The Rent is Too Damn High!

[JBeukema]

More than a quarter of all renters – or about ten million Americans – paid more than 50 percent for their digs in 2009. Conventional wisdom among financial planners is that rent should make up about a 3rd of one's gross income.

...

Stagnating incomes are part of the story. The study notes that wages usually rise with an expanding economy and then fall in recession, but “real renter incomes failed to rebound” after the 2001 recession “and now remain below their 1980 level.”

...

That brings us to a modest proposal that would go a long way toward addressing this problem.

The Rent's Too Damn High but It's a Problem With an Easy Solution... If Only | Economy | AlterNet
Interesting concept. Thoughts?

 

[asterism]

Right to keep the house and pay less for it? How will the shortfall be made up? What's to stop people from running up other debt just because they now have lower housing payments? Who maintains the property? It's uncommon for renters to make improvements and repairs.

 

[KissMy]

Land lord renting to a tenant is one of the few all American business we have left in this country. It employs a huge segment of the population. Renters need to pay to keep the money flowing inside our borders. If they aren't paying rent then they will blow the money on shoes, clothes, games, electronics, gasoline or something else we import from foreigners sending the money & jobs out of here but still driving prices higher on everything. I am all for people spending more of their income on housing & food. These are 2 things that create a lot of jobs in the USA.

Here are just a few US citizens employed by renters. Property Taxes, Landlords, Realtors, Appraisers, Surveyors, Engineers, Insurance Agents, Title Companies, Recorder of Deeds, Developers, Inspectors, Movers, Landscapers, Pavers, Carpenters, Plumbers, Electricians, Bankers, Lenders, HVAC, Advertisers, Roofers, Utility Workers, Hardware Store Employees, Loggers, Sawmills, Building materials manufacturers, bill collectors, Painters, etc.

 

[waltky]

Rents expected to go up 5 percent during 2011 and another 5 percent during 2012...

Renters are next victims of housing market
6/14/2011 - Landlords take advantage of tighter market to push through increases

Stephan Metelica, a 24-year old charter pilot, shares a two-bedroom apartment with a friend in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood. The duo split the $1,525 monthly rent, but they were surprised this month when their landlord lease came up for renewal and their landlord asked for a 5 percent increase, to $1,600. “I was pretty upset about it,” Metelica says of what would amount to nearly $40 more per month per person. “I thought a 5 percent increase was ridiculous.”

Renters, long happy to sidestep the drama homeowners have suffered in the roller-coaster housing market, are now facing their downside of the real estate market’s correction. With apartment and rental housing construction halved in recent years and a wave of former homeowners competing for apartment space with "echo boomers" and other renters, conditions have suddenly ripened for landlords to raise the rent.

Metelica persuaded his landlord to curb the increase, capping his new rent at $1,550. The roommates and landlord have a verbal agreement for that new rental rate, he says, with a new lease signing imminent. But his ability to talk his way out of a bigger rent increase makes him more of an exception than the rule this year, according to experts.

Last year the rental market quietly shifted from a tenants’ market to what is now decidedly a landlord’s market, said Chris Herbert, research director at Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. The supply of properties is tightening and vacancy rates are dropping, so landlords have been emboldened to raise the rent.

More Renters are next victims of housing market - Business - Personal finance - Real estate - msnbc.com

 

[Douger]

I don't charge rent.

 

[shintao]

More than a quarter of all renters – or about ten million Americans – paid more than 50 percent for their digs in 2009. Conventional wisdom among financial planners is that rent should make up about a 3rd of one's gross income.

...

Stagnating incomes are part of the story. The study notes that wages usually rise with an expanding economy and then fall in recession, but “real renter incomes failed to rebound” after the 2001 recession “and now remain below their 1980 level.”

...

That brings us to a modest proposal that would go a long way toward addressing this problem.

The Rent's Too Damn High but It's a Problem With an Easy Solution... If Only | Economy | AlterNet
Interesting concept. Thoughts?

It sounds socialist and anti-capitalist to me. I want the market flooded with short sales that allow me to buy up a few good deals, while taking advantage of what recessions afford.

How about letting people like me buy up these cheap undervalued homes, and then rent them out again so I can make a decent profit from taking the risks?

And besides, I like seeing capitalism working in full swing!!! LMAO!!

 

[shintao]

I don't charge rent.

What do you do? Sneak up on it? LMAO!!

 

[sparky]

This is extremely simple and can go into effect the day after Congress passes the rule change. Judges or the court officers handling a foreclosure would be required to ask the homeowner whether they want to stay in their house as a renter. If they say yes, there would be an appraisal of the market rent of the home, and the homeowner would then have the option to stay in the house for a substantial period of time (e.g. 10 years), paying the market rent.


and that appraisal would be 3rd party? , or the bankster's henchmen?

 

[Douger]

Land lord renting to a tenant is one of the few all American business we have left in this country. It employs a huge segment of the population. Renters need to pay to keep the money flowing inside our borders. If they aren't paying rent then they will blow the money on shoes, clothes, games, electronics, gasoline or something else we import from foreigners sending the money & jobs out of here but still driving prices higher on everything. I am all for people spending more of their income on housing & food. These are 2 things that create a lot of jobs in the USA.

Here are just a few US citizens employed by renters. Property Taxes, Landlords, Realtors, Appraisers, Surveyors, Engineers, Insurance Agents, Title Companies, Recorder of Deeds, Developers, Inspectors, Movers, Landscapers, Pavers, Carpenters, Plumbers, Electricians, Bankers, Lenders, HVAC, Advertisers, Roofers, Utility Workers, Hardware Store Employees, Loggers, Sawmills, Building materials manufacturers, bill collectors, Painters, etc.

Read the first two words in this quoted post and you might, MIGHT, understand the whole problem.

 

[sparky]

This reeks of new reverse mortgage parameters....

 

[editec]

This is extremely simple and can go into effect the day after Congress passes the rule change. Judges or the court officers handling a foreclosure would be required to ask the homeowner whether they want to stay in their house as a renter. If they say yes, there would be an appraisal of the market rent of the home, and the homeowner would then have the option to stay in the house for a substantial period of time (e.g. 10 years), paying the market rent.

I don't think it will work all that well.

The cost of a mortgaged house is not merely the mortgage, but also the taxes and insurance and upkeep.

In many cases that amount is too high which is precisely why the people are losing their homes to begin with

This also forces the mortgage holders to GO INTO THE HOUSING RENTAL BUSINESS.

Few banks are in equipped to do that.

 

[Epsilon Delta]

it's a policy focused on helping individuals, rather than corporate America, and, as you might expect, it has so far languished in Congress under a barrage of lobbying

Yeah, those are my thoughts on it. "Will continue to do so" might be a good appendage to the sentence too.

 

[FiscalSanity]

Editec,

The taxes and insurance add to the cost of the mortgage, but it's still usually cheaper to own then it is to rent, even if you add in upkeep costs. At least it's worked out that way for me. I could easily rent my entire house out for 30-40% more then my mortgage payment (including the escrow for taxes/insurance) right now, and if I wanted to deal with room mates i could pay the entire mortgage just by renting out my two spare bedrooms. Thing is, I've had room mates before, and they do more damage and cause more headaches then their rent is usually worth.

 

[Persy]

Hawai'i is a terrible place for renters. There are no rent control and tenants have little recourse. Tourism rules here.

I am fortunate to live with my parents, they own the property. If I had to rent, I'd leave the island and move to Santa Cruz, CA.

 

[PixieStix]

Thread closed. This thread was made almost 2 months ago and the OP does not have a say since he is banned