Vox: How the US made affordable homes illegal

[NurseJackie]

[alwaysinasnit]

1. And this is exacerbating the problem.

https://www.housingwire.com/articles/investors-are-buying-up-single-family-homes-across-the-us/

After three straight quarters of declines, home purchases by investors rose 2.7% year over year in the first quarter of 2021, marking the first period of growth since the COVID-19 pandemic began, per a new study from Redfin.

Looking to take advantage of the hot housing market and a soaring stock market, investors bought about 1 of every 7 U.S. homes in the first quarter — up from the prior three quarters, in which they bought closer to 1 in 10 homes.

Investor purchases of single-family homes rose 4.8% year over year in the first quarter, outpacing growth in every other property type. They also still have the biggest market share in the multifamily sector, buying 25.8% of multifamily properties that sold in the U.S. during the first quarter.

“Investors are likely starting to feel more comfortable because the economy is in recovery mode,” said Sheharyar Bokhari, Redfin senior economist. “They also may be jumping back in because they see the intensifying shortage of homes for sale as an opportunity. With so few houses on the market, many families are resorting to rentals. Flush with cash, investors are able to snap up the homes that are available, and then turn around and rent them out to folks who can’t find a home or are priced out of homeownership.”

snip...

[Phoenix61]

2. Short-term rentals add to the problem.

Foreign investors account for nearly one-third of institutional investment purchases of single-family rental homes, Alex Foshay, head of international capital markets at Newmark, a real estate services firm, told The Wall Street Journal. Their numbers have been elevated since the COVID-19 pandemic, Foshay notes.Apr 15, 2021

[bucolic_frolic]

3. It makes good and bad points

Where are people going to park their cars with inadequate parking space? And it keeps dividing rich vs poor. No mention of using existing real estate - for example former factories, retail space, office space (now emptying for home-gigs), and strip malls - all can be converted or torn down to renovate of build housing. Major shopping malls, now 2/3 empty are often mentioned for opening residential development - but surrounding neighborhoods lobby against traffic, pollution, and even water draw.

So this video focuses on the needs of young people without offering viable solutions other than deregulation. I wonder if builders, oil companies, real estate industry are behind it?

And these poor people paying big money for these houses! A house is not an investment. It will drain you for taxes, maintenance, and sap money that could have been invested. Think small, passive solar, sustainable. Don't listen to realtors, that is my advice.

[NurseJackie]

4. Small and affordable (safe and comfortable) was what the Mister and I were...

... considering when we bought our place. We don't need a McMansion. We've already raised our children. They don't need to inherit a huge estate. Our little acre and double-wide is PERFECT for our retirement. (And surprisingly, it's not depreciating... as one would typically expect.)

[Uncle Joe]

6. There are major corporations

buying up residential real estate in unprecedented numbers.

It’s not exactly accurate that investors are “buying every single-family house they can find,” as some have suggested. If that were true, their market share in the United States wouldn’t be a piddling 15 percent. They’re really buying up the stock of relatively inexpensive single-family homes built since the 1970s in growing metro areas. They mostly ignore bigger and more expensive houses, especially ones that are move-in ready: Wealthy boomers and the nation’s finance and tech bros nab those properties. And they’re also ignoring cities with stable or shrinking populations, like Providence and Pittsburgh.

But investors are depleting the inventory of the precise houses that might otherwise be obtainable for younger, working- and middle-class households, in the cities where those workers can easily find good-paying jobs, like Atlanta (22 percent of home purchases according to Redfin data), Charlotte (22 percent), and Phoenix (20 percent). More importantly, they’re able to scour those markets scientifically and systematically to make cash offers on the most attractively priced properties. While normal people buy houses when they actually need to move somewhere, (savvy) investors buy houses several years before a bunch of people need to move to an area. Whether they’re tracking where major employers are building new offices or looking at public school enrollment data, being ahead of the market gives big firms a big leg up.

(snip)

If you don’t want all of America’s land and housing to end up in the portfolios of the 1 percent, there’s ultimately one very simple solution: Tax the rich. After all, the companies buying the houses are ultimately owned by people (or in some cases, universities and churches, which are their own cans of tax-advantaged rich-people worms). At the same time that the working-class is going hungry, rich people are doing so outstandingly well that they are running out of easy places to park their cash, which is why they’re buying 2,000 square-foot houses in the Phoenix suburbs via their ownership stakes in these funds.

This is all part of a long-standing trend: As inequality in the United States increases, the financial elite invests less in the types of things that could create jobs, like R&D or new factories, and more into directly extracting wealth from the working class. One way to do that? Becoming their landlords.

https://slate.com/business/2021/06/blackrock-invitation-houses-investment-firms-real-estate.html

I would imagine that also has an impact on the rapid increase in real estate price and rent.

[The Jungle 1]

5. Zoning is the single worst threat to freedom in this nation.

My community controls and dictates architecture for homes and commercial property. I must get a permit (ask permission) to cut my trees. I must get a permit (ask permission) to replace my heater. I am forced to pump my septic tank when they say. I am not allowed to park a camper in my front yard or driveway. These laws go on and on. This is the face of fascism.