Growing number of empty apartments at the same time growing number of homeless

[justoffal]

Well I don't think anybody saw this coming.... Locally ( never mind where) I've been watching the real estate market waiting for the Multi-family bubble to burst....prior to the pandemic the investor demand for these properties pushed the pricing up to almost $150.00 per square foot....totally insane for the economic bracket that makes up this area. I thought for sure that the eviction moratorium would drive this market down....but nope. What has happened instead is the near complete disappearance of the Rental market. As the apartments go empty the landlords renovate and then simply lock it up with no intentions of re-renting any time in the near future. One of the local property hounds here funded by streams of foreign investment money takes the empty places and turns them to condos....huh.....never thought I would see that happen because it didn't make any sense in the pre-pandemic market. So I have noticed a growing list of multi families languishing on the market right now with very few offers coming in from anyone except for the big investors ( I am assuming ) who can take the hit of a non paying tenant while they wait for the apartment to go empty. So what has happened is the worst case scenario for the local market....not only are the rentals virtually gone...what used to be a decent deal for a decent apartment is also gone. With the renovations the individual units are going for as much as $200-$250 per square foot to buy and own....not to rent..... while the streets begin to fill up with homeless people...many of whom hold regular jobs to boot.

Hey Big Government! Smart move bowels!

JO

 

[initforme]

Wages are woeful...doesn't help.

 

[TroglocratsRdumb]

what city r u n

 

[justoffal]

what city r u n

I live in Massachusetts..... I won't post the city on these boards though. Not a smart thing to do.

 

[justoffal]

Wages are woeful...doesn't help.

True... the whole system is headed toward maximum entropy right now.,.... there are simply too many draws on the available resources that are consumed in the status quo maintenance and translate into nothing but sustaining of waste which is then unavailable to be used for anything else..... in other words there's no end product for the people who need it.

 

[citygator]

You do know how supply and demand works? Right? How might the dynamics of supply and demand affect a product that has low demand at a price or high demand at a price?

 

[justoffal]

You do know how supply and demand works? Right? How might the dynamics of supply and demand affect a product that has low demand at a price or high demand at a price?

It is working... right now the investors have seized the rental market and converted it into an owners only market....because there is a demand for ownership. There is also a demand for rental.... however the demand for ownership has eliminated the availability of the rental....with the exception of the large public housing projects which currently have a three year waiting list and are not responsive to market pressures. This is a second tier consequence that was not readily apparent when the eviction moratorium hit.....the key element in this changeover. The result? A massive increase in homelessness.

 

[Dekster]

A lot of apartment buildings have at least water and sewage service built into the rental prices. With landlords having been soaked absorbing the cost of those services on top of people refusing to pay rent, it does not surprise me that they are waiting it out. The eviction moratorium isn't over locally until October 1. I have no idea what is going on with rents in my area, but I do know that the residential real estate market is booming for single family homes right now. House beside me sold in three days of being listed for well above asking price. Neither of those are normal market dynamics for this area. Houses usually sit awhile and sell for less than asking price. There are going to be a lot of people underwater in a few years.

 

[justoffal]

A lot of apartment buildings have at least water and sewage service built into the rental prices. With landlords having been soaked absorbing the cost of those services on top of people refusing to pay rent, it does not surprise me that they are waiting it out. The eviction moratorium isn't over locally until October 1. I have no idea what is going on with rents in my area, but I do know that the residential real estate market is booming for single family homes right now. House beside me sold in three days of being listed for well above asking price. Neither of those are normal market dynamics for this area. Houses usually sit awhile and sell for less than asking price. There are going to be a lot of people underwater in a few years.

What we are seeing here is an exponential increase in ....wait for it now .... EMPTY APARTMENTS THAT ARE NOT AVAILBLE....... It is a totally unexpected dynamic of this whole situation..... I know I didn't see it coming. An older multifamily near me was on the market for a few days but it was totally unoccupied and it was snapped up. I watched as an army of workmen ( $$$$$$) descended on it and over the course of three months transformed a three unit building into three absolutely beautiful condos. I would never want to live in something like that but there it is..... What really surprised me is that the selling prices for the Multi-families have not reversed...it's just a totally different class of buyers at this point.

 

[justoffal]

A lot of apartment buildings have at least water and sewage service built into the rental prices. With landlords having been soaked absorbing the cost of those services on top of people refusing to pay rent, it does not surprise me that they are waiting it out. The eviction moratorium isn't over locally until October 1. I have no idea what is going on with rents in my area, but I do know that the residential real estate market is booming for single family homes right now. House beside me sold in three days of being listed for well above asking price. Neither of those are normal market dynamics for this area. Houses usually sit awhile and sell for less than asking price. There are going to be a lot of people underwater in a few years.

Even with the moratorium ending the courts will be backed up for months if not years. Then you have the appeals process so what we are looking at is a market that cannot promise any kind of return on an income property so those properties .... you would think .... should go down in price ... but not so! What happened instead is that it just eliminated a certain type of buyer ... The current crop of buyers come in with the Cash....renovate and flip to condos....

This also has the effect of changing the face of the residents..... they are also a different class of people.

JO

 

[citygator]

It is working... right now the investors have seized the rental market and converted it into an owners only market....because there is a demand for ownership. There is also a demand for rental.... however the demand for ownership has eliminated the availability of the rental....with the exception of the large public housing projects which currently have a three year waiting list and are not responsive to market pressures. This is a second tier consequence that was not readily apparent when the eviction moratorium hit.....the key element in this changeover. The result? A massive increase in homelessness.

Seems temporary though. If you bought an apartment for ownership but can’t rent to others because your rent ask is too high then you will still lower your ask or you sit with an empty apartment. Markets adjust over time…. Generally.

 

[Moonglow]

People are living in RV and pull trailers much more and the parking spaces that were empty ten years ago are now full with no vacancy...I should turn my 43 acres into an RV campsite.

 

[justoffal]

Seems temporary though. If you bought an apartment for ownership but can’t rent to others because your rent ask is too high then you will still lower your ask or you sit with an empty apartment. Markets adjust over time…. Generally.

I sure hope you're right......what makes this different is that the inventory is simply being removed to a totally different type of market..... it's a bit frightening to watch and yet I wonder if this is inevitable.

JO

 

[KissMy]

Since Trump printed 5 times more money than ever existed, the Banks are full of money they can lend at near zero interest making cheap home loans. All that money is driving up all prices without it being caused by lending bubble. The only bubble is a currency bubble like the US Dollar.

 

[Dekster]

What we are seeing here is an exponential increase in ....wait for it now .... EMPTY APARTMENTS THAT ARE NOT AVAILBLE....... It is a totally unexpected dynamic of this whole situation..... I know I didn't see it coming. An older multifamily near me was on the market for a few days but it was totally unoccupied and it was snapped up. I watched as an army of workmen ( $$$$$$) descended on it and over the course of three months transformed a three unit building into three absolutely beautiful condos. I would never want to live in something like that but there it is..... What really surprised me is that the selling prices for the Multi-families have not reversed...it's just a totally different class of buyers at this point.

That is what happens in places that do rent control. They take the market rate apartments and turn them into high end condos to get around the rent controls.

 

[justoffal]

People are living in RV and pull trailers much more and the parking spaces that were empty ten years ago are now full with no vacancy...I should turn my 43 acres into an RV campsite.

Yes

 

[justinacolmena]

...what used to be a decent deal for a decent apartment is also gone. With the renovations the individual units are going for as much as $200-$250 per square foot to buy and own....not to rent..... while the streets begin to fill up with homeless people...

1. An apartment is neither a home nor a solution for homelessness. Unless guns are banned and you're planning on raising your kids to be drug dealers, pimps, and gangsters.
2. You're going to beat clean and sober people to death on the streets and put up homeless drug addicts in "decent apartments." How nice.

 

[justoffal]

1. An apartment is neither a home nor a solution for homelessness. Unless guns are banned and you're planning on raising your kids to be drug dealers, pimps, and gangsters.
2. You're going to beat clean and sober people to death on the streets and put up homeless drug addicts in "decent apartments." How nice.

I am?

Jo

 

[justoffal]

Since Trump printed 5 times more money than ever existed, the Banks are full of money they can lend at near zero interest making cheap home loans. All that money is driving up all prices without it being caused by lending bubble. The only bubble is a currency bubble like the US Dollar.

If you got a stimulus check and kept it you need to stfu. Cuz that's how you got it.

Jo

 

[justoffal]

People are living in RV and pull trailers much more and the parking spaces that were empty ten years ago are now full with no vacancy...I should turn my 43 acres into an RV campsite.

An RV isn't so bad for one or two people.

Jo