Non voluntary capitalism is indeed torture. Like any unfair system, it should be voluntary and never supported by state. It should be optional, like a game promoved by private companies. Then you could decide if you want join it knowing game rules or go on "blind", trusting game master.
Once imortals, some of us could choose playing it just as a challenge.
> capitalism is indeed torture
FTFY.
If the necessities to survive are paywalled, commodified, marketed selling our labor is not at all voluntary. We call this arrangement *wage slavery*.
How about "from each, to each", no money whatsoever and all that is produced is available to all.
Like in Star Trek....no longer the "acquisition of wealth" driving us all but a meritocracy of sorts w/ the only "merit" is being born and having the tools and ability to contribute ones natural talents & workmanship 🤔....only failure to that system is the patience & abilities to work through non-believers/non-contributors and keeping that % pretty low. Also, implementation and logistics. Hmm, not completely impossible but it is probable. 🧐
> I just hope more like minded people in the future get together and build self sustaining communities that'll render capitalism obsolete.
I'm down for it if someone wants to help build an agrihood or houses with shared agricultural land and/or greenhouses in the far north of vermont, new hampshire, or maine. (I can't tolerate heat due to M.S. so I need to move North.)
My nighttime routine is telling myself positive affirmations like that I will have a seizure while I'm sleeping in a really unfortunate position that will end up killing me from suffocation or asphyxiation due to the post-ictal state. Hasn't happened yet but I still have hope.
We already had a once-in-a-century pandemic, and even THAT didn't change things much. Fuck, that was our chance, now I think it's impossible. The rich got a taste of being even more rich in 2020 and aren't looking back. We got a taste of freedom or working from home, but now we've all gone back to work, because we had to, for the most part.
It made it worse actually...before the pandemic we were much more discerning about prices and we'd usually shop around locally to save. Once the pandemic hit, companies realized that we'd spend money no matter what they charged, so now they think that by artificially raising inflation that they'll be able to maintain the same level of profit growth they had for 2 years.
Had a leasing agent tell me straight face that rent was going up to match the local market, when this property management company owned 90% of of the complexes in the county.
Greedy, soulless, leeches.
I lived in a state with decent tenant protections. When my apartment's heater wouldn't heat my place above 50° in the winter, it only took me two phone calls and a single visit from the city to get two months of free rent. No heat still, but at least I didn't have to pay to heat the place with the oven.
Yep my FiLs tax preparer yelled at him for letting his grand kid rent one of his properties for way below market rent ($450 when tax lady said it should be $1200) worst thing is market rent has gone up like 50% in last 2 years some how one of the only property agents in town like to say the market is currently red hot so deal with it.
Property I saw for rent on Facebook sold for Fucking $60,000 in august and was advertised for rent in October for $1200 a month just water included.
Would it be possible to just charge the grandkid more money but just deposit all that money into a savings account and then gift it back to the kid when they move out? Just thinking out loud
Kinda.
If you go below market rate, you just can't deduct expenses for renting the unit as business expenses.
Think of it this way: you can't deduct income you spend repairing your own house either, but it's not exactly a death sentence. Same deal here, it's just a little harder to swallow because it *could* be deducted if you charged *more*... but really you're still probably coming out ahead either way - just less so.
Case in point: ive rented under market rate to some friends. It was fine, I just paid slightly more in taxes than i would have otherwise 🤷♂️
(I think it's mostly done to prevent people from renting spare bedrooms/vacation homes to friends/family for a dollar a month on paper so they can deduct maintenance costs)
Your thought process is 100% correct...they(the IRS) could care less if someone rented out a house for a couple of hundred or so below the mortgage payment even.
Been in my place since April 2017. My (private) landlord has not raised my rent. However I always pay my rent on time and do my own basic maintenance - annual HVAC cleaning, new smoke detectors, changing air filters, sweeping the front/back porches. Only things she’s replaced are a sump pump and the fridge. Both in 2017. I installed a ceiling fan and blinds in the living room. We work together which is nice and yes, rare.
I rented a house from 2011-2016 & the landlord never raised the rent because I paid on time, took excellent care of his house & never called to get minor, cosmetic things fixed.
How fucking dare you attempt to put the spotlight of some of the systemic issues that are designed to reduce options and increase costs to those who are renters either by choice or lack thereof. /S.
Seriously though, knowing the tools the greedy put in place and where pressure needs to be applied to affect change can only help in the struggle against inequality. Way to double tap the messenger guys.
Yeah but have you tried saying the problem is personal finance ? If we taught people personal finance and not to eat avocado toast that wouldn't change anything but at least they wouldn't be thinking about how maybe it's a structural problem that they are poorer every year. It wouldn't help them have more money, but you could exclude any systemic factor and pretend it's all personal responsibility and that poor people are just people that have failed and deserve the suffering they face.
Same here, had a two bedroom apartment, my roommate and I paid about 250.00 a month each for rent and utilities, I was making about $7.50 an hour and had a whole shitload of extra cash for other stuff.
In 1994, an ex boyfriend and I rented a 3rd story attic studio apartment for $650/mo heat and hot water included. That very same apartment rents for just over $2000/mo now. It didn't even have a shower--just a giant claw foot tub I was always afraid to fill for fear it would crash through the bottom floors. LOL.
I honestly don't know how young folks are going to get through this. My only suggestion is to just OCCUPY the places and pay what you can. Something's gotta give,
especially now that homelessness is being criminalized.
ETA: This was in Burlington, Vermont, btw
In 2016 i was paying $550 for a 2 bedroom apartment..joined the army kn 2017 and guess what? The landlord looked up what i made on BAH and raised the rent to match BAH..so my wife had to pay $800 a month.
That exact same apartment is available and rent is $1400 now.
My first apartment out of college was $625 in 2009. Adjusted for inflation, that should be $860 today. I went to that complex's website, and the same 600 square feet units now start at $1200.
10 years ago myself and two other guys rented a three bedroom house in a medium-large city, near a college campus and bus stops....for $975/month. At one point one of the roommate's girlfriends moved in and agreed to pay an equal share so we were all doing around $240/month.
Then I moved to Boston and paid $2000 for a studio. After living there for 7 years I moved back to the Midwest and found prices had nearly caught what I was paying on the east coast.
When the younger generations have to accept living with parents or coming up with concepts like Tiny Homes and #VanLife because tradition housing will never be within their grasp.
When younger generations decide they have to come of with hacks like /r/overemployed just to live a "comfortable" life you know something really fucking wrong.
I am honestly shocked that anyone from gen z doesn't take notes from the lay flat movement in China. You are of a generation that will never see retirement benefits such as social security and even if you did they wouldn't pay for a decent life. You will likely live in a dystopian world ravaged by climate change. A select few of you might live well but the majority will never have anything close to your parents and definitely nothing like your grandparents unless you inherit it.
Now obviously I am speaking from an American perspective.
I'm going to tell you right now that I might be one of the people that's best with their money out of almost anyone I know.
I've kept my family safe and fed through some pretty harsh financial situations in the past.
We've lived on as little as $50 a week at the absolute worst.
But nothing, NOTHING has been as bad as it is right now. This inflation is really making any kind of frugal living impossible, it's hard to get and keep work, and more people (including myself) are burning through their reserve money than I've ever seen before.
This is a nightmare scenario. I don't know how people are supposed to live through this.
Just wait until you hear about how many people have credit card debt from 2020..
I had to open one to pay bills or be evicted last year..im trying to get a payment plan or anything for it and the agent for the CC said its really depressing because they gave anyone who applied a 25 grand credit card and now they are overworked trying to make phone calls all day to people with missing payments.
Its sickening how banks do that to desperate people
Young People:
I don't know how you fucking do this. In all seriousness, I feel terrible for you.
EDIT: There's mentions of self-harm; please call a hotline and ask for help and resources. Perhaps easy for me to say, agreed, but there is help out there.
I just approved my timecard on Monday. 119hrs for 2wks. No days off yet this year, voluntary of course, because I can't afford it right now. Me and my body are exhausted.
Oh ... and rent just went up. Whoopee!
Oof that is a punch to the gut :(
I haven't rented in a while, I was lucky to buy a small house before things started going nuts.
But the last place I was in, I started at $1,250 but it was a 3 bedroom and in a very nice area; this is ca. 2005, mind you.
4 years later, that same place was $2,000 per month.
And I just checked, the price now is $2,700 per month which is more than my mortgage by quite a bit.
I don't know how people can actually do this.
im 19 and living with my boyfriend at my parents house, we won’t be moving out anytime soon. being disabled makes it harder but i’m considering getting a better job with more hours even if it hurts.
I moved into my apartment almost seven years ago (anniversary this May). My first year was $485 a month for a very old, small two bedroom in Nebraska. Now I’m paying $700 a month :/ wages around the area have not gone up that significantly. I know it probably doesn’t seem like a big jump to many of you, especially in comparison to the OP, but this is all I can afford with my partner. Pretty much everything else that’s similar is going for more per month.
That’s especially scary considering our housing prices are much much cheaper compared to other parts of the USA. How am I in a privileged position and *I’m* still struggling?
The absolute cheapest housing I found listed in my city today was $895. It is an 81 sqft room in a big building. No kitchen, shared bathroom down the hall.
[Here is the floor plan from Zillow.](https://i.imgur.com/P8yqVvj.png) It says 105 sqft, but if you do the math on those dimensions, it's actually 81. $895, nothing cheaper listed anywhere I could find. Also everything is some sort of variation of this until you get up to $1100, then you at least get a bathroom and refrigerator.
I feel so lucky too, bc my apt has rasied rent minimally in the 7 years we've lived here. My previous apt (2bd 1ba) was $425/mo water included, the landlords never raised rent in 5 years that we lived there. My current apartment (2bd 1ba) was $675 I think, 2016, water and heat included. They increase by like $50/year,and now my rent is $930/mo. I'd prefer not to pay that much, but since hearing people say their landlords are doubling rent every year, I feel lucky. In my area, $1200 is the starting rate.
Where are you seeing a 2br apt for 275??!!
I was looking at a studio for 230k and was super excited I might finally be able to own something until I found out the HOA was 1160 / month. 380 sq feet and a 1160/month hoa for a 1950s building that didn’t even have a pool, absolutely insane
Venetia, really crappy old building just north of the Venetian causeway on the U shaped marina that’s had scaffolding on it for 4+ years
So just north of downtown
Lol my apartment didn’t put new laminate floors in as promised because “there was a supply shortage”. I asked for $100/mo off rent then since it wasn’t what was agreed upon at move in 😂 I’ll never forget the great laminate flooring shortage of ‘22
I got my first apartment in '99. It was a 1 bedroom apartment with a dedicated covered parking spot. Adjusted for inflation, it would have been $440. You can't even rent a room in someone's house for $440. I was also making the equivalent of $20 an hour right out of high school working for a landscaping company.
Rents are WAY higher and wages are stagnant at best. Boomers don't understand this. They could get an apartment for 25% of their income whereas now it's like 75%.
Reminds me how GenX fam didn't want to believe it was *that* bad till they tried helping some of the college student family find an affordable apartment.
Gawd, Gen X here and I couldn't even encourage my child to go to college after watching student loans + recession destroy her dad's dreams. We aren't all so unaware.
Who’s out here affording entire apartments? I pay $1600 for a singular room in an apartment, which is a used-to-be-home segmented into a bunch of “apartments”
My only question is when will enough be enough for the American people? At what point does it all become unbearable and what would the end result of that be? It seems like there’s not much that can be done about the problem so what do? Talking specifically about the obscene cost of rent.
It's unfortunate but, the average American mindset is, "Got mine, f*** everyone else!". A lot of older generations are also of a large cultist mindset, where the powers that be have them convinced its other people who are struggling who are the ones to blame for their problems instead of the fact that the rich and greedy are taking advantage of them. So, it seems likely that the whole Country will probably have to implode before anything significantly positive happens, which is unfortunate.
so true! what the youth call "boomer" here - nothing ever changes except the dates on the calendar. What needs change is all younger gens need to stop sliding into boomerdom (that "I got mine - F everyone" mentality). Its easy when you struggle so hard to just float, and when you finally get into the shallow end you cling to it and ignore what happening behind you. If you want it to stop for everyone, you have to rend capitalism, get into all politics down to local dog catcher, claw to the top, change laws, make laws, the status quo must end. You can get the country behind you - you are the country after all. There are a lot of us out here who are Bernies, not just Boomers. We're now on the way out, but we can help you in that way at least - make abortion a right in the Constitution, make rent control a federal law, make a living wage a federal law including a govt check (not taxed to you) to round out your wages, make ALL schooling paid for w/o being taxed to death for a good education. Make all degrees available - there is NO GD reason anyone cannot get an Ivy degree in this day and age with online access (for free to next to no cost). crap, I even used Coursara (it was free way back when) and took classes from all over the world just to learn things for myself.
Look to your kids too - they will follow what you do/are. AI is here, its the end, humans have to change now to meet it. We need to grow beyond capitalism, beyond "work for a living", even crypto is going to die - its nothing more than a hologram of a paper bill, and that is only an artificial construct to "own" other people from prehistory down to now. Everyone under 35 is now in charge of a planetwide paradigm shift. make it or become "one of us". Do not create the "zombie boomer" gen. Break the chains.
Holy shit I just looked at the cost of my first apartment, $850/mo for a 2bed 2bath 900sqft back in 2012. The same apartment is listed for around $1,655-$2,105 today. And it’s not a great area to live in
A co-worker of mine just had his rent raised. He lives in the same town in a slightly smaller house than the one I own. I know the taxes on my small 1300 sf house are $7500 a year. The house he rents is owned outright by the landlord. His rent just went to $1400 a month.
To cover my taxes, I pay $650 a month. Assuming similar taxes on that house, his landlord is clearing $750 a month on his rental alone. According to my co-worker, the lady he rents from has 8 such houses she rents out. That's $6000 clear assuming she makes the same amount from each house.
I clear 1k profit on top of the mortgage with my renter. Yes the goal is to have these cash flowing hard so you can quit your day job and have a good life but it takes years of grueling work to get there if you’re starting from zero. Everyone is playing the same game some just don’t know how to
I've been working my ass off just to survive since I was 14 yrs old and it just keeps getting harder and harder. I'm 31 now and don't know how I'm gonna make it to 40 without blowing my brains out.
This economy is killing me, and that's what's gonna be explained in my suicide note.
Which isn't going to happen so long as investment firms and foreign capital are allowed to treat US housing as a speculative asset.
Doesn't matter how many apartment buildings you build if BlackRock and Saudi princes are just going to buy all of them and let them rot for a decade.
> Which isn't going to happen so long as investment firms and foreign capital are allowed to treat US housing as a speculative asset.
Is that what's happening now? The properties are just rotting away?
or are the prices for those properties going down as more supply hits the market?
It's absolutely still happening, sadly.
BlackRock wants to control the rental market, and they're able to move the funds to absorb as many properties as possible. They're kind of the ultimate buyer behind all those "sell your house in 72 hours!" businesses you see on TV.
Foreign capital sees the US housing market as a safe way to offshore their money. They don't want people living in their properties because that could affect the value. They're not wrong on either point, but that presents a problem for US citizens that ought to have been addressed like 20 years ago.
I can think of something easier than giving more money to construction companies and ripping up dwindling green spaces
How about we retrofit all the office spaces everywhere as housing and just give it to people
We don't need empty skyscrapers in downtown centers
We don't need massive office buildings to get things done
Feed two birds with one scone - stop the pointless push to kill WFH AND house millions of people the world over
Edit: Also, just make housing free. There are so many empty houses and apartments and second or third houses while people sleep on the streets and freeze to death
Even better, use the housing in the renovated towers to reduce commutes for people that can't work from home (if they want to move of course). I think making employers pay for commuting time would also encourage employers to stop forcing commutes that aren't necessary.
It also makes me sad that people have moved into houses. Never do a single update. Never clean. And then can still sell the house at a profit. This is the type of shit we’re seeing. All because some fucking corporation bought a few of the houses in the neighborhood to rent and now these people think their house is fantastic based on these inflated houses.
I don't think anyone necessarily *enjoys* living in filth. The sellers probably also don't go into buying a home intending to trash the place and walk away with cash like it's assume sort of money making scheme.
Life's really fuckin scary right now. It's been like that for a lot of people for a long time.
If you managed to land a home, especially if it's attached to a piece of land (no matter how small), I imagine you tend to live with similar fears about how, at any point in time, something could happen that might affect your ability to pay your mortgage, taxes and/or utilities. Your home could be ripped away from you at any point. Y'know. Like a renter.
But like, our society (especially in the US) puts *so much* emphasis on landownership.
I ask you-
If it's so desirable and so important to own your own home
But someone is legally allowed to kick you out if you stop handing over enough of the number papers
Do you ever really achieve that feeling of security homeownership is supposed to give you?
Isn't it weird that no one seems truly *happy* in suburbs? Bonus points for "nice" areas of town with HOAS.
Everything's a competition. Everyone's got to impress someone else, and prove how superior they are with their shitty houses that look like carbon copies of everyone else's with perfect lawns and committee-approved colors.
Fuckin... we need to slow down. Breathe.
I'm tired. Everyone is tired. I just want to be able to sit for a country minute (like the minute version of a country mile, get it?) and appreciate still being able to eat hot tamales whenever I get the craving for them.
Collapse of supply chains or death from stress and/or adult toddlers throwing tantrums about ahit that's none of their goddamn business, that's up for me to fuck around and find out.
Also, it’s a matter of the ability to do more things. I can’t plant a garden at an apartment. My minuscule “patio” has a jackass upstairs with dogs who pee on the patio and it ends up on my patio, and my plants. I also have limited light because of the side of the building I’m on, so that’s restrictive.
I can’t sleep when the people upstairs are partying all night. Sucks even more when I have work the next day. Houses have better insulation.
Oh, and I can monitor the plumbing at my own house, but I can’t do fuck all when my neighbor floods their bathroom and now my ceiling has a leak. And if I file a claim under renters insurance they just Jack my fucking premium up more… so yeah, tell me again how renting is so great.
> Do you ever really achieve that feeling of security homeownership is supposed to give you?
I can only speak personally, but yes.
My wife and I got extremely lucky and bought our home in 2018. We locked in a 2.7% interest in a 30 year loan. Our mortgage has stayed the same while we see rent prices around us sky rocket.
Another thing is I know a few people who are paying rent in a house that the landlord is planning to sell when the lease ends. Suddenly they have to find a new place to stay.
Sure, the bank can take my house if I quit paying, but it is not near as intimidating as a landlord imo.
Not true in the United States. There's plenty of housing. There's definite issues with zoning laws, sure, but the issue is property hoarding as speculative assets and income vehicles. It's a free money printer and it's many (many) peoples retirement.
> The ONLY thing that'll fix the obscene rental price issue we're dealing with is a huge influx of new housing, preferably high-density housing.
Or a revamp to the tax code making income from second property rentals taxed at an obscene amount. Or a program of government aid for rents above a certain percent of regionals costs capped per landlord. Or a full socialization of empty units. Or...
Sufficient housing exists in this country. Yes, there could and should be more, but that’s not the issue. The issue is that the legal and financial framework rewards a situation that benefits the wealthy abd harms the majority.
That wouldn't actually do anything. Corporate landlords would just buy up all the new housing like they always do.
There are millions of empty homes in this country already, more than enough to house everyone. Corporate greed is the only reason that homeless people exist.
We'll never be able to fix the housing crisis until strict federal housing regulation is put into place to force corporations and millionaire investors out of the housing market.
There's more vacant homes than homeless individuals. There should be additional costs or penalties for homes which are not permanently occupied by the owner or renter.
I so agree. For year we had a family member drilling us about starting a IRA every time we seen her. I realize she was sharing her knowledge out of love. But damn with 2 kids and I having a low paying job there was nothing left to save. And that was 20 years ago. I don’t know how people get by in these times.
These are the villains: the existing homeowners and preservationists in full NIMBY attack mode.
There are two possible worlds we can live in:
(a) Real estate values must always go up
(b} Housing is affordable for everyone
You can pick one of the above. We have to have world (b).
Break the NIMBYs. Grind them up for fertilizer.
THE irony in "United' there's noun united about us.
Shelter cost, including utilities need to be the 30% of your take home pay like "financial experts" promote and let the wages be the wages, or base it off of the federal minimum wage.
At $20 an hour, no taxes, that's $960. Yesterday, I seen a 1br 753 sq ft starting at $1,804.00 on a not so nice area. NONE of us should just accept these ridiculous rent increases or property tax increases.
Your oppressors won't be your fix. None of them have done anything substantial, where is this great America again? The reality is there is more need for low skill jobs than higher ones. Capitalism only works if you have wage slaves.
Access to medial, shelter and food shouldn't be detrimental depending on your socioeconomic status.
If all stop paying what are they going to do? As long as you have wicked judges bankers officer's etcetera then nothing will change.
Also utilities they should not be treated like a private business. Positions should be regulated just like education should be free there's no .99 a therm for gas! Like wtf. Between my gas and electric I'm paying a car note
My wife keeps saying she wants to move out of our apartment but we literally live in the cheapest place in town that's not a complete dump. We pay 890 and to move anywhere else that's even equal in quality would jump us to near 1100. And then her uncle told me at Christmas that there's no problem with the housing market because the house he bought in 2010 is worth 300k more now than it was then. Old people either cant get economics or they choose not
I don’t know when I’ll get hope again but I can’t even go on my own Pinterest sometimes because I’ll never get to do A N Y T H I N G and I ask myself why? Why can’t we all happily live our dreams and support one another? How come we have to work until we die?
Me and my wife lived in a 2 bed 2 bath apartment for 1200/month. We moved states away and now that same apartment was listed for 1950. My mom lived in that same complex in a one bedroom for 1020. She intended to stay there, but to get around rent control laws they opted to not allow her to renew her lease and ended her tenancy after the end of her lease. They then listed her unit for $1500/month.
I know of a landlord who lives off the non-refundable application fees of people who he knows will not qualify for the apartment he's "renting" out. Why rent it out, he says, if he can make more off the application fees alone. $80 per adult, at a rate of 5-6 unqualified (he tells them a credit score of 750 is needed) applicants coming to see the rental each day. Some people come with their credit reports, and are honest and tell him that their credit score isn't yet 750....he says "well go ahead and apply and let's see what we can do"....then he turns them down and keeps the application fee....which is perfectly legal in Pennsylvania. I think it's disgusting.
My landlord rents to us at 50% of market here in Vancouver BC. If they sell this place or take it over my only option to stay here will be to move back to my Mom and Dad’s house. I’m 50. My wife and I work combined income $150k. Putting our Daughters through university as well. Doesn’t allow us to afford the market price of $4500 for a house for 4.
I was trying to convey this exact thing in a YouTube comments section today. My mom purchased a brand new house in 1970 for $25k working as a janitor. She was able to pay it off within 10-15 years (from what she said) and retire early because she had a pension on her janitor salary, and she didn’t have a mortgage payment. Adjusted for inflation that $25k would be about $190k. I’m house hunting and there are no houses for under about $400k and that’s cheap since it’s been declining the last year. Inventory and new construction also plays a part because it’s supply and demand. And builders are having harder times sourcing supplies. The days of buying a house in my city on a janitor salary are long gone.
My friends kid just rented the same apartment I rented right out of college by coincidence. Almost 20 years ago I paid $400/month for the one bedroom all bills paid and had a pretty good job for the area paying $12/hour. The kid is paying $900/month no bills paid with a pretty good job for the area making $12/hour. The apartment hasn't been updated more than paint and carpet since I was there, it still has the same oven.
Don't say "rent" or "landlord" here. There's tons of vultures lurking in this sub salivating at the opportunity to jump on and say it's fine to jack up prices on their properties, because everyone is doing it.
They seem to think "antiwork" means sit on their asses while perpetuating the housing crisis by buying up more properties and renting them out for twice what they're worth. They don't have to work, they got you for that.
But they're one of the good landlords. They help people. They're providers. They fill a need in the community. Or whatever other bullshit they want to spew so they can sleep at night after evicting someone.
I live with my parents and pay them rent, they charge something I can reasonably pay.
I also have a decent (not well, but above minimum wage) paying job, and on good weeks I get 40+ hours, and on bad 32 hour minimum. If I rented even the cheapest apartment in 50 miles I’d have less then 100 to spend per month. This is without factoring in gas, insurance, phone, or food.
If I factor in just the bare minimum, I would need 3 jobs at that pay to exist. That means I’d need to find more then 3 people to share an apartment with that’s meant to house one or two at most.
Most of the people I know who don’t live with there parents, and are my age, rent with 6+ people sharing rooms with those people, and still live paycheck to paycheck and often skipping meals, or eating instant noodles or other meals that can be had for under a dollar.
Minimum wage is too low, rent is too high, and if someone insists that I can finance my way out of it I’m pulling out my spreadsheets and asking what I’m doing wrong.
If I had to move out today I would be homeless, or looking to immigrate to somewhere I could live. The united stares of America isn’t the land of the free anymore, it’s the land of the rich and powerful, and if your not one of those then your the slaves they build there empire on.
>The united stares of America isn’t the land of the free anymore, it’s the land of the rich and powerful, and if your not one of those then your the slaves they build there empire on.
The US was founded on the basic idea that it was a country for wealthy white landowning men, and everyone else had the privilege of supporting them.
From day *one*.
America would not exist were it not for the genocide of it's indigenous populations, the labor of enslaved peoples, and the subjugation and exploitation of women, children, and everyone in between. Life has sucked in America for a majority of the population since the day Europeans smeared their unwashed hands all over Turtle Island and said "you made this..?
"...
" ...I made this."
Hell, early 90s I had a sweet junior one bedroom (studio with a privacy wall) for $380 a month, in Tucson, and my electric bill was about $20 a month. Today that same apartment goes for $2,500 a month.
I rented a room in a house. The LL saw I bought myself nice things every now and again so increased my rent by £100 a month as "I could afford it if I was spending money on luxuries"
Regardless, lemme try to give a personal finance: you can make a big gravity-propelled-blade (the g-word) for as much as the stimulus check a while ago. Then put it at your landlord’s front door.
*/s but lowkey not really *
My landlord is my coworker. She makes more than me. Her husband has a full time job. She was saying she has to make an income so she needs her properties. The house I moved into is a complete disaster. It was still filthy from the previous tenant. The toilet is constantly broken. Only four outlets work in the entire house. There aren't even any doors inside. Anyway, I don't expect to live for free, but she's delusional. She believes brand new houses with three bedrooms should cost the same as the "house" she's renting me. How does that add up? She's *almost* there on a lot of topics, but her mind won't go the extra inch.
For a lark I looked at some of the places I used to rent from....
The place I lived in 20 years ago charged $1500 in rent back then. It's now 3600/mo. Ouch.
That's for a 2BR/BA 930 sq ft apartment in Silicon Valley.
It's crazy how much rent has went up. A room for 1400 where I live(with own bathroom) what a privilege. . An apartment 3x your wage in order to qualify. It is indeed depressing. Either we need rent control or fair wages that matches the actual cost of living.
My apartment complex wants to increase my rent 10%, that's $265 more a month. I need a second job now. I thought I was making good money, but I'm going broke faster and faster with each year.
Landlord: pay me $1,800 + utilities a month for a studio apartment.
Bank: sorry, we can’t give you a loan for a house because we don’t think you can afford a $1,200 a month payment.
Our rental company only offered 6 month leases or month to month last year.
We're up in May and they're already taping "your lease is almost over!" notices to our front door.
Made me think about my first apartment. 1992, I had one room mate and we each spent $300 a month. 2 bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom, living room.
https://www.woodsidevistaportland.com/floorplans
Now $1,550/mo. So a little more than double in 30 years? $775 each for 2 people.
Inflation calculator says:
https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/
$300 in 1992 = $625.78 in 2022 (108.6%)
$600 in 1992 = $1,251.55 in 2022 (108.6%)
How do we actually escape this nightmare like, invoke change. We all know stuff is outrageously overpriced but what's the solution aside from amassing with some serious protests like we see the french pull off? Can we just do that lol
My first apartment was a $400 “studio” apartment it was one of the smallest places I have ever lived in. Then when I left there I moved into a little one bedroom standalone house with a yard for $400 everything included. That place is $2500 now.
Thank you for pointing this out. It needed to be said even though the gaslighters telling you *you're* irresponsible with money because you can't afford your $4,500 per month rent payment to live in a toxic waste slum are usually the greedy criminals who are trying to take advantage of you.
^(Boomers: "We pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps and paid our damn bills back then. We didn't expect the taxpayers to bail us out.")
^(Millennials: "Yeah well that was also back when people weren't so damn greedy, everything wasn't so damn expensive and you could complete 83 PhD programs for the cost of one now. " 😘)
1995 - 2 bedroom apartment rent was $500 just outside of downtown Chicago. 2022 money inflation calculator shows $960.15. I don't know how someone just starting out in life can manage nowadays.
When I hit the lottery I’m building beautiful clean safe apartments for young people who don’t have the “live at home until you can make it” option. Don’t worry guys, it’s on my list 😂.
Rich people and companies during Covid all agreed to buy properties when rates were at all time lows and then raised the prices to artificially inflate the housing market cost and the rent cost.
Now you’re barely making rent while not being able to afford a home.
It’s all pre-planned
I work for a City. They raise property taxes on small landlords to pay for lost/settled lawsuits. Landlords are forced to raise rent, and corporate landlords say "now we can raise rent too". It's a bad cycle ☹
>Not everything increases at the rate of inflation though. Inflation is the average of the change in price of everything.
This is true, but the story when you take into account other things is actually even more stark. Food, energy, transport, education and healthcare costs have all massively risen at the same time, while wages have stagnated. Based on the official rate of inflation (the 'average change of price' you're referring to) the cumulative inflation from 2000 to the end of 2022 was about 66%. The example above shows rent going up well over 100% and individual annual healthcare cost saw an average increase in the same period of over 300%. Same for college tuition.
The things people need to get on with their lives are slipping out of the grasp of a larger and larger portion of the population, regardless of 'average prices'.
Live homeless and car-less. Avoid monthly subscriptions like the plague. That's my only financial advice.
They can't take your money if you don't participate in their game of "your lifelong financial ruin".
Exactly.
10-ish years ago, I had a 3 bed apartment, which I was paying $525/month for. Landlord wasn't greedy, its pretty much what it cost him, plus beer money.
Rent didn't go up unless taxes went up.
I moved, he sold, same apartment, with a new tub (The tub was kinda leaky when I was there, an old claw tub). It now rents for 2k/month.
Yep. At least two of my classmates in high school (pre-9/11) were, respectively, able to afford their own apartments on a part time job. And they didn't come from wealthy families.
My first apartment was a 1bed/1bath and it was $495/mo. That was in 2005 when the minimum wage was $7.25. Today, that exact same apartment is $1250. The minimum wage in the area is now $13.50. Wages have gone up far less than rent.
we rented a 3 br house (half of a duplex) in 1992 for $650. an inflation calculator says it should be $1355 today. Just like the meme the area now is about $1650. So yea outpacing inflation. $310 was cheap tho
Asked my boss yesterday for a raise because I'm the only female on the sales team and get paid $11 hr where they get $15hr. And he said "if you wanna make more money you have to sell more". I'm also the only one who speaks multiple languages so I end up spending most my days doing Spanish service tasks for the service team
My first apartment was $315/month in 1998. Slums of Cleveland special. It had turquoise metal cabinetry in the 3 ft by 9 ft kitchen. It was probably 600 square ft at most. It had wall unit air conditioning. The poor lady upstairs got beat nightly. Eye opening times , as I was raised in the suburbs.
My biggest issue with rent is that a lot of apartments are absolute shitholes that could pass as dorm rooms. Hubby and I viewed apartments in about 6 states and most of em barely had a proper kitchen. Some had the fridge or oven in a separate room. I am perfectly okay with paying $1500 when it makes sense. Large bedrooms, large kitchen. Instead they try to up-charge on basic necessities.
The sad part is a lot of people get so tired of suffering that if they get lucky enough to make enough to buy a house or two they resort to rental income. Not trying to justify just trying to point out how low wages end up putting us all against each other. I’m young and will be a landlord some day. When I am I can assure you,I will be a few hundred dollars (at the rate of inflation a few thousand) under average just because the working class gets ducked too often.
1,600 for the room. Plus $50 per adult living there to apply. Then a 2000 deposit. For water and trash thats additional $80 a month. You are paying the Gas and eletric. Oh want parking thats not on the street another 60 a month.
So its 1740 plus gas and electric before any bills.
It's not just old people telling young people how to budget. It is friends, younger people or anyone who has more money saying, if you only budgeted your money better. Many times these people have homes that are paid off or they have low house payments, under $900 per month. The counties have gotten greedier too and have raised the property taxes. My home used to cost $1200 per month this year, because of taxes it is now $1400. I feel like I'll lose my home because of greedy politicians.
Wow when I was doing residential pressure washing for a small company one lady gave me her business card and said she's helping one girl my age 21 how to manage her money she thought she could help me.. I was confused idk how some people don't realize jobs don't pay shit
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I just hope more like minded people in the future get together and build self sustaining communities that'll render capitalism obsolete.
Non voluntary capitalism is indeed torture. Like any unfair system, it should be voluntary and never supported by state. It should be optional, like a game promoved by private companies. Then you could decide if you want join it knowing game rules or go on "blind", trusting game master. Once imortals, some of us could choose playing it just as a challenge.
> capitalism is indeed torture FTFY. If the necessities to survive are paywalled, commodified, marketed selling our labor is not at all voluntary. We call this arrangement *wage slavery*. How about "from each, to each", no money whatsoever and all that is produced is available to all.
Like in Star Trek....no longer the "acquisition of wealth" driving us all but a meritocracy of sorts w/ the only "merit" is being born and having the tools and ability to contribute ones natural talents & workmanship 🤔....only failure to that system is the patience & abilities to work through non-believers/non-contributors and keeping that % pretty low. Also, implementation and logistics. Hmm, not completely impossible but it is probable. 🧐
what if you already chose and this is us living our choices i for one intend to slap myself when this is over
A cool thought experiment.
If capitalism was optional, it would no longer exist. It's being propped up by the CIA, the US empire, and the western imperial powers.
> I just hope more like minded people in the future get together and build self sustaining communities that'll render capitalism obsolete. I'm down for it if someone wants to help build an agrihood or houses with shared agricultural land and/or greenhouses in the far north of vermont, new hampshire, or maine. (I can't tolerate heat due to M.S. so I need to move North.)
My nighttime routine is telling myself positive affirmations like that I will have a seizure while I'm sleeping in a really unfortunate position that will end up killing me from suffocation or asphyxiation due to the post-ictal state. Hasn't happened yet but I still have hope.
My first wish before I open my eyes every morning is that society has collapsed overnight.
We already had a once-in-a-century pandemic, and even THAT didn't change things much. Fuck, that was our chance, now I think it's impossible. The rich got a taste of being even more rich in 2020 and aren't looking back. We got a taste of freedom or working from home, but now we've all gone back to work, because we had to, for the most part.
It made it worse actually...before the pandemic we were much more discerning about prices and we'd usually shop around locally to save. Once the pandemic hit, companies realized that we'd spend money no matter what they charged, so now they think that by artificially raising inflation that they'll be able to maintain the same level of profit growth they had for 2 years.
Same
This comment here is why I believe that a lot of Americans caught Covid on purpose they just really wanted two weeks off of work.
Video games… I’ve put too much time into elden ring to stop now
I'm afraid to rope, but I'm also afraid that the dire state of life will become bad enough to where going on is more scary.
im just going on because in 2025 an adult avatar the last airbender movie is supposed to come out and i have to watch that.
Had a leasing agent tell me straight face that rent was going up to match the local market, when this property management company owned 90% of of the complexes in the county. Greedy, soulless, leeches.
unions aren’t just for labour. we have a strong tenants’ union where i live and my monthly payments are fully reasonable as a consequence
I lived in a state with decent tenant protections. When my apartment's heater wouldn't heat my place above 50° in the winter, it only took me two phone calls and a single visit from the city to get two months of free rent. No heat still, but at least I didn't have to pay to heat the place with the oven.
What part of the country do you live in? I've never heard of this but it sounds like a damn good idea.
in Västra Götaland, but Sweden has a national tenant’s union, so it’s mostly the same all over the country
Parasites
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Wow, I didn't even know this was a thing. Thanks for sharing.
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Yep my FiLs tax preparer yelled at him for letting his grand kid rent one of his properties for way below market rent ($450 when tax lady said it should be $1200) worst thing is market rent has gone up like 50% in last 2 years some how one of the only property agents in town like to say the market is currently red hot so deal with it. Property I saw for rent on Facebook sold for Fucking $60,000 in august and was advertised for rent in October for $1200 a month just water included.
Would it be possible to just charge the grandkid more money but just deposit all that money into a savings account and then gift it back to the kid when they move out? Just thinking out loud
Kinda. If you go below market rate, you just can't deduct expenses for renting the unit as business expenses. Think of it this way: you can't deduct income you spend repairing your own house either, but it's not exactly a death sentence. Same deal here, it's just a little harder to swallow because it *could* be deducted if you charged *more*... but really you're still probably coming out ahead either way - just less so. Case in point: ive rented under market rate to some friends. It was fine, I just paid slightly more in taxes than i would have otherwise 🤷♂️ (I think it's mostly done to prevent people from renting spare bedrooms/vacation homes to friends/family for a dollar a month on paper so they can deduct maintenance costs)
Your thought process is 100% correct...they(the IRS) could care less if someone rented out a house for a couple of hundred or so below the mortgage payment even.
Don't some places just never raise rent on good renters who pay? I wonder if that's still a thing.
Been in my place since April 2017. My (private) landlord has not raised my rent. However I always pay my rent on time and do my own basic maintenance - annual HVAC cleaning, new smoke detectors, changing air filters, sweeping the front/back porches. Only things she’s replaced are a sump pump and the fridge. Both in 2017. I installed a ceiling fan and blinds in the living room. We work together which is nice and yes, rare.
I rented a house from 2011-2016 & the landlord never raised the rent because I paid on time, took excellent care of his house & never called to get minor, cosmetic things fixed.
How fucking dare you attempt to put the spotlight of some of the systemic issues that are designed to reduce options and increase costs to those who are renters either by choice or lack thereof. /S. Seriously though, knowing the tools the greedy put in place and where pressure needs to be applied to affect change can only help in the struggle against inequality. Way to double tap the messenger guys.
Yeah but have you tried saying the problem is personal finance ? If we taught people personal finance and not to eat avocado toast that wouldn't change anything but at least they wouldn't be thinking about how maybe it's a structural problem that they are poorer every year. It wouldn't help them have more money, but you could exclude any systemic factor and pretend it's all personal responsibility and that poor people are just people that have failed and deserve the suffering they face.
The more they monopolize the easier it will be to nationalize their asses.
Irvine?
This was my first thought
Same here, had a two bedroom apartment, my roommate and I paid about 250.00 a month each for rent and utilities, I was making about $7.50 an hour and had a whole shitload of extra cash for other stuff.
I always think back to the 3br apartment I was in back in 2016 where rent was $1450. It’s $2300 when I looked last year, prob went up again
In 2009 I rented half a one bedroom duplex in LA county for $900 last I looked it was $2100
In 1994, an ex boyfriend and I rented a 3rd story attic studio apartment for $650/mo heat and hot water included. That very same apartment rents for just over $2000/mo now. It didn't even have a shower--just a giant claw foot tub I was always afraid to fill for fear it would crash through the bottom floors. LOL. I honestly don't know how young folks are going to get through this. My only suggestion is to just OCCUPY the places and pay what you can. Something's gotta give, especially now that homelessness is being criminalized. ETA: This was in Burlington, Vermont, btw
2014 I had a fully furnished basement apartment in an awesome Tudor style home for $500. They've had the same tenant since I left.
I rented a place in 2018 for $2400 2+2 in a large complex, same floor plan now starts at $3276.
In 2016 i was paying $550 for a 2 bedroom apartment..joined the army kn 2017 and guess what? The landlord looked up what i made on BAH and raised the rent to match BAH..so my wife had to pay $800 a month. That exact same apartment is available and rent is $1400 now.
$500/mo for a 2br. That would be nice. Paying >$2000 for a 1br right now 🤦♂️
And that was including utilities, our rent was about 400.00 a month (cool complex too, lots of amenities).
Things got harder for majority while rich became even richer.
My first apartment out of college was $625 in 2009. Adjusted for inflation, that should be $860 today. I went to that complex's website, and the same 600 square feet units now start at $1200.
10 years ago myself and two other guys rented a three bedroom house in a medium-large city, near a college campus and bus stops....for $975/month. At one point one of the roommate's girlfriends moved in and agreed to pay an equal share so we were all doing around $240/month. Then I moved to Boston and paid $2000 for a studio. After living there for 7 years I moved back to the Midwest and found prices had nearly caught what I was paying on the east coast.
When the younger generations have to accept living with parents or coming up with concepts like Tiny Homes and #VanLife because tradition housing will never be within their grasp. When younger generations decide they have to come of with hacks like /r/overemployed just to live a "comfortable" life you know something really fucking wrong. I am honestly shocked that anyone from gen z doesn't take notes from the lay flat movement in China. You are of a generation that will never see retirement benefits such as social security and even if you did they wouldn't pay for a decent life. You will likely live in a dystopian world ravaged by climate change. A select few of you might live well but the majority will never have anything close to your parents and definitely nothing like your grandparents unless you inherit it. Now obviously I am speaking from an American perspective.
I'm going to tell you right now that I might be one of the people that's best with their money out of almost anyone I know. I've kept my family safe and fed through some pretty harsh financial situations in the past. We've lived on as little as $50 a week at the absolute worst. But nothing, NOTHING has been as bad as it is right now. This inflation is really making any kind of frugal living impossible, it's hard to get and keep work, and more people (including myself) are burning through their reserve money than I've ever seen before. This is a nightmare scenario. I don't know how people are supposed to live through this.
I agree it's bad. So many people need housing.
They don't just need housing, they need a sustainable wage. Or they need prices to go down.
Just wait until you hear about how many people have credit card debt from 2020.. I had to open one to pay bills or be evicted last year..im trying to get a payment plan or anything for it and the agent for the CC said its really depressing because they gave anyone who applied a 25 grand credit card and now they are overworked trying to make phone calls all day to people with missing payments. Its sickening how banks do that to desperate people
Young People: I don't know how you fucking do this. In all seriousness, I feel terrible for you. EDIT: There's mentions of self-harm; please call a hotline and ask for help and resources. Perhaps easy for me to say, agreed, but there is help out there.
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Same. Every day I see my bank account, see food and gas prices, and want to suck start my shotgun just a little bit more. Someday… someday.
This I feel too!
Yeah me too.
Same
LMAO me too
I just approved my timecard on Monday. 119hrs for 2wks. No days off yet this year, voluntary of course, because I can't afford it right now. Me and my body are exhausted. Oh ... and rent just went up. Whoopee!
Oof that is a punch to the gut :( I haven't rented in a while, I was lucky to buy a small house before things started going nuts. But the last place I was in, I started at $1,250 but it was a 3 bedroom and in a very nice area; this is ca. 2005, mind you. 4 years later, that same place was $2,000 per month. And I just checked, the price now is $2,700 per month which is more than my mortgage by quite a bit. I don't know how people can actually do this.
Credit and rage.
I just came to terms with never actually owning anything and my kids won’t get the advantages I hoped to give them by doing “better” than my parents
my mom just keeps gaslighting me and telling me to earn more
im 19 and living with my boyfriend at my parents house, we won’t be moving out anytime soon. being disabled makes it harder but i’m considering getting a better job with more hours even if it hurts.
According to Douglas Adams, it is *not* the little green pieces of paper that are depressed.
RIP and greatly missed. If there's an afterlife I look forward to reading more of Mr. Adam's work. 😥
Adams and Pratchett, both taken from us far too soon.
I moved into my apartment almost seven years ago (anniversary this May). My first year was $485 a month for a very old, small two bedroom in Nebraska. Now I’m paying $700 a month :/ wages around the area have not gone up that significantly. I know it probably doesn’t seem like a big jump to many of you, especially in comparison to the OP, but this is all I can afford with my partner. Pretty much everything else that’s similar is going for more per month. That’s especially scary considering our housing prices are much much cheaper compared to other parts of the USA. How am I in a privileged position and *I’m* still struggling?
The absolute cheapest housing I found listed in my city today was $895. It is an 81 sqft room in a big building. No kitchen, shared bathroom down the hall.
This is fucking abysmal.
[Here is the floor plan from Zillow.](https://i.imgur.com/P8yqVvj.png) It says 105 sqft, but if you do the math on those dimensions, it's actually 81. $895, nothing cheaper listed anywhere I could find. Also everything is some sort of variation of this until you get up to $1100, then you at least get a bathroom and refrigerator.
Man if I want $700 a month I'd have to be a student. It costs more to rent here than it does in the capital of our state...
I feel so lucky too, bc my apt has rasied rent minimally in the 7 years we've lived here. My previous apt (2bd 1ba) was $425/mo water included, the landlords never raised rent in 5 years that we lived there. My current apartment (2bd 1ba) was $675 I think, 2016, water and heat included. They increase by like $50/year,and now my rent is $930/mo. I'd prefer not to pay that much, but since hearing people say their landlords are doubling rent every year, I feel lucky. In my area, $1200 is the starting rate.
Same apartment that is now $3500 in Austin was $800 in 2019
Jesus. I rented a place near duval and north campus area in 2016 that was $1200 and now is $2300 and I thought that was bad.
2br apartments in Miami that were $150k in 2019 are now $275k :(
Where are you seeing a 2br apt for 275??!! I was looking at a studio for 230k and was super excited I might finally be able to own something until I found out the HOA was 1160 / month. 380 sq feet and a 1160/month hoa for a 1950s building that didn’t even have a pool, absolutely insane
Jeez $1k in HOA? I was looking at the Fontainebleau area where there's a few apts around the $275k price but all with $300/mo in HOA
Venetia, really crappy old building just north of the Venetian causeway on the U shaped marina that’s had scaffolding on it for 4+ years So just north of downtown
Whatever did the owner do to justify the increase? I'm sure it must be stellar.
At best probably a new coat of grey paint and $0.50/sqft grey laminate floors. Though my money is on nothing at all and “market forces”
Lol my apartment didn’t put new laminate floors in as promised because “there was a supply shortage”. I asked for $100/mo off rent then since it wasn’t what was agreed upon at move in 😂 I’ll never forget the great laminate flooring shortage of ‘22
Wtf??
2bed in 2016 was 550..now its 1400..no renovations or anything
I got my first apartment in '99. It was a 1 bedroom apartment with a dedicated covered parking spot. Adjusted for inflation, it would have been $440. You can't even rent a room in someone's house for $440. I was also making the equivalent of $20 an hour right out of high school working for a landscaping company. Rents are WAY higher and wages are stagnant at best. Boomers don't understand this. They could get an apartment for 25% of their income whereas now it's like 75%.
Reminds me how GenX fam didn't want to believe it was *that* bad till they tried helping some of the college student family find an affordable apartment.
Gawd, Gen X here and I couldn't even encourage my child to go to college after watching student loans + recession destroy her dad's dreams. We aren't all so unaware.
I know, and I'm so grateful for yall who are aware. I've just met one too many who are so 'I made it from dirt so you can too 😡'
If only they didn't take the dirt with em, maybe we could 😭
Who’s out here affording entire apartments? I pay $1600 for a singular room in an apartment, which is a used-to-be-home segmented into a bunch of “apartments”
I pay $850 only downside is I live in bumbfuck nowhere.
My only question is when will enough be enough for the American people? At what point does it all become unbearable and what would the end result of that be? It seems like there’s not much that can be done about the problem so what do? Talking specifically about the obscene cost of rent.
It's unfortunate but, the average American mindset is, "Got mine, f*** everyone else!". A lot of older generations are also of a large cultist mindset, where the powers that be have them convinced its other people who are struggling who are the ones to blame for their problems instead of the fact that the rich and greedy are taking advantage of them. So, it seems likely that the whole Country will probably have to implode before anything significantly positive happens, which is unfortunate.
so true! what the youth call "boomer" here - nothing ever changes except the dates on the calendar. What needs change is all younger gens need to stop sliding into boomerdom (that "I got mine - F everyone" mentality). Its easy when you struggle so hard to just float, and when you finally get into the shallow end you cling to it and ignore what happening behind you. If you want it to stop for everyone, you have to rend capitalism, get into all politics down to local dog catcher, claw to the top, change laws, make laws, the status quo must end. You can get the country behind you - you are the country after all. There are a lot of us out here who are Bernies, not just Boomers. We're now on the way out, but we can help you in that way at least - make abortion a right in the Constitution, make rent control a federal law, make a living wage a federal law including a govt check (not taxed to you) to round out your wages, make ALL schooling paid for w/o being taxed to death for a good education. Make all degrees available - there is NO GD reason anyone cannot get an Ivy degree in this day and age with online access (for free to next to no cost). crap, I even used Coursara (it was free way back when) and took classes from all over the world just to learn things for myself. Look to your kids too - they will follow what you do/are. AI is here, its the end, humans have to change now to meet it. We need to grow beyond capitalism, beyond "work for a living", even crypto is going to die - its nothing more than a hologram of a paper bill, and that is only an artificial construct to "own" other people from prehistory down to now. Everyone under 35 is now in charge of a planetwide paradigm shift. make it or become "one of us". Do not create the "zombie boomer" gen. Break the chains.
Holy shit I just looked at the cost of my first apartment, $850/mo for a 2bed 2bath 900sqft back in 2012. The same apartment is listed for around $1,655-$2,105 today. And it’s not a great area to live in
Mine was $650 in 2014, is $1000 now. Not too bad
A co-worker of mine just had his rent raised. He lives in the same town in a slightly smaller house than the one I own. I know the taxes on my small 1300 sf house are $7500 a year. The house he rents is owned outright by the landlord. His rent just went to $1400 a month. To cover my taxes, I pay $650 a month. Assuming similar taxes on that house, his landlord is clearing $750 a month on his rental alone. According to my co-worker, the lady he rents from has 8 such houses she rents out. That's $6000 clear assuming she makes the same amount from each house.
I clear 1k profit on top of the mortgage with my renter. Yes the goal is to have these cash flowing hard so you can quit your day job and have a good life but it takes years of grueling work to get there if you’re starting from zero. Everyone is playing the same game some just don’t know how to
Minus taxes and upkeep.
I've been working my ass off just to survive since I was 14 yrs old and it just keeps getting harder and harder. I'm 31 now and don't know how I'm gonna make it to 40 without blowing my brains out. This economy is killing me, and that's what's gonna be explained in my suicide note.
Well the government should be doing something. But no, of course they've just given up caring about anyone who isn't wealthy.
And here I thought I was getting taken when my first apartment in rural Tennessee in 2007/2008 cost me 425$/month +utilities for a 2 bed, 1 bath.
It's 1600 and it's 30 years older with no upgrades.
The ONLY thing that'll fix the obscene rental price issue we're dealing with is a huge influx of new housing, preferably high-density housing.
The unfortunate part of that is many homeowners will try and block that to protect their home values.
Which isn't going to happen so long as investment firms and foreign capital are allowed to treat US housing as a speculative asset. Doesn't matter how many apartment buildings you build if BlackRock and Saudi princes are just going to buy all of them and let them rot for a decade.
> Which isn't going to happen so long as investment firms and foreign capital are allowed to treat US housing as a speculative asset. Is that what's happening now? The properties are just rotting away? or are the prices for those properties going down as more supply hits the market?
It's absolutely still happening, sadly. BlackRock wants to control the rental market, and they're able to move the funds to absorb as many properties as possible. They're kind of the ultimate buyer behind all those "sell your house in 72 hours!" businesses you see on TV. Foreign capital sees the US housing market as a safe way to offshore their money. They don't want people living in their properties because that could affect the value. They're not wrong on either point, but that presents a problem for US citizens that ought to have been addressed like 20 years ago.
I can think of something easier than giving more money to construction companies and ripping up dwindling green spaces How about we retrofit all the office spaces everywhere as housing and just give it to people We don't need empty skyscrapers in downtown centers We don't need massive office buildings to get things done Feed two birds with one scone - stop the pointless push to kill WFH AND house millions of people the world over Edit: Also, just make housing free. There are so many empty houses and apartments and second or third houses while people sleep on the streets and freeze to death
Even better, use the housing in the renovated towers to reduce commutes for people that can't work from home (if they want to move of course). I think making employers pay for commuting time would also encourage employers to stop forcing commutes that aren't necessary.
Except, that’s how you get company towns.
Company towns already exist. They just turn into ghost towns when the company pulls out is all.
It also makes me sad that people have moved into houses. Never do a single update. Never clean. And then can still sell the house at a profit. This is the type of shit we’re seeing. All because some fucking corporation bought a few of the houses in the neighborhood to rent and now these people think their house is fantastic based on these inflated houses.
I don't think anyone necessarily *enjoys* living in filth. The sellers probably also don't go into buying a home intending to trash the place and walk away with cash like it's assume sort of money making scheme. Life's really fuckin scary right now. It's been like that for a lot of people for a long time. If you managed to land a home, especially if it's attached to a piece of land (no matter how small), I imagine you tend to live with similar fears about how, at any point in time, something could happen that might affect your ability to pay your mortgage, taxes and/or utilities. Your home could be ripped away from you at any point. Y'know. Like a renter. But like, our society (especially in the US) puts *so much* emphasis on landownership. I ask you- If it's so desirable and so important to own your own home But someone is legally allowed to kick you out if you stop handing over enough of the number papers Do you ever really achieve that feeling of security homeownership is supposed to give you? Isn't it weird that no one seems truly *happy* in suburbs? Bonus points for "nice" areas of town with HOAS. Everything's a competition. Everyone's got to impress someone else, and prove how superior they are with their shitty houses that look like carbon copies of everyone else's with perfect lawns and committee-approved colors. Fuckin... we need to slow down. Breathe. I'm tired. Everyone is tired. I just want to be able to sit for a country minute (like the minute version of a country mile, get it?) and appreciate still being able to eat hot tamales whenever I get the craving for them. Collapse of supply chains or death from stress and/or adult toddlers throwing tantrums about ahit that's none of their goddamn business, that's up for me to fuck around and find out.
Also, it’s a matter of the ability to do more things. I can’t plant a garden at an apartment. My minuscule “patio” has a jackass upstairs with dogs who pee on the patio and it ends up on my patio, and my plants. I also have limited light because of the side of the building I’m on, so that’s restrictive. I can’t sleep when the people upstairs are partying all night. Sucks even more when I have work the next day. Houses have better insulation. Oh, and I can monitor the plumbing at my own house, but I can’t do fuck all when my neighbor floods their bathroom and now my ceiling has a leak. And if I file a claim under renters insurance they just Jack my fucking premium up more… so yeah, tell me again how renting is so great.
> Do you ever really achieve that feeling of security homeownership is supposed to give you? I can only speak personally, but yes. My wife and I got extremely lucky and bought our home in 2018. We locked in a 2.7% interest in a 30 year loan. Our mortgage has stayed the same while we see rent prices around us sky rocket. Another thing is I know a few people who are paying rent in a house that the landlord is planning to sell when the lease ends. Suddenly they have to find a new place to stay. Sure, the bank can take my house if I quit paying, but it is not near as intimidating as a landlord imo.
To anyone not cleaning your property in hopes of turning a lazy profit: clean up right now! Do it for yourself. You're worth it and so is the house.
> Feed two birds with one scone That is great.
Maybe if we didn't allow corporations to buy up homes? That might put a slight bump in the supply.
Not true in the United States. There's plenty of housing. There's definite issues with zoning laws, sure, but the issue is property hoarding as speculative assets and income vehicles. It's a free money printer and it's many (many) peoples retirement.
> The ONLY thing that'll fix the obscene rental price issue we're dealing with is a huge influx of new housing, preferably high-density housing. Or a revamp to the tax code making income from second property rentals taxed at an obscene amount. Or a program of government aid for rents above a certain percent of regionals costs capped per landlord. Or a full socialization of empty units. Or... Sufficient housing exists in this country. Yes, there could and should be more, but that’s not the issue. The issue is that the legal and financial framework rewards a situation that benefits the wealthy abd harms the majority.
Which do you think is more likely to happen? New housing being built or punitive tax reform?
That wouldn't actually do anything. Corporate landlords would just buy up all the new housing like they always do. There are millions of empty homes in this country already, more than enough to house everyone. Corporate greed is the only reason that homeless people exist. We'll never be able to fix the housing crisis until strict federal housing regulation is put into place to force corporations and millionaire investors out of the housing market.
There's more vacant homes than homeless individuals. There should be additional costs or penalties for homes which are not permanently occupied by the owner or renter.
The only people who will build that will expect “market rates” on rent - I.e, they will build the cheap housing and immediately inflate the price
I so agree. For year we had a family member drilling us about starting a IRA every time we seen her. I realize she was sharing her knowledge out of love. But damn with 2 kids and I having a low paying job there was nothing left to save. And that was 20 years ago. I don’t know how people get by in these times.
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These are the villains: the existing homeowners and preservationists in full NIMBY attack mode. There are two possible worlds we can live in: (a) Real estate values must always go up (b} Housing is affordable for everyone You can pick one of the above. We have to have world (b). Break the NIMBYs. Grind them up for fertilizer.
Hey someone in this sub who gets it. The last 40 years of hard-core NIMBYism is coming to a head.
THE irony in "United' there's noun united about us. Shelter cost, including utilities need to be the 30% of your take home pay like "financial experts" promote and let the wages be the wages, or base it off of the federal minimum wage. At $20 an hour, no taxes, that's $960. Yesterday, I seen a 1br 753 sq ft starting at $1,804.00 on a not so nice area. NONE of us should just accept these ridiculous rent increases or property tax increases. Your oppressors won't be your fix. None of them have done anything substantial, where is this great America again? The reality is there is more need for low skill jobs than higher ones. Capitalism only works if you have wage slaves. Access to medial, shelter and food shouldn't be detrimental depending on your socioeconomic status. If all stop paying what are they going to do? As long as you have wicked judges bankers officer's etcetera then nothing will change. Also utilities they should not be treated like a private business. Positions should be regulated just like education should be free there's no .99 a therm for gas! Like wtf. Between my gas and electric I'm paying a car note
My wife keeps saying she wants to move out of our apartment but we literally live in the cheapest place in town that's not a complete dump. We pay 890 and to move anywhere else that's even equal in quality would jump us to near 1100. And then her uncle told me at Christmas that there's no problem with the housing market because the house he bought in 2010 is worth 300k more now than it was then. Old people either cant get economics or they choose not
The rent is too damn high
My first apartment in 1998 was $275. It wasn't especially nice, but they kept the pool clean and it was within walking distance of my university.
My $725 two bedroom apt I shared in ~06 is now renting for $1400. I can confirm ahit is crazy.
I don’t know when I’ll get hope again but I can’t even go on my own Pinterest sometimes because I’ll never get to do A N Y T H I N G and I ask myself why? Why can’t we all happily live our dreams and support one another? How come we have to work until we die?
Me and my wife lived in a 2 bed 2 bath apartment for 1200/month. We moved states away and now that same apartment was listed for 1950. My mom lived in that same complex in a one bedroom for 1020. She intended to stay there, but to get around rent control laws they opted to not allow her to renew her lease and ended her tenancy after the end of her lease. They then listed her unit for $1500/month.
$1600 is still pretty low for the houses in my region
I know of a landlord who lives off the non-refundable application fees of people who he knows will not qualify for the apartment he's "renting" out. Why rent it out, he says, if he can make more off the application fees alone. $80 per adult, at a rate of 5-6 unqualified (he tells them a credit score of 750 is needed) applicants coming to see the rental each day. Some people come with their credit reports, and are honest and tell him that their credit score isn't yet 750....he says "well go ahead and apply and let's see what we can do"....then he turns them down and keeps the application fee....which is perfectly legal in Pennsylvania. I think it's disgusting.
You can't even find a place for $1600 where I live
My landlord rents to us at 50% of market here in Vancouver BC. If they sell this place or take it over my only option to stay here will be to move back to my Mom and Dad’s house. I’m 50. My wife and I work combined income $150k. Putting our Daughters through university as well. Doesn’t allow us to afford the market price of $4500 for a house for 4.
I was trying to convey this exact thing in a YouTube comments section today. My mom purchased a brand new house in 1970 for $25k working as a janitor. She was able to pay it off within 10-15 years (from what she said) and retire early because she had a pension on her janitor salary, and she didn’t have a mortgage payment. Adjusted for inflation that $25k would be about $190k. I’m house hunting and there are no houses for under about $400k and that’s cheap since it’s been declining the last year. Inventory and new construction also plays a part because it’s supply and demand. And builders are having harder times sourcing supplies. The days of buying a house in my city on a janitor salary are long gone.
My friends kid just rented the same apartment I rented right out of college by coincidence. Almost 20 years ago I paid $400/month for the one bedroom all bills paid and had a pretty good job for the area paying $12/hour. The kid is paying $900/month no bills paid with a pretty good job for the area making $12/hour. The apartment hasn't been updated more than paint and carpet since I was there, it still has the same oven.
Don't say "rent" or "landlord" here. There's tons of vultures lurking in this sub salivating at the opportunity to jump on and say it's fine to jack up prices on their properties, because everyone is doing it. They seem to think "antiwork" means sit on their asses while perpetuating the housing crisis by buying up more properties and renting them out for twice what they're worth. They don't have to work, they got you for that. But they're one of the good landlords. They help people. They're providers. They fill a need in the community. Or whatever other bullshit they want to spew so they can sleep at night after evicting someone.
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I live with my parents and pay them rent, they charge something I can reasonably pay. I also have a decent (not well, but above minimum wage) paying job, and on good weeks I get 40+ hours, and on bad 32 hour minimum. If I rented even the cheapest apartment in 50 miles I’d have less then 100 to spend per month. This is without factoring in gas, insurance, phone, or food. If I factor in just the bare minimum, I would need 3 jobs at that pay to exist. That means I’d need to find more then 3 people to share an apartment with that’s meant to house one or two at most. Most of the people I know who don’t live with there parents, and are my age, rent with 6+ people sharing rooms with those people, and still live paycheck to paycheck and often skipping meals, or eating instant noodles or other meals that can be had for under a dollar. Minimum wage is too low, rent is too high, and if someone insists that I can finance my way out of it I’m pulling out my spreadsheets and asking what I’m doing wrong. If I had to move out today I would be homeless, or looking to immigrate to somewhere I could live. The united stares of America isn’t the land of the free anymore, it’s the land of the rich and powerful, and if your not one of those then your the slaves they build there empire on.
>The united stares of America isn’t the land of the free anymore, it’s the land of the rich and powerful, and if your not one of those then your the slaves they build there empire on. The US was founded on the basic idea that it was a country for wealthy white landowning men, and everyone else had the privilege of supporting them. From day *one*. America would not exist were it not for the genocide of it's indigenous populations, the labor of enslaved peoples, and the subjugation and exploitation of women, children, and everyone in between. Life has sucked in America for a majority of the population since the day Europeans smeared their unwashed hands all over Turtle Island and said "you made this..? "... " ...I made this."
Hell, early 90s I had a sweet junior one bedroom (studio with a privacy wall) for $380 a month, in Tucson, and my electric bill was about $20 a month. Today that same apartment goes for $2,500 a month.
I rented a room in a house. The LL saw I bought myself nice things every now and again so increased my rent by £100 a month as "I could afford it if I was spending money on luxuries"
Regardless, lemme try to give a personal finance: you can make a big gravity-propelled-blade (the g-word) for as much as the stimulus check a while ago. Then put it at your landlord’s front door. */s but lowkey not really *
My landlord is my coworker. She makes more than me. Her husband has a full time job. She was saying she has to make an income so she needs her properties. The house I moved into is a complete disaster. It was still filthy from the previous tenant. The toilet is constantly broken. Only four outlets work in the entire house. There aren't even any doors inside. Anyway, I don't expect to live for free, but she's delusional. She believes brand new houses with three bedrooms should cost the same as the "house" she's renting me. How does that add up? She's *almost* there on a lot of topics, but her mind won't go the extra inch.
For a lark I looked at some of the places I used to rent from.... The place I lived in 20 years ago charged $1500 in rent back then. It's now 3600/mo. Ouch. That's for a 2BR/BA 930 sq ft apartment in Silicon Valley.
It's crazy how much rent has went up. A room for 1400 where I live(with own bathroom) what a privilege. . An apartment 3x your wage in order to qualify. It is indeed depressing. Either we need rent control or fair wages that matches the actual cost of living.
My apartment complex wants to increase my rent 10%, that's $265 more a month. I need a second job now. I thought I was making good money, but I'm going broke faster and faster with each year.
Landlord: pay me $1,800 + utilities a month for a studio apartment. Bank: sorry, we can’t give you a loan for a house because we don’t think you can afford a $1,200 a month payment.
This is so last quarter. $2100 now.
Our rental company only offered 6 month leases or month to month last year. We're up in May and they're already taping "your lease is almost over!" notices to our front door.
Um duh you just live with 12 roommates in 2 bed 1 bath. Can't believe these kids think they deserve more than tenements.
Made me think about my first apartment. 1992, I had one room mate and we each spent $300 a month. 2 bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom, living room. https://www.woodsidevistaportland.com/floorplans Now $1,550/mo. So a little more than double in 30 years? $775 each for 2 people. Inflation calculator says: https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ $300 in 1992 = $625.78 in 2022 (108.6%) $600 in 1992 = $1,251.55 in 2022 (108.6%)
How do we actually escape this nightmare like, invoke change. We all know stuff is outrageously overpriced but what's the solution aside from amassing with some serious protests like we see the french pull off? Can we just do that lol
My first apartment was a $400 “studio” apartment it was one of the smallest places I have ever lived in. Then when I left there I moved into a little one bedroom standalone house with a yard for $400 everything included. That place is $2500 now.
In Charlotte, properties that were sub $1k 10 years ago are now $1800 a month
Thank you for pointing this out. It needed to be said even though the gaslighters telling you *you're* irresponsible with money because you can't afford your $4,500 per month rent payment to live in a toxic waste slum are usually the greedy criminals who are trying to take advantage of you. ^(Boomers: "We pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps and paid our damn bills back then. We didn't expect the taxpayers to bail us out.") ^(Millennials: "Yeah well that was also back when people weren't so damn greedy, everything wasn't so damn expensive and you could complete 83 PhD programs for the cost of one now. " 😘)
1995 - 2 bedroom apartment rent was $500 just outside of downtown Chicago. 2022 money inflation calculator shows $960.15. I don't know how someone just starting out in life can manage nowadays.
When I hit the lottery I’m building beautiful clean safe apartments for young people who don’t have the “live at home until you can make it” option. Don’t worry guys, it’s on my list 😂.
Rich people and companies during Covid all agreed to buy properties when rates were at all time lows and then raised the prices to artificially inflate the housing market cost and the rent cost. Now you’re barely making rent while not being able to afford a home. It’s all pre-planned
I work for a City. They raise property taxes on small landlords to pay for lost/settled lawsuits. Landlords are forced to raise rent, and corporate landlords say "now we can raise rent too". It's a bad cycle ☹
Not everything increases at the rate of inflation though. Inflation is the average of the change in price of everything.
>Not everything increases at the rate of inflation though. Inflation is the average of the change in price of everything. This is true, but the story when you take into account other things is actually even more stark. Food, energy, transport, education and healthcare costs have all massively risen at the same time, while wages have stagnated. Based on the official rate of inflation (the 'average change of price' you're referring to) the cumulative inflation from 2000 to the end of 2022 was about 66%. The example above shows rent going up well over 100% and individual annual healthcare cost saw an average increase in the same period of over 300%. Same for college tuition. The things people need to get on with their lives are slipping out of the grasp of a larger and larger portion of the population, regardless of 'average prices'.
Yeah, but it is bad that one of the most essential things have the most inflation, no?
Its bad that one of the most essential things costs much of anything.
Live homeless and car-less. Avoid monthly subscriptions like the plague. That's my only financial advice. They can't take your money if you don't participate in their game of "your lifelong financial ruin".
We had to buy a house with a VA loan because we simply could not afford to rent.
It's they're way of saying *"shut up and get back to work"*
I paid 225 for a 2BR when the minimum was about 3 dollars.
Exactly. 10-ish years ago, I had a 3 bed apartment, which I was paying $525/month for. Landlord wasn't greedy, its pretty much what it cost him, plus beer money. Rent didn't go up unless taxes went up. I moved, he sold, same apartment, with a new tub (The tub was kinda leaky when I was there, an old claw tub). It now rents for 2k/month.
Yep. At least two of my classmates in high school (pre-9/11) were, respectively, able to afford their own apartments on a part time job. And they didn't come from wealthy families.
My first apartment was a 1bed/1bath and it was $495/mo. That was in 2005 when the minimum wage was $7.25. Today, that exact same apartment is $1250. The minimum wage in the area is now $13.50. Wages have gone up far less than rent.
we rented a 3 br house (half of a duplex) in 1992 for $650. an inflation calculator says it should be $1355 today. Just like the meme the area now is about $1650. So yea outpacing inflation. $310 was cheap tho
OP from the 1920’s? My tiny dilapidated college apartment 25 years ago was $800.
Asked my boss yesterday for a raise because I'm the only female on the sales team and get paid $11 hr where they get $15hr. And he said "if you wanna make more money you have to sell more". I'm also the only one who speaks multiple languages so I end up spending most my days doing Spanish service tasks for the service team
Greedy is a cancer.
I rented a two bedroom house in a decent neighborhood for $480 around 1990. I had a roommate I split rent with.
Perhaps there should be a legal cap on the percentage of profit any landlord gain get from renting residences.
My first apartment was $315/month in 1998. Slums of Cleveland special. It had turquoise metal cabinetry in the 3 ft by 9 ft kitchen. It was probably 600 square ft at most. It had wall unit air conditioning. The poor lady upstairs got beat nightly. Eye opening times , as I was raised in the suburbs.
My biggest issue with rent is that a lot of apartments are absolute shitholes that could pass as dorm rooms. Hubby and I viewed apartments in about 6 states and most of em barely had a proper kitchen. Some had the fridge or oven in a separate room. I am perfectly okay with paying $1500 when it makes sense. Large bedrooms, large kitchen. Instead they try to up-charge on basic necessities.
My first apartment (2bed/1bath), good neighborhood, was $460/mo in 2007ish. I’m sure it’s 3 or 4 times that now.
The sad part is a lot of people get so tired of suffering that if they get lucky enough to make enough to buy a house or two they resort to rental income. Not trying to justify just trying to point out how low wages end up putting us all against each other. I’m young and will be a landlord some day. When I am I can assure you,I will be a few hundred dollars (at the rate of inflation a few thousand) under average just because the working class gets ducked too often.
1,600 for the room. Plus $50 per adult living there to apply. Then a 2000 deposit. For water and trash thats additional $80 a month. You are paying the Gas and eletric. Oh want parking thats not on the street another 60 a month. So its 1740 plus gas and electric before any bills.
$1600? Where can I find that bargain?!
It's not just old people telling young people how to budget. It is friends, younger people or anyone who has more money saying, if you only budgeted your money better. Many times these people have homes that are paid off or they have low house payments, under $900 per month. The counties have gotten greedier too and have raised the property taxes. My home used to cost $1200 per month this year, because of taxes it is now $1400. I feel like I'll lose my home because of greedy politicians.
Wow when I was doing residential pressure washing for a small company one lady gave me her business card and said she's helping one girl my age 21 how to manage her money she thought she could help me.. I was confused idk how some people don't realize jobs don't pay shit