Jeremy, I recommend listening to The Tenant Association podcast. Apparently a lot of rent-stabilized buildings across the country are coming to the end of their 30-year covenant deals and rent will go to market rate when that happens. Would love it if more could be shared about the impending rent crisis. More people should know about the scale of the problem and potential solutions / ways to organize.
America is a great place to live.......as long as you have a pocket full of money. The question is, and ought to be, how best to secure a fair, just and equitable society in a fast and ever changing reality.
How we answer Cain's "Am I my brother's keeper" juxtaposed against the reality of the poor being with us always is the crux of the matter.
Please note that the Bay Area is the 17th largest economy in the world, inside California, which is the fourth largest economy in the world. California provides a large support system to its residents, medical, food, everything except housing. I live in Berkeley, where the city council has allowed housing to be controlled by developers and is very expensive, although somewhat rent controlled. The Bay Area has spent a lot of money preparing for a large earthquake and climate change. We are going to have to provide better and more housing, but it's got to be cheaper than earthquake proofing the cities and climate proofing a lot. The standards of living are very high, and the benefits available to residents are very good. My husband and I were low income all our lives, except during the dot.com boom, and we were very frugal, we bought a foreclosure (9 3/4 %) refinanced without taking out any money, put solar on the roof, and retired without any debt with just social security as our income and we are fine. It's expensive, but if you're careful, it's livable. Most of our food is produced here, too.
The real increase in the cost of housing is the cost of government. Nationwide, in addition to the costs of code compliance, governments tack on fees averaging $100,000 per house. Yes, this is on new houses but the increasing costs of building new translate directly into increasing prices for used houses.
Of course that huge $100K per housing unit ignores many other costs imposed by government. Sales tax on that new house and on that additional $100K in fees is considerable. Add in property taxes and insurance (much of the additional cost of insurance driven by those additional costs of government) and you find that by far, the largest portion of the increase in the cost of housing is government.
If you want to fix housing prices, you will necessarily start by fixing (shrinking) government.
Jeremy, I recommend listening to The Tenant Association podcast. Apparently a lot of rent-stabilized buildings across the country are coming to the end of their 30-year covenant deals and rent will go to market rate when that happens. Would love it if more could be shared about the impending rent crisis. More people should know about the scale of the problem and potential solutions / ways to organize.
More about the show here - https://earbuds.audio/blog/the-tenant-association-an-interview-with-phoenix-tso
Will definitely give it a listen thanks for mentioning it
Eggs are eggspensive. Brilliant. No notes.
🤷🍳
America is a great place to live.......as long as you have a pocket full of money. The question is, and ought to be, how best to secure a fair, just and equitable society in a fast and ever changing reality.
How we answer Cain's "Am I my brother's keeper" juxtaposed against the reality of the poor being with us always is the crux of the matter.
Amen
Please note that the Bay Area is the 17th largest economy in the world, inside California, which is the fourth largest economy in the world. California provides a large support system to its residents, medical, food, everything except housing. I live in Berkeley, where the city council has allowed housing to be controlled by developers and is very expensive, although somewhat rent controlled. The Bay Area has spent a lot of money preparing for a large earthquake and climate change. We are going to have to provide better and more housing, but it's got to be cheaper than earthquake proofing the cities and climate proofing a lot. The standards of living are very high, and the benefits available to residents are very good. My husband and I were low income all our lives, except during the dot.com boom, and we were very frugal, we bought a foreclosure (9 3/4 %) refinanced without taking out any money, put solar on the roof, and retired without any debt with just social security as our income and we are fine. It's expensive, but if you're careful, it's livable. Most of our food is produced here, too.
The real increase in the cost of housing is the cost of government. Nationwide, in addition to the costs of code compliance, governments tack on fees averaging $100,000 per house. Yes, this is on new houses but the increasing costs of building new translate directly into increasing prices for used houses.
Of course that huge $100K per housing unit ignores many other costs imposed by government. Sales tax on that new house and on that additional $100K in fees is considerable. Add in property taxes and insurance (much of the additional cost of insurance driven by those additional costs of government) and you find that by far, the largest portion of the increase in the cost of housing is government.
If you want to fix housing prices, you will necessarily start by fixing (shrinking) government.
https://www.nahb.org/-/media/NAHB/news-and-economics/docs/housing-economics-plus/special-studies/2021/special-study-government-regulation-in-the-price-of-a-new-home-may-2021.pdf