this post was submitted on 22 Apr 2024
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A Boring Dystopia
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I am a landlord and also have a full time job. I also spend my time fixing my units.
With the maintenance cost and taxes, I'm actually losing money or breaking even depending on the year.
My tenants are living in a house that they wouldn't be able to afford on their own in today's market. Being able to live near their work.
So why am I the bad guy?
zero self-awareness fuckin lol
Yes, let's pretend that housing prices haven't gone up (lumber shortage, pandemic, what are those things?!)
And let's live in a world where interest rates haven't changed in the same time period (2.75% APR should be about the same as a 7% APR mortgage!).
Lastly, let's ignore closing costs and the huge hunk of money realtors, banks, title companies, surveyors, and so on make every time a home is sold.
The main issue folks have with those generic "fuck all landlords!" posts is that while yes, corporate landlords that monopolize housing and keep raising rents in lockstep and invent fees suck ass, there's also folks who found it easier to rent right away vs keeping an empty house on the market. Those landlords are paying a 10 year old mortgage with 10 year old lower interest rates, but 2024 property taxes and home insurance.
10 year old mortgage for a home at 2014 prices + current property taxes and insurance + 10% profit margin (the horror) << Brand new mortgage on the same home at 2024 prices and 2024 APR + insurance and property taxes.
Oh and I forgot about mortgage insurance. The person renting their home likely has gotten their mortgage below the cutoff for requiring mortgage insurance.
There are many situations where both the person renting their home and the renter come out way ahead.
The only ones who win by forcing everyone to sell their homes and no longer rent are the banks (more closing costs, prey on folks who aren't ready to buy a home with high APRs and mortgage insurance, get to close out low APR loans for new higher APR loans), real estate agents and everyone that gets a cut Everytime a home is bought and sold.
That said there is something that can be done for the big investment groups that are buying up homes to jack up prices and corner local rental markets.
you listed two artificial increases in property value, sure lumber was more expensive, that was due to lumber tarrifs under the trump administration.
Sure covid had an effect on newly built houses. We're well past that stage, that should be normalized by now. We should've had a massive surge in house building post restriction, but we didn't.