I’m sure this comes with a guaranteed 5% increase to minimum wages at the same time right? … right? Any amount of minimum wage increase from the last increase 15 years ago?
That’s great!!!
Need to stop corporations buying houses next, and tamper foreigners buying up houses too (almost every country I’ve traveled to won’t let me buy so why not do the same?)
I feel like banning corporations from owning housing isn’t the panacea people expect it to be. It’s pretty impractical when you start talking about larger buildings and mixed use housing, and I’m not convinced it’s really a big driver of the problem.
I think a steep land value tax is a more workable solution. It incentivizes anyone who holds non-productive property (vacant homes in this case) to either make better use of the land or sell it. This also has the benefit of impacting individuals who own second homes or have mostly empty airbnbs.
Property taxes are insufficient for this purpose because they are generally based on the value of the home rather than just the land, so not only are they easier to game, but it disincentivizes improving the property.
The biggest issue with corporations owning low income multifamily housing is that they act like slumlords. When you have nowhere else to go and the landlord won’t fix major issues then it takes a toll on you. When a kid sees this growing up, then it leads to antisocial behavior. Investors think that “passive investment” means no input at all when it requires a great deal of active management if contracts are being followed. They just know that the residents have no reasonable way to enforce the contract.
Are corporations more likely to be slumlords? Pretty much everyone I’ve ever known who owns a rental property has been a complete asshole, but I’ve only known a few.
Crazy idea.
How about instead of corporations owning the unit, maybe the person who lives in the unit gets to own part of it.
I know crazy.
Owning part of a larger building is actually much more complicated than simply owning a house. I’m not sure everyone would actually want that even if they could buy the unit they live in at a low price.
I almost bought a condo in a multi-story building a couple of years ago and I’m glad as hell I didn’t. It was a one-bedroom unit for $125K, which is fine except that the monthly condo fees are $1000 (which includes utilities, at least), property taxes plus insurance are another $400, and the last three consecutive years residents have been hit with a special assessment of about $10K - which means I would have been paying around $2500 a month to live in a one-bedroom apartment that I’d already paid $125K for.
I agree about taxes. Tax the ever loving bejesus out of vacant rentals or speculative residential real estate. That will keep them from buying in the first place or deeply incentivize them to keep them rented out.
I disagree. No need to force development to destroy natural landscapes just to avoid a tax. Simply tax multiple residential properties somewhat exponemtially.
100%, 133%, 200%, 350%, 500% or something
Right.
Owning one or two residential properties is fine, more is problematic.
I say “two” to handle the very common case of children putting their parents’ homes in their own name because Medicare clawback rules will take the home after they die if you don’t do it early enough.
The Medicare clawback crap is why we can’t expect to fix one issue with capitalism without addressing all the issues simultaneously. Can’t just raise minimum wage because landleeches will raise rents. Can’t just have universal healthcare because a lot of people would become unemployed when the insurance industry dies its overdue painful death.
Universal healthcare, student loan cancellation (and free state university), UBI, and the elimination of for-profit housing. All within one president’s term to have a chance of sticking past four years.
Generally it’s not destroying undeveloped land, but fixing up dilapidated houses so that they are livable.
Having a progressive tax based on number of homes owned may work, but you would need to rewrite quite a bit of real estate law to make it actually effective. Obviously corporations would not be allowed to own houses to avoid people owning through shell companies, but you would also have to draw a line so corporations could own larger apartment complexes and mixed use buildings. You also do want builders to be able to temporarily own houses for the purpose of building and selling them as well as corporate flippers.
Frankly, I think it’s too complicated to expect on a national level.
Some countries have a large yearly tax if you leave a house vacant for longer than 6 months or a year without a valid reason. More countries need to do this.
Not sure about the USA, but it’s a big problem in Australia. Foreign investors (that don’t live in Australia nor have any intent of moving to Australia) buy properties then just hold them as speculative assets. They don’t want tenants, because they don’t want to go through all that effort. All they want to do is hold them and watch the value go up, in the same way you’d hold stock or Bitcoin.
Strong disagree. Can you imagine what red states will do with the power to demand proof of citizenship to own property? Or all the hell couples where one is a Permanent Resident the other a Citizen will go through?
You should be terrified of someone like Jeff Session or Kris Kobach able to just veto any random person from owning land. You can see it now in your head
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Them drafting letters on government stationary to real estate agents demanding paperwork from anyone with a Latino or Chinese name. Effectively making agents terrified of dealing with minorities.
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Random spot checks, having deputies show up to open houses asking for papers or waiting until after closing then interrogation of the family
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Activists courts arguing that all members of the household must be citizens based on vague feelings
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New rules that state that the entire inheritance path must all be citizens
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Non-citizens being forced to sell at a 1/10th the value
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The lawsuits from groups like the ACLU pointing out that it is a obvious violation of the civil rights act, which goes to the Supreme Court who then declares the Bill of Rights only applies to citizens
If you are interested the experiment has been run already. Go read up what Kris Kobach did when he got a town to pass a law requiring citizenship tests to rent. He not only near bankrupted the town due to lawsuits he personally sent threatening letters to Latinos who lived there.
ve traveled to won’t let me buy so why not do the same?
The standard is good behavior, not other people.
Have you traveled much? More countries do this than don’t. The trump nazis will abuse everything yes. But people not being able to afford a place to live is also giving us trump nazis in the first place
Have you traveled much?
Again
The standard is good behavior, not other people.
Must I repeat it again?
The trump nazis will abuse everything yes.
And yet you want to give them more? You don’t hand a gun to a person who went to jail repeatedly for using a gun.
But people not being able to afford a place to live is also giving us trump nazis in the first place
Assertion, please demonstrate it. Also demonstrate that your method of handing Nazis more power will make them less powerful. Lastly compare the US grabbling with fascists to other nations who have rules like you are advocating for and how they are also grappling with fascists.
It’s a little thing but I kinda want you to acknowledge that the one time this idea was tried in diet form in the US it not only didn’t work it also legalized racism. You are suggesting an idea that we tried and it not only failed in the task it was meant to perform it also created a host of new problems.
REITS benefit wealthy, not the commoner. I agree that it’s not the silver bullet to just ban corporations owning housing, as you often need an entity of some kind to manage MDU’s etc, but companies should absolutely be banned from owning SFU’s, and for that matter, landlords are bad for the country overall.
Instead of worrying about what this does for the wealthy, we have the issue of NIMBY assholes rejecting MDU’s in their areas alongside just a dearth of housing to meet the needs (I’m avoiding the use of demand because this isn’t just some “free market” dynamic, people fucking need a place to live and economics languages shouldn’t apply to human needs). For anyone who takes offense at “NIMBY asshole”, you can go and fuck yourself really fucking hard. I’m talking fire hydrant in the asshole, you motherfuckers deserve to burn in hell, you pieces of god-damn shit, I hate you all (applicable to people with the NIMBY attitude).
I really didn’t mention a word about anything you are saying to me now. I am pro-development anti-nimby and admit I haven’t studied the issues of corporate housing enough to weight in on it.
My apologies if that came across as challenging your point with the nimby stuff. It’s like a fuselight, it wasn’t for you but just directed out in the open. Retracting the comment. Housing is something that’s sensitive to me because we just lost a family member to suicide, and while not solely that person’s rationale, among many factors housing was a significant one.
Housing and healthcare on the trajectory it’s pointed at today, robs our youth of their hope, and signifies quite loudly that we as a society do not love or value the futures of our children, however people may feel internally.
My only message for NIMBY people is that of hate and revulsion.
Right but I am on your side about this. I want everyone to have housing that is awesome and within their price range. I just don’t agree that finding ways to punish immigrants and minorities is the best way to go about it. There is a difference between me saying “I want X and don’t think Y is the best way to get X” and me saying “fuck your family, I hate Y and lets do X to hurt them”. Me discussing how to solve a problem is not me denying the problem exists or should not be solved.
Also you and me are good. I am sorry for your loss. I imagine I would be very sensitive to this subject in your situation.
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tamper foreigners buying up houses too
Who do you consider a foreigner though?
- Foreign citizen living outside the USA
- Foreign citizen living in the USA, with temporary residency (eg a work visa)
- Foreign citizen living in the USA, with permanent residency
- US citizen with dual citizenship, permanently living overseas, buying property remotely for renting out
The first case is clear, but the others less so. A foreign citizen living in the USA to live in is a better scenario than a US citizen permanently living in another country buying a bunch of houses just to rent them out.
It should be reciprocal IMO for each country. The ones I’ve looked at buying in I couldn’t because I’m not a citizen
If not too personal, which countries have you looked at?
Prices are already jacked up to an insane level compared to wages, the horse is already out of the barn: This is not going to fix the problem renters face.
A soft cap works as a ratchet. Downturns in the rental market are sticky while up turns are slow and marginalized.
It’s effectively the opposite of the way things are now, with cartelized units staying artificially high through downturns and prices skyrocketing during every shortfall.
It is set at 2.5% where I live.
Realistically that’s about what it should be. 3% tops. Average worker wages haven’t gone up that much yearly in forever.
A sensible, too-little-too-late rule, probably full of carveouts and exceptions, that I nonetheless feel really relieved to see. Delayed and watery regulation is better than none, I suppose.
Unless that also comes with a 5% raise every year, then it’s not as good
At least it prevents people getting a 20-30% increase one year
Treating the symptom.
Okay I guess. I’ll get excited when I see a plan to treat the disease.There’s no reason to get excited at all. Biden can call for it, but Congress has to write and pass the legislation. Republican House majority won’t let that happen.
Vote in November.
Not even. Can’t charge more for rent when it’s already max out against income. It’s a placebo that’ll have zero effect. Don’t get too excited about a “plan”. This is the plan.
What world are you living in when they can’t raise rates too high for your income level? Not the one the rest of us are living in.
The vast majority of individuals must be able to afford to house, feed, and cloth themselves, as well as travel to and from work. If not they will riot. This is bad for economic growth, the mandate of capitalism. It’s particularly bad when the market is still significantly inflated relative the economy.
It’ll never be written into law. However, Biden’s proposed rent caps under projected inflation, signifying rent has fully saturated its allocation of income. Housing began balancing systemically naturally, human sellers drying up. Landlords have no obstacles.
I live in a world of nuance. The rent sucks.
Historically that’s actually not what causes people to riot. The slow chipping away actually almost never causes riots. It’s the immediate stripping of a right or privilege. Look back at history that’s how it Works nearly every single time. You’re basically making the same argument people who you sanctions as a political tool make. That if you keep making life shittier and shittier and shittier slowly the people will riot. Doesn’t work.
Furthermore capitalism does not possess the capacity to change in that manner. It does not possess the capacity to adjust to the needs of the masses. Thinking capitalism will fix this is insane.
If you look at history, the last half century is far from “slow chipping away”.
The last half century of political sanctions? What does that even mean? I feel like you were trying to be clever and you lost the point somewhere. If you ever had one.
I responded to the part that wasn’t strawman with a response of equivalent quality, simple clarification of the point of disagreement.
Why do you expect more than you give?
That translates into rents doubling in less than 15 years
Well mine went up 28% in a year so I’ll take 5%
Good thing wages are going up!
Where I’m at it’s indexed to inflation (but circumvented by evicting renters then raising rates illegally like someone else mentioned). Setting a target higher than the target inflation is mostly symbolic. Outside of specific situations like Covid, it is not likely to change much materially at 5%.
I was being sarcastic, wages have not really gone up inflation adjusted for majority of people over last 40 years in the US.
As if would ever last the captured supreme court.
Would be good if he coupled it with a promise to stack the Supreme Court
Woah, an actual campaign promise? Maybe the Dems do want to look like they’re trying after all.
If Democrats kept their promises we’d have codified Roe, have free healthcare for all, and literally no one would carry student debt but those that haven’t yet had time to graduate.
If Republicans kept theirs, we’d be living in a christofascist, ultra-capitalist, white ethnostate.
We’ve got this instead. Behold the power of compromise.
It’s not compromise. It’s only turning right. They’re just arguing about how fast and which corporations should get the money.
Cool, my rent is still 70% of what I make in a month. It’s almost like it’s already too late, but I’m too poor and uneducated to be an expert. Got any other ideas?
Move to another country
If only it were that easy I totally would. Trust me I’ve tried looking into it before.
The best time to do it was any point in the last 100 years. The second best time is now.
Do your boots have straps?
And then roll it back to 2016 +5%
Cute… The beauty of profit is that it is never undo even if it was a crime.
That’s a feature, not a bug btw
You know what would get more votes? That student loan forgiveness thing! Maybe the kids who never graduated or used their expensive education should get their loans forgiven???
Remember that? Yeah?
Cuz 5% is not gonna do much if you got a 15% loan.
the supreme court literally rewrote a law to prevent loan forgiveness.
He literally forgave my loan and the supreme court said no. fuckin pissed
Seems kind of weird to blame the guy who is trying to do the thing you want and not the people who keep blocking it from happening.
trying to do the thing you want
Except he isn’t, at this point all he’s doing is claiming to want to give the poor some crumbs, so that those who haven’t yet, don’t turn on him.
A 5% increase limit is still an increase, he’s not doing you any fucking favours by continuing to allow landlords to gouge you, only a little more conservatively.
I’m just reminding him since I got a certain loved one that I inherited a certain amount of this debt from. Like WTF. It’s like buying a slave…how much is that slave over there? Oh that one? Yeah that’ll be 5000 Dollars in student loans please!.
Timely.
Let’s build a million new homes and sell them to people that don’t currently own any homes.
There’s no shortage of homes in the US. They’re just being hoarded for their increasing value.
I don’t believe that is the case. There is no value in letting a property sit empty accumulating value, when it could be doing exactly that while pulling in a hefty monthly rent.
It may well be the case that there’s enough homes empty to house everyone, but only if they’re happy to move somewhere they don’t want to be, and where there’s no jobs to pay for them.
renters bring risks. if the home is on the market, they also make it a half to sell
Doesn’t help if there is housing available but it’s 3 hours from where my work is :/
Eliminate zoning and force cities to build up. Nobody wants a house in the middle of nowhere
This guy is clearly not scared of “crime”
Edgelord
Please expand on what you mean.
For context, I live in greater Boston. The state here has actually forced towns and cities in the inner belt around Boston to remove their zoning laws anywhere within a mile of a train or subway stop. Thousands of additional condos and apartments have been (and are being) built as a side effect and we will have dozens of new squares with shops and businesses on the ground floor and tens of thousands of new residences surrounding our transit hubs.
It’s not been smooth. Some towns are suing the state and doing other random bullshit to slow the process. Pushing these rules to the federal level would actually help states and metro areas consisting of multiple connected cities address the issues more efficiently.
“Crime” is code word for boomers and nimbys to block proper development
Let’s
buildseize a million new homes and sell them to people that don’t currently own any homes.FTFY
Fuck these ogres hoarding real estate.
