cycle to be self sustaining.
I work in municipal development.
100% of the single-family home projects that have been proposed in my area for the last year have been rental-only communities.
Like - they don’t even want to give the houses individual water meters. They want to hook them all together, which means they can’t even be converted down the line to something else without digging up all the damn infrastructure.
I’ve visited some friends in those rental only neighborhoods. The lawns are all trashed. The neighborhood was less than three years old but it was already sliding toward a slum because of the clear lack of ownership by the occupants.
Honestly I can’t believe that part of the rent didn’t go toward neighborhood wide lawn care.
Having money gets you no PMI and better interest rates. It’s cheaper for someone well funded to buy a house than someone who isn’t. I’m not saying that it’s a slam dunk rent is covered, but it can be a lot closer than you’d expect.
It’s not without risk though. The renters could damage the house. There will be broken appliances and roof replacements. You still have property taxes and maybe HOA fees.
Even if it’s half a house for free, that’s a pretty strong addition to your wealth management.
rent control and stop cooperate take over of housing, especially foreign companies.
Foreign investors and real estate speculators are squeezing the middle class dry. The only options out there if you don’t want to live in the middle of bumfuck nowhere are either really really old properties, really really shitty properties, or too far above your means to be able to afford it.
Renting should be the most affordable option, yet if you actually look at the numbers, you are paying almost as much as the value of an entire mortgage with one monthly rent check in some areas. Properties built in the 60’s that are falling apart and lacking modern amenities should not be going for $2,500/month, but that’s the reality I live in right now. I’m on the fucking brink and I’d do anything to have a chance at climbing on the real estate ladder right about now. I don’t care if my house never gains a cent in value, at least it would be mine.
I manage the business lending department at a credit union ($400MM in assets) and lately we’ve just had a ton of investors looking for single family homes. For the most part, they’re all just couples looking for properties and they only have a few of them but we also have some realtors buying up a bunch of them. Looking for a new job solely because of that. Feel like I’m contributing to the lack of affordable housing. I liked the job more when we were doing loans for farmers/truckers/commercial real estate/or people that needed equipment. I hate dealing with single family homes.
We need legislation now.
50% tax on any property past your 2nd. Let people downsize and rent their home to young families, while buying a condo for retirement or whatever. But if we keep on this path we will truly be living our entire lives as a subscription model and never own a thing
Rent has been high for a LONG time… and yet somehow it keeps going up. I’m very fortunate in my rental situation… but I do see the other side of the crunch, which is LIFE is fucking expensive. Every last thing we do these days is expensive. When you are getting squeezed in every single direction…
I just got a 24% raise. Went to negotiate it lower and they basically just said “the market is the market”
I’m not getting a 24% better apartment. Their property tax has gone up only 6.9 % and I know based on two employees their labor costs didn’t change.
The sad thing is moving to a slightly cheaper, and much worse, apartment will cost me about the same over the course of one year as staying. Because of paying a deposit and pet deposit etc
I just got a big raise and it’s all gone to rent now. One step forward one step back for a decade I feel like. Doubling my salary in 5 year means nothing to my quality of life
