Rents are becoming unaffordable for many Americans, even those in the middle class. Because the cost of buying property, maintaining it, and covering property taxes has jumped, so have the costs of renting.
A new report from the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University calculates that 10.9 million renters spent more than 50% of their income on housing in 2018. That equates to one in four renters. Moreover, there were 6 million more cost-burdened renters in 2018 than in 2001. Households with incomes of at least $75,000 accounted for more than three-quarters of the growth in renters from 2010 to 2018.
Affordable housing will continue to be more and more out of reach as long the government keeps getting in the way. Regulations and property taxes are a huge burden when it comes to affordable housing.
According to Market Watch, a renter is cost-burdened when she or he must spend more than 30% of her income on housing costs and severely burdened when they spend more than half of their income on those expenses. The problem is much more predominant among lower-income Americans — 72% of renters earning less than $15,000 a year were severely burdened as of 2018, as were 43% of renters earning between $15,000 and $30,000.
“Even as the overall share of cost-burdened renters has receded somewhat, the share of middle-income renters paying more than 30 percent of income for housing has steadily risen,” researchers wrote.
Nearly 56% of renters earning between $30,000 and $45,000 a year were cost-burdened as of 2018, up 5.4 percentage points from 2011. That was the largest increase in the share of cost-burdened renters across any income band in the country.
Among those who earn between $45,000 and $75,000 annually, this share increased 4.3 percentage points to 27%. The Pew Research Center defines the middle-income American household as a three-person family that earns between $45,200 and $135,600 annually. –Market Watch
“The spread of cost burdens up the income scale coincides with the ongoing decline in lower-cost rentals,” researchers wrote. “While the improving economy has increased the share of middle-income renters, earnings growth has not caught up with the rise in rents.”
Completely eliminating the unconstitutional property tax is only one step in making renting and housing, in general, more affordable. California could benefit from an elimination of burdensome regulations that have made building more apartments or houses impossible. When supply is low, as housing is in California, demand is high increasing the price. The simple and finite rule of supply and demand can be applied here, and when politicians start legislating, it will always prevent prosperity.
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If you look at the data, cities are being crammed with more and more people, often migrants living on low wages or welfare (Agenda 21 etc.). Municipalities have HUGE costs to cover welfare, sanctuary city payments, homeless shelters, cleaning up after bums etc.
On top of this you have a parasite class of rent seekers who use property to prop up their pensions. They only care about yield and do not care about living conditions. Then you have parasite government agencies who need to meet their pension payments. They in turn green light fancy condo developments and pile taxes on top of any property owner.
And the biggest factor of all is the normalising of money laundering. It was hard up to the late 1990s to make large international cash transfers. But when Clinton deregulated finance it became easy for anyone anywhere to transfer money, especially ill-gotten cash. Usually the scam works like this: well connected elites in third world countries get their friends in government to steal cash from foreign aid loans and grants. They then take this money and pool it in property development in Western countries. Once you do that you can call yourself a legitimate investor. Once you are valued as an international investor you can borrow money at low interest rates. In turn you can buy more property or become a landlord for some pathetic American millennials. They pay your mortgage and debt and on top of that the US dollars enable you to build a massive house in said third world country. You fill that house with hot honeys from the nearby poor slum who service you day and night while you check your smartphone to make sure the pathetic tattooed and bearded millennials have made their rent on time. That’s what is going on.
This is false scarcity. The government owns the majority of abandoned homes through the government takeovers of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which they pretend to blame on the banks, who were responsible for creating a housing bubble, which they sold off to the government after the 2008 crash. The governments also own 2/3 of land in America. They own almost everything! The governments blame the corporations, and the corporations blame the governments, but the truth is that they are equally to blame. There is no legitimate excuse for this poverty and homelessness at all! You can’t blame people for not having a job when there are no jobs, and they get prosecuted for trying to be self-employed as the Florida police did with handymen. This is total tyranny by both governments and corporations!
A garage space in San Francisco just sold for $100k.
Abusers resentments and hatred towards their victims increases in intensity over time. This is as a result of displaced anger. The abusers are filled with self-loathing as a result of their criminally abusive behaviors. Their victims serve as constant reminders to the abusers of the moral depravity that they have succumbed to, and their dark secrets of abuse eat away at them. They increase their delusional behavior by believing that if they could just eliminate their victims, everything will work out for them. That never happens though. They have become poisoned by their own minds. This is evident with the treatment by the abusers of Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning, Joshua Schulte, and others.
Thought of this in regard to shtfplan article on homelessness but thinking it was too tacky refrained.
Now that I see expotential developing market it might sell.
New “Bumper Sticker”
“My Other Car Is A House”
….no good?
I guess we do not have it so bad, for we spend only 40% of our gross income on property taxes for our single-dwelling cottage, here in Portland, Oregon. Ain’t socialism wonderful?
Two satellites came close to colliding over Pennsylvania yesterday. There are approximately 3,000 man made satelites and 8,000 man made objects in orbit. The United States owns approximately 1,000, Russia and former USSR 1,400, China 100, Japan 100, and European countries also own satellites.
Scientists are suddenly concerned about the liklihood of satellite crashes. What a coincidence that Trump just created the Space Force! EMPs were of a sudden concern to the Obama administration prior to his departure in October of 2016 creating the space weather emergency which is hysterical. EMPs do not affect fiber optic cable, much to the dissapointment of the terrorists that are in control who are too stupid to know things like that.
New York City is paying Israelis $100 million to take over the national security of government and private business operations in America. Will the Mossad now be in control of the nuclear buttons in America?! It kind of looks that way! Never forget the 9/11 dancing Israelis!
They should move to Florida. I rent and I am spending 1/6th of my income on rent… and I am lower middle class
I agree: why live in a major city like a pauper when you can live like a king in a small town?
Florida is insane but I love it. Why live in the US and not embrace the insane?
Buy or build a cheap shack on the beach. Befriend a 16 year old surfer Betty and live chilled and happy. Make her breakfast and dinner and help her with her website – bliss!!
And the other half on their phones!
I wonder how much of this is because too many people are trying to live in a area where their income falls short of the cost of living for that particular area?
LA,SF,Seattle,Portland,NYC,and just about every other area that has unlimited entertainment,dining,sports options,etc., are going to be higher than rural areas.
I can find several places to rent in my area for under $400/month with no lease signing,just a mutual agreement, but I don’t live in a CITY or SUBURB,and we have basically zero entertainment options available.
There’s always gonna be trade-offs wherever you live.
Find the area that suits you best and call it home.
I own a rental property on the Florida Gulf Coast. Paid cash for it, it’s almost doubled in value, and yet I keep the rent the same after almost 4 years of the same tenant. The flip side of this: when you find a good, responsible tenant, don’t give ’em up for a few extra dollars/month.
There’s finally a benefit to the idiotic Demonrat policies legislated in CA for decades. All those folks chased out of CA have made more housing available to the victims that stayed.
All I can about this basic statistic is the story is about 10 years behind reality. Why do you think more people don’t own? Because more than half their income has been dedicated to rent so they can’t afford to save for a down payment even though, based on what they pay per month, they could easily pay a mortgage but the banksters won’t allow that. Unless, of course, they fit the profile of the current minority of preference for SJWs.
The system is FUBAR. Sort of can’t wait for it to really correct (collapse).
Was a landlord for over 6 years. Far too much worry and risk.
NEVER AGAIN!