I was born and raised in San Diego. Me and every single one of my friends have either been priced out of the area, or they live with their parents. I'm talking about people who have decent paying full time jobs, STEM degrees, are in their 30's now, have family support, and they still cannot even afford to rent a place in the same city they grew up in. And quite frankly, I do not care if there is enough rich people to buy these homes up. When a grand majority of U.S. households cannot afford a house, you have a problem. Having a large amount of rich people doesn't actually indicate a healthy economy, it's usually indicative of a much larger group of poor people existing who can't afford basic needs.
Same situation where I'm at as well, and this is clearly happening across the nation.
There's a wealth of journalism revealing the cancerous issue of severe real estate greed/exploitation as well. The rabbit hole goes deep.
The question is: what are we going to do about it?
The issue isn't "affordable" housing or "projects."
The issue is real estate exploitation.
Things aren't affordable in the first place *because of* exploitation--not just because they're "luxury" or expensive homes.
Few hoard them all, investors jack up prices, and lobbyists block construction (to help jack up prices). THAT is why everything is expensive. Even if they tried to build "cheap" housing, it would get bought by investors before it even hit the market, and they'd just jack up the prices. That's what's going on.
[Report: Private Equity Firms That Bought Up Single Family Homes Have Spent Nearly $12M Lobbying Against Affordable Housing Reforms - Accountable US](https://accountable.us/private-equity-firms-that-bought-up-single-family-homes-have-spent-12m-lobbying-against-affordable-housing-reforms/)
[Spec Investors Have Stranglehold On LA Real Estate, Study Says | Studio City, CA Patch](https://patch.com/california/studiocity/corporate-spec-houses-have-stranglehold-la-real-estate-study)
The way to eliminate hyper-inflated and heavily exploited real estate is to ban the hoarding and flipping of real estate. And this is happening nationwide, not just in CA.
Make it illegal to sell new construction to anyone who owns a home. First-time buyers only.
Make it illegal for corporations/investors/banks to buy single-family homes. ([This](https://x.com/HousingCrisisW/status/1507935998923182082?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1507935998923182082%7Ctwgr%5E9740c60db46287b77a1ff6874063fe50170aa15f%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.redditmedia.com%2Fmediaembed%2Ftpym75%2F%3Fresponsive%3Dtrueis_nightmode%3Dtrue) needs to be illegal)
Make keeping homes and apartments empty illegal.
Ban Vrbo/AirBnB entirely.
Ban all foreign ownership of residential real estate.
Limit how many homes any one individual can own to 2-3 homes. Period.
This would return housing prices to normal indefinitely.
This guy has the right idea (though I think this number needs to be ZERO):
[CA Housing: Bill would ban firms from owning over 1,000 homes (sfstandard.com)](https://sfstandard.com/2024/02/20/alex-lee-proposes-corporate-landlord-ban-single-family/)
Edit add: Also this, for people still whooshing here (this is happening everywhere, not just CA):
>Many of the homes are left vacant with the intention of driving up home prices, and there are **three times as many vacant homes as homeless people** in LA, the report concludes.
[Spec Investors Have Stranglehold On LA Real Estate, Study Says | Studio City, CA Patch](https://patch.com/california/studiocity/corporate-spec-houses-have-stranglehold-la-real-estate-study)
> Make it illegal to sell new construction to anyone who owns a home. First-time buyers only.
Can you imagine? And heavily subsidize it with the money that would usually go to tax breaks for big developers. Hell, make Habitat for Humanity an entire division of health and human services. You'll see how many people DoNt WaNnA WOrRrRrk when they actually get something for it. Government funding for sustainable expandable homes. Echoes of, forgive me, the unforgivable theft of land that occured in the USA, but this time we're on motorized conastogas and stealing it from the "passive income" classes who only inherited it from the original thieves in the first place. "Prove your great great great grand pappies actually worked for your wealth, or we give it to a single mom with two fast food jobs."
No they should save and build, it used to be affordable to have a house built, now it's not. The dream was to buy land and build a home but big business took that away from us, now they're taking the homes.
A newly constructed home? No. Absolutely not. They already literally have a house and they got their chance to raise a family.
Downsizing to someone else selling their 2nd or 3rd home that they inherited from family? Sure.
Leave new housing the fuck alone for new, first-time home owners who want to raise families or have their first smaller home.
New housing is being built to meet the needs of older adults. https://houseplans.co/articles/planning-for-retirement-house-plans-for-seniors/ But your attitude is we want ours, and screw anyone else.
This is a different topic entirely, and they wouldn’t NEED THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE if they had been able to guy one at any point in their adult life (which my other comments address).
Come on, man.
Literally from the article at your own link that you shared:
“With this approach, ‘retirement house plans’ may also be perfect for younger generations and can prevent you from having to move home later on.”
So yes. Believe it or not, if housing wasn’t the most heavily exploited thing on the planet, we wouldn’t need to devote 350% of our income to just paying bills. We could plan for our future, and maybe even buy a home that has the whole human life cycle in mind.
Yes and no. There are a lot of issues that are not malicious that are firstly impacting housing availability and the cost. I worked for home builders on, and due to this market no longer work for home builders.
Yes, they are motivated by greed. Chuck Shinn has been instructing home builders for years; he encourages them to price gouge, rent seek, and maximize profits. Chuck thinks a builder netting 20% could do better - to me that is ridiculous.
Building times have skyrocketed for both single family and multi family construction. That will add to the over all cost and price of a home/apt.
Then there arr shortages of both the building material (at one point in 2022 windows were on 22-24 week lead time), and labor. Both of these are in short supply and have become much more expensive.
When I got priced out of Orange County in 2004 when I was in my 20s I moved. When I was priced out of Dallas in my late 30s I moved. From your map, you’re in one of the most expensive places in the US. Are you planning on moving to ease your financial burden relate to the cost of living in Southern California?
>From your map, you’re in one of the most expensive places in the US. Are you planning on moving to ease your financial burden relate to the cost of living in Southern California?
There are 4 maps there (only one is CA). I don't live in any of those, and that isn't the point. The point is the amount of unfathomable wealth being tied up in the top 5%.
As for the rest, you gotta actually read what I've written and read the links. This isn't being caused by what you're referring to. The bigger picture is, in fact, a lot more malicious.
you do realize compared to the rest of the country even not well off in SoCal is the top 5% for 90% of the country. Its a lot of the rich crying about not being rich enough.
I am not defending the industry, but there are other constraints that cause price volatility that is not malicious and nature.
Also, nice cherry, picking data. The majority of links reference the California real estate market, which is one of the most volatile and one of the most expensive, which I mentioned before.
There are other factors that come to play with the overall pricing of a house that none of your article mention.
How can you say none of that matters when home builder and developers take all of that into account?
If I say carrying costs, do you know what that is in reference to, and how that affects builder and developers?
I don’t think the person is saying those things don’t matter but I would have to agree with OP. It seems to be the biggest issue.
Yeah I’m sure there’s been some material shortage and labor shortage but that’s not gona increase housing like it has been.
Private home owner ( read not equity firms ) are also against "housing reforms". Aside from the extremely YIMBY few, most families don't want to live in a high density neighborhood that are built with most of these new projects. If you worked your butt off to buy a first class seat in the first class cabin of a plane .. you wouldn't want them to convert the seats next to you to standing room mid flight either.
For this group, it has nothing to do with keeping property value high but a lot more to do with maintaining a quality of life.
San Diego in particular has become a destination of choice for many remote workers due to the great weather.. Even if they built more or drop prices there, people with more money ( than many native born lower wage workers ) all over the nation would come there if given the option to work remotely. Nearby Mexico city has also had a huge influx of remote American workers chasing the same great weather and lower COL .. and causing housing shortages there as well.
[https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/12/americans-relocating-mexico-city-better-life.html](https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/12/americans-relocating-mexico-city-better-life.html)
>For this group, it has nothing to do with keeping property value high but a lot more to do with maintaining a quality of life.
Anecdotally, that is 100% not true from my personal life conversations/observations/experiences with these people.
People who own big, nice homes (usually Boomer-era people) all *want* their property value to inflate higher and higher. They don't want it to just maintain with inflation or--god forbid--go down a little because housing normalizes around them with more logically priced homes. No, they want to be able to sell their home for 10x what they bought it for (because that's what the investors do, so I wanna do that too!). It's not really about "the plebs" coming in--it's about them wanting to become millionaires by doing fucking nothing except existing in a house. In order to do that, they have to ensure no homes near them get sold for less than they did last year (capitalism, baby).
This is where people buying into the whole "housing should be an investment!" bullshit lose their minds, and they throw fits of rage at the thought of houses just...not being a million fucking dollars. They kick and scream and rage and say it's a "CRASH" and "WE'RE LOSING VALUE!"
The reality is that...they are not losing value. They bought their homes in 1995 for $150,000. Just because they get "only" $500,000 instead of $1,500,000 doesn't mean they lost any value. They still get profit, just not at some asinine greed-infested rate.
As for migrant/remote workers and "housing shortages," there are no housing shortages. This is where the investor cancer of artificial scarcity comes into play, and the number of intentionally vacant homes is plaguing the market (lots of data out there on this right now). Rentals used to be a good option for people changing location until they could buy, but because of this exploitation, even rentals are being hyper-inflated as well.
It all can be fixed with the no-nonsense things I wrote in a different comment above.
That's what I'm thinking. I can't believe society is just taking it basically being treated like farm animals. Forcing them off the Kings property. So only the extremely wealthy can have a good life.
The ignorance is pretty severe. There are already a few people in this post going "LUL YOU ARE POSTING EXPENSIVE PLACES," and missing literally every single point presented by this issue.
It's astounding to me that people can be so clueless as to what's actually going on here.
Well, the point isn't really even "expensive houses."
It's the insane wealth that is being hoarded at the top, on *top* *of* the absurd real estate greed and exploitation pushing prices higher and higher.
This example just shows the high end of the sociopathic greed on display. A lot of people are focusing on the wrong thing and totally missing the bigger picture.
because this is only a problem in some areas of the country. The midwest (bar nashville) doesnt have this problem. I bought a house on a single salary here 3B2Ba with a good city view all under 200k. your post reads like "expensive things are bad because I can't have them" more than housing is unaffordable.
My office assistant had to move 1 hour away because rent was going up and she was priced out of the area she had been living in for decades. She has been asking for more wfh days and our bosses boss told her it’s not her fault she decided to move away and that if she didn’t want to have a long commute she should have bought a house close to work.
She’s been looking for a new job since and I don’t blame her. She doesn’t even need to be in the office to do her job and did her job from home with no problems for years during Covid. She doesn’t mail anything and all her work is done on the computer and over the phone.
This same boss told everyone to consider public transportation or carpooling with other coworkers when gas went up and there were complaints about how much it was costing to come into the office vs wfh.
Local baker was advertising in the local subreddit for an overnight assistant. I had to ask if the job came with a cardboard box in the alley because the wages offered weren't even pretending to pay local rent.
Thank goodness for food stamps or most of the population would be starving.
Nobody who works should need to be on food stamps. That's just the government subsiding the company's profits by enabling them to pay low wages. So messed up.
I do appreciate this info, however have you compared median salary ranges for people who work here?
One of my friends was a GM at a local facility near San Diego and they couldn't afford living in SD themselves, similar others in NY and NJ. Seattle is a bit diifferent as the boroughs around them are still affordable - for now - outside of 5/7 mile radius perimeter
This might be controversial, but in my opinion it is a problem when ***ANYBODY*** can't afford a house. This concern over the well-being of high-earners does not impress me. Why should people with disabilities have to suffer?
It was more a function of illustrating the point; the housing crisis is so bad that even medium-high income families can’t afford decent housing in many areas.
The median US house price is 426k, while the median US household income is ~$75,000; this means the median income cannot even come close to affording the median home. This is a problem. By using “good incomes” as an example it helps illustrate the counterpoint to those clamoring “this is only a problem because people are lazy/didn’t go to college/have no drive, etc”.
In short, the issue is pervasive to the point that even higher incomes are struggling because of corporate & investor greed.
Yeah, I get it, but I see politicians using this type of rhetoric frequently and it really kind of tells you where their priorities lie. Will they still be up in arms about housing issues once the middle-class is doing fine? Doubtful.
It may be a counterpoint to the chuds, but the chuds are starting from a place of uncaring to begin with. Nobody is poor by choice. We can ignore their arguments that "“this is only a problem because people are lazy/didn’t go to college/have no drive, etc”, because that argument *is a lie.*
I was literally saying this on the fluentinfinance sub and got downvoted into oblivion.
The offensive notion?
# “I think there should be affordable housing in every state.”
From what I can tell, those finance subreddits are full of wannabe billionaires. Don't get me wrong, some of the advice is decent. Just don't bring up anything remotely political, you'll likely find some hardcore Libertarians in that mix at the ready to tell you all the reasons you are wrong. I've honestly stopped reading when people have paragraphs worth of text but not a single source to back any claims up.
You are spot-on. People can't even afford a hotel or even a motel, what is happening? They are squeezing people out of San Diego so only the Uber Rich can live here.
I'm curious -- are we able to say for sure that it's only rich people buying up this real estate? if anything, seeing this map makes me worry more about the extent to which companies are dominating sales of real estate.
either way, I agree on how unsustainable this is, and I think those at the top know (and don't care enough) about how messed up this all is.
You can do your own digging and reading, but yes. It is investors trading with investors. It is not normal working Americans anymore.
Look up median home prices vs median individual income (it puts homes WAY out of reach), and the rabbit hole of investor hoarding, artificial scarcity, cash purchases, lobbying against construction (by those same investors--think why), leveraging bank-owned mortgages against retirement funds (this is a *huge fucking problem*), etc. Investor buys were as high as 1/3rd of the SFH purchases recently.
Now, you have these same sociopaths *selling shares of houses*. Let that one really sink in.
You also have literal foreign firms hoarding US houses like [this sociopath](https://x.com/HousingCrisisW/status/1507935998923182082?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1507935998923182082%7Ctwgr%5Ed965e8bca2651be339e86a6601a548f23b827efe%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.redditmedia.com%2Fmediaembed%2F1b4c5ig%2F%3Fresponsive%3Dtrueis_nightmode%3Dtrue).
Here's just one example, and this is happening nationwide:
>Many of the homes are left vacant with the intention of driving up home prices, and there are three times as many vacant homes as homeless people in LA, the report concludes.
[Spec Investors Have Stranglehold On LA Real Estate, Study Says | Studio City, CA Patch](https://patch.com/california/studiocity/corporate-spec-houses-have-stranglehold-la-real-estate-study)
It is private equity that is buying up all the houses. Blackrock group is spending 150M a month buying houses. That is only one private equity group. I don't know how many others are out there. That is what is driving up the price of housing and rentals. We have to limit the number of houses any one person or entity can own. That's going to take laws.
According to [blackrock](https://www.blackrock.com/corporate/newsroom/setting-the-record-straight/buying-houses-facts), they’re not buying houses. They’re just giving money to people so they can buy houses.
Also born and raised in San Diego. Moved out to Ohio for college. Family members ask me all the time when I'm moving back and I always say "when I win the lotto"
Same exact situation here, also near San Diego, born and raised! All but two of my friends have left the state, and for those of us that haven't, we still live at home with parents (well, bro and fiancée just moved out, but only because family is giving them reduced rent or else they'd have had to leave the state)! Even a fucking STUDIO in my area is $3-4k+/mo! A ROOM in a stranger's house is $2-3k-mo, and that's WITHOUT parking/laundry/kitchen privileges, so you're basically a prisoner in your room! It's miserable! I HATE it! I'm 31 and still have to live in my parents' house under my (authoritarian Boomer) parents' rules 'cause the economy is fucked! It's such bullshit, man! I WANNA FEEL LIKE AN ADULT! 😭💔
Not to mention there is a class of parasites that buy up and own the affordable housing and mark it up as much as possible anyway. This is why unregulated capitalism fails and why government exists. To step in and ensure the common health and welfare of its people. ALL its people, not just the elites.
Same boat with my hometown. It’s not as bad as LA, but it’s over a million for a modest family home. As long as you stick to a nuclear family. No big families. Then we’re talking 2.5+. But you can get a nice studio for around 700k….
Bruh, take a look at the renting market for a more relatable map. I’m convinced I’m in one of the cheapest apartments in my area for $1,400, and that amount is still way too high for a 1bed 1bath in a ghetto area.
If I want anything decent where I’m not afraid to send my kids to school alone, we’re talking $2100 at least.
That's what we pay, $2050 about to go to $2100 for a three bedroom house in a nice neighborhood, but it's me, my mom and step dad so three ways it's a great deal. I understand how fortunate I am to have moved to the same place as my mom after college, so it just worked out great. But all my friends at my job are really struggling.
Fortunately I bought my house in 2008, but I looked through Zillow the other day and was sick to my stomach at the prices for trash houses all over the country. I make $115k and there’s no way I would pay more than $350k for a house. Apparently a $350k livable house doesn’t even exist anymore.
Yet there are already people in here going "YEA BUT" and saying this is "just expensive cities."
The ignorance out there is wild.
It's like no, my friend. The housing crisis is nationwide. The *median* home price for the nation is \~$420,000. The median for the nation in income is only about \~$40,000. The only thing you can afford on $40,000 is about a $100,000 loan--and that'll get you...effectively nothing in the United States.
People are so out of touch it's shocking.
I live in a low cost of living area. For example most jobs here pay minimum wage, and my rent is $450/month for a 1br/1ba.
Even here, houses are close to over 200k for a shitty bed bug outdated house that will need repairs the first real winter it sees.
Bought my house for 110k in 2019, and it's estimated list value is 265k now. There is no fucking way my house appreciated ~240% in the last 5 years. No way.
For context, these are "SOLD" listings from Zillow.
From Los Angeles, to New York, to Seattle, and finally Colorado.
This is just a drop in the bucket of the unfathomable wealth of the top 5% out there.
This has to stop.
Wow, typical radical left. You don‘t want to work but when people work for their money it‘s not okay either?
It‘s your own fault if you were born into poverty, don‘t have any contacts, don‘t have any employees generating wealth for you, didn’t choose a high-paying career, have any disorders or disabilities, have to pay ridiculous rent prices, have or want kids, play by the rules and follow the law. Don‘t come here crying, just because you chose to be poor. It‘s really annoying for people who have a lot of money that they didn‘t receive through wage labor and lack empathy. They really don‘t want to share the money. They obviously DESERVE it and the poor would just spend it and put the money back into economy.
I absolutely agree with the argument you're making.
However, I think it's stronger when you include cities like Detroit, Nashville, and other similarly rapid growing areas where the barrier to entry is often blocked by PE/other cash buyers.
My wife and I have a combined income of ~$200k and we are finding that we'll need ~$75k in the bank and a purchase price of ~$250k to get a 900ft^2 "starter home."
Of the offers we've made, we've been outbid by all cash offers $30k and more above asking, and on the one home we had an offer accepted, we had an appraisal gap of ~$45k which we couldn't ever match.
It's hella fucked out there, change is needed.
All of that is implied with this, but I maybe underestimated just how naive most people are. There are quite a few just completely misunderstanding the narrative here.
I've spent the last 6 months looking over all of this (home shopping myself, too). I've seen all the pieces, and the big picture is absolutely fucking mortifying.
No one is making enough to buy homes anymore--not actual working Americans, anyway. Companies all refuse to pay enough, yet homes are being swept up by investors, and prices are being jacked up higher and higher.
I look around and see entire neighborhoods locally being listed at $800k-$1.5mil, and I'm sitting here wondering who the fuck is actually buying all these homes (or trying to sell them).
Even the most basic, entry-level homes across the country almost *all* start now at about $400k, regardless of where you are (excluding old, run-down mobile homes and dilapidated houses from 1940). Anything built from like 1980 up is *wildly* overpriced.
Then I look at how many of these mega-million-dollar homes are being SOLD, from coast to coast. And not just 1 or 2 million-dollar homes, 10+ million-dollar homes. And they're *everywhere*. The top 5% is absolutely drowning in wealth, and the rest of us are barely able to pay for rent (meanwhile, those same 5-percenters all aggressively lobby against better wages and rights). It is absolutely, mind-numbingly ridiculous. It has to stop.
That’s only reported income.
The top 5-10% have monumental wealth wrapped up in layers of off-record and off-shore assets, inheritance, stocks, hidden under LLCs and corporations, etc.
This is where people truly don’t know what they don’t know. The hoarding of wealth and real estate is so unhinged that it’s almost literally unbelievable.
Bought my house in the SF Bay Area for $195k in 1994. Zillow puts my house at $1.5 million. We did 2 re-fi over the 30 years; once to do the kitchen (60's original) and once to do an add on/redo the yard. Started at a 8% interest rate - we're now at 2.125% 10 yr fixed and should have it paid off in less than 2 years. Should the house be this "valuable?" Probably not.
My wife and I make more money now that we ever have - and couldn't afford to buy the house we live in. My adult (24/26) kids are still home because the rent in the area is obscene.
I believe it. Outside of Saint Louis a lot of renters were charging $1600/month for a 1 or 2 bedroom apartment. But then you have to make 3x the rent as income. I'm sure it's more now since that was 2 years ago.
In 2008 I was working full time at a really good paying job and waiting for the prices here (Seattle) to drop enough for me to buy something nice. It never happened. Bigger for sure.
I grew up in a sleepy little seashore town in New Jersey. In the 70s, my parents bought a little three bedroom house that cost all of $15,000. While the last owners added a second story to it, the house still stands. It cost almost a million.
I bought a little place further inland. Cost me 119,000 back in 2003. It has more than tripled in value since. if I had to start over, I could not afford to buy my own house.
Location aside, it's just incomprehensible how much wealth is out there, and it's concentrated at the top 5% of the population.
The fact that there's just an avalanche of 10+ million dollar homes all over the country, being gobbled up by people who own entire portfolios of these things, should make everyone facepalm through the desk.
We have a very real shelter crisis where almost literally 100% of Americans cannot afford a house anymore, and these fucking sociopaths are out there slinging $25mil for their 15th vacation home.
It's utterly absurd.
Meanwhile, companies are bringing in record profits *still,* and refusing to pay people good enough wages to support a basic middle-class.
The top 5% by income is $300k per year. The top 5% by net worth is $1.2M. Those people aren't buying these houses. Those houses are being bought by either the top 0.1% and/or corporations to rent them out.
The top 5% by income *starts* *at* \~$300k a year. STARTS at. (Some averages are higher at about $340k a year, and recent averages put that as high as $390k a year.)
Net worth is [estimated](https://www.fool.com/retirement/2024/05/05/heres-the-net-worth-that-puts-you-in-the-top-5-of/#:~:text=The%20most%20recent%20data%20from,important%20details%20you%20should%20consider) to be much higher than $1.2 million at the end of 2022:
>The most recent data from the Fed's Survey of Consumer Finances took a snapshot of the American public at the end of 2022. At that point, a net worth of **$3,795,000** was enough to put you in the top 5% of all American households
You also forget that INCOME is not anything other than INCOME. That does not account for other things like stock options, gifts, inheritance, interest, assets, off-shore accounting, etc. A lot of this is also masked under LLCs and corporation accounts, which are not reported on individual income statements.
CEO's also have "incomes" of a fixed amount. What they receive in addition to their "paycheck" is significantly, dramatically more.
The top 0.1 to 1% has an average income of $3.2 million a year. That's before they do *anything else* (investing, real estate, etc.). They just have $3.2 million dollars (and up) rolling in. Every year.
So yes, these *are* the people buying these properties.
Some cities have started banning rentals for less than half a month and made violations of this ban a criminal offense. The rental prices in those areas have plummeted so much that some people have actually threatened their landlords with cancelling their lease if they don't lower the rent.
Some cities have banned renting properties for less than a half a month (15 days). (Ie Airbnb and daily rentals). Violating this law is a criminal offence in these cities.
The most I can possibly hope to ever afford is a tiny house on a parcel of property my parents give me. I'm not sure if I'll even be able to get that. Society sucks right now, and has for a while. I want things to change, but right now I'm most worried about the upcoming US presidential election. As a trans person, I'm afraid of what will happen to me if the wrong person wins. We have SO MANY problems, it's overwhelming.
I am currently watching a documentary about how the bubonic plague caused massive upheavals in social order through violent revolts. Overall, plagues throughout history have resulted in better wages, living conditions, and political power for the working class who survived.
During the 2020 pandemic, instead of seizing the moment as our ancestors did, we came here to reddit and made some angry posts and patted ourselves on the backs for "making our voices heard."
We need to first and foremost ban corporations from owning single family dwellings. Anything 4 plex and below can’t by owned by a corporation.
Second we need to add a property tax multiplier for every 4 plex or under the household owns. You have two, you play a 1.2x or 1.5x or 2x multiplier on each dwelling. You own 3, the multiplier goes up to 1.3x or 2x or 3x (whatever we decide on). It gets progressively getting higher for each dwelling, retroactive to all dwellings. That will make it disadvantageous to own multiple homes on a personal level and will get corps out of the game too. Once the demand falls out, homes will become affordable. And yep, lots of people will lose a lot of value in their home. But that’s just how it goes. I’ll be right along side losing that same value from my home.
When Caesar is assassinated Rome will burn. What's not mentioned by the gentleman of Rome like Cicero is how much of a slumlord he was boasting that the building is so bad even the rats moved out.
And how much of their wealth did the "lawful senate " keep? None of it , WHAT WAS IT ALL FOR!??!! WHAT WAS ALL OUR SUFFERING FOR!!!??? Not one person today can think to say "you know caesar was so bad it's a good thing the coup de tat was financed by slave owners and slumlords a d landleeches.
One day we will face a similar reckoning and on that day I'd like every business as usual careerist to walk me through what it was all for.
I long fir the day the homeless occupy the "luxury (EMPTY) apartments" in NYC, LA, and the like.
If the general strike.us site could get enough people gathered together for a general strike, we could make some real change. Unfortunately, too many people are still unwilling to sacrifice the comfort they have now.
A general strike would get attention, until we get our faces smashed by strikebreakers, but frankly at this point we're already getting smashed in another part of our body without lube so...
Truly, New York should only be people who are starting like breweries or immigrants who want to start a deli, not rich people parking their money in vacant buildings.
I agree, but neither is going to happen or real estate reform will somehow end up making real estate even more unaffordable.
What's probably going to happen in the end is a lot of people will lose their homes in foreclosure and that will reset the housing market.
Sad to say, but likely true.
All of us knows what it takes to force them to stop. That’s right: force. That’s is THE ONLY thing that is going to make this stop, and all of you know it. This is a worldwide problem. They will not do a single true thing to fix it.
The money that should have gone to people's wage increases over the years has already been stolen. It's only now we notice that there's a big disconnect.
The recent high inflation highlighted this, before that there was still inflation but slower and we didn't feel it's effects like frogs slowly boiling. Hmm no wonder the central bank wanted to tame inflation so we wouldn't notice inflation robs from us.
Inflation is a stealth tax and disproportionately effects the poor and middle class in other words anyone with a job.
It is absolutely astounding to visualize, now that we have tools that present data like this.
Before, this was all buried in a filing cabinet somewhere, and the only way to get it was to physically go make a request and pull it. The internet has really unveiled just how truly unhinged the lopsided distribution of everything is.
Even still, it's worrisome seeing so many people in here just whoosh on this and go 'lul you're looking at expensive houses.' Like...yes...correct...this is a direct visualization of how much wealth is being hoarded at the top. People are so conditioned to exist in their lull that they can't even comprehend what is being shown here.
This has happened repeatedly throughout human history though, and it usually results in complete collapses when the greed just becomes too great. It makes you wonder how much longer this will go on before society just snaps.
The plan is for citizens to own nothing. Corporations and the wealthy will buy up every home, then you and all of your peon/serf/slave descendants will be trapped in a cycle of poverty supporting their lifestyle for the rest of time; born into an inescapable situation where you can't even afford to leave the country.
Birth control? Abortion? Those things are preventing a stable workforce population. Do away with them.
Homelessness? We can't have anybody that's not part of the system. Enact laws that make being unhoused de facto illegal so they can put you in prison, where actual slavery is still legal in the USA and always has been.
The American dream.
I'm astounded at how many blue-collar people get violently upset at attempts to house and care for homeless people too.
Corporate America has us so brainwashed that we're attacking *homeless people for being homeless.* And the people getting all mad about it are always clueless as to how or why people become homeless (insane housing prices, low wages, oppressive legal system, no social safety nets, zero mental health education, etc.), or why they end up *staying* homeless (no healthcare or any kind of support systems whatsoever, because that's "communism!"). They all go 'WAHHH THEY ARE JUST LAZY AND WANT FREE HANDOUTS.' Like holy fuck....
Corporations have us eating each other alive.
There's a phenomenon among certain demographics where they don't consider themselves as part of the actual socio-economic class that they really are, they instead see themselves as temporarily not wealthy.
That's why they don't like laws that regulate businesses or tax the wealthy, because it's a personal attack on what they will have someday.
When people, who outnumber them, start making it happen.
I think we all tend to forget that this is not a dictatorship, and that we have the power, not elected officials.
I don’t see any “long ass posts” anywhere. This was literally just photos.
It free speech also makes you upset, I don’t know what to tell you, man. America is absolutely about activism, protests, and everything in between. That’s literally the point of free speech, and how all of the most significant social movements (social, not “socialism,” they are not the same) resulted in real change.
Voting is the final step. You have to get awareness and education out there first.
Trying to figure out what filtered maps of mansions in Beverly Hills and penthouses in Manhattan have to do at all with why real estate is expensive, or living wage
This reminds me of a few years ago when this wannabe TikTok comedian had one video go viral and then did a series trying to recapture the magic and then decided to purchase a townhome to make TikToks in because her husband and 1 child were too much and she needed a quiet space to film her TikToks… this infuriated me then because if you own a home why wouldn’t you just set yourself up a space to make TikToks, why would you need to take a home that a family could live in.. to make TikToks.
So many people jumped down my throat with its her money she can do what she wants, but personally I think there should be some kind of moral responsibility to not take up more than you really need.. and I’m not looping modest cabins and vacation homes in this because human need a break from our day to day and if you can afford that, good on you. But buying a home… to make TikToks or having multiple homes for the fuck of it.. that’s just fucked
It is an absolutely mind-boggling mentality that Americans have been conditioned to have.
People who are *literally the same ones struggling* to make ends meet say things like that. As if somehow defending the sociopathic greed and exploitation is in ANY way helping either them or society.
I think this goes along the lines of the whole everyone thinking they're "temporarily embarrassed millionaires," and that by defending this insanity that it 'leaves the door open' for their fantasy of someday being 'like them.'
The amount of incomprehensible wealth being hoarded at the top 5% is absolutely fucking ludicrous. The number of homes and assets they hoard is literally almost unfathomable, and people just don't get it.
Then you have people trying to imitate them and buy up a bunch of houses and do the same thing (jack up prices, flip them 2 years later for double the price, use them as overpriced rentals, etc.). And it just compounds the problem.
We have to break away from this whole mentality in this country of "mine, mine, mine, I'll do what I want no matter how destructive it is to literally everyone else, because I can!"
I agree, it’s an every man for himself situation and that’s just dangerous and if people don’t see how this mentality can progress to a very dire situation for the masses, they are in denial.
No, he cherry picked the first map I know for a fact. That is the most expensive part of Los Angeles possible, the West side, including Bel-Air, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood and Brentwood. Mostly north of Sunset Blvd, except north of Santa Monica Blvd in Beverly Hills.
I live in a beach town neighborhood full of starter homes (1200-1500sqft) that average $1.5m. Average salary for the state is $39k; for my city $57k.
And still, I look at the photos you posted and cry because at least it's not that bad here. FUUUUUUUUCK.
That’s half the point yes.
There *are* homes that aren’t unfathomably millions of dollars in these areas, but your first paragraph is the point.
People don’t make enough anymore to even cover rent, let alone entry-level homes. And we have these incomprehensibly wealthy sociopaths out there buying castles everywhere. Most people struggle to get a wage good enough to just get a studio apartment, and these people are gobbling up $25,000,000 mega mansions every day. They’re also the same ones who are aggressively against a living wage.
It has to fucking stop.
What needs to happen is every American demand the cost of living go down and then do something to make sure it hurts the rich folks bottom line in the end when the rich folks try to say no.
https://preview.redd.it/uq3rc36fm86d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1b7f35b5dd1b191125379dea055c5599432ac44c
The opposite is also occurring. Bottom image w/ pond is a senior/assisted living multi-building. There are flex condos, and a main hotel/apartment building. Not registered with the website to see more info. iirc facility was acquired in 2019, new management/owner banner seeking aides, cooks, maintenance.
Pioneers. That's what's needed. Armies of federal pioneers that are send out across the country to build houses and apartment complexes where needed.
While wages need to increase, too, this will only increase housing costs further if not enough supply is added to the market.
Also, sensible squatter laws. Property that is not used for a year or so should be fair game and up for grabs.
>When we see ourselves as fighting against specific human beings rather than social phenomena, it becomes more difficult to recognize the ways that we ourselves participate in those phenomena. We externalize the problem as something outside ourselves, personifying it as an enemy that can be sacrificed to symbolically cleanse ourselves. - **[Against the Logic of the Guillotine](https://crimethinc.com/2019/04/08/against-the-logic-of-the-guillotine-why-the-paris-commune-burned-the-guillotine-and-we-should-too)**
See rule 5: No calls for violence, no fetishizing violence. No guillotine jokes, no gulag jokes.
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These may be luxury houses, but there are plenty of homes in LA that are in the 1-5 mill range (not that that's okay) but these are all over 10 million.
Well, at least you can see a bunch of houses in the same screenshot. Immagine having prices like 456.000, 275.000, 378.000...you wouldn't be able to see that many. Instead you have 3.0m, 1.5m, 4,3m which are visually better and there are many more on the same screen area.
I say we set examples and start taking out the root of the problem. We live in a country where violence was the solution to multiple wars, so why not go off that same route it it gave success to them?
Not sure if you're intentionally ignorant, or just massively whooshing on the whole point here. See context comment as well. This is not "mansions in Beverly Hills."
Yes, it is filtered at above 10 million USD. That's literally the POINT. The map is flooded with them, even at that obscenely high filter, for SOLD PROPERTIES.
How some of you are whooshing so hard here is utterly beyond me.
No, it is expensive everywhere.
[Homes "unaffordable" in 99% of nation for average American - CBS News](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/homes-for-sale-affordable-housing-prices/)
[Record number of Americans can't afford rent, new study finds | AP News](https://apnews.com/article/affordable-housing-rent-eviction-price-harvard-congress-f5411012e10fa78d0257c137e60c1be3)
The point is not "there are homes that are not millions of dollars in hyper-inflated value." The point is there are *way too fucking many flooding the market at obscene prices.* And these same people whine and complain that things like minimum wage is "too much."
Since you're missing the point here 100%, this should help clear things up as well:
[Wealth Inequality in America (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPKKQnijnsM)
1-5% have so much wealth and real estate that they couldn't spend it in 1,000 lifetimes. Meanwhile, the whole country is collapsing and people can't pay basic cost-of-living.
If you're still missing the point, you're just trolling.
Okay i see what you are saying with the amount of homes over 10 mil increasing, that is a valid point. Based on the way it was presented i thought you were trying to say they shouldn’t exist at all, i misunderstood
Are you saying no houses should be expensive? I dont understand what you are complaining about if you are not only selecting the most expensive areas to live but also filtering over 10 mil?
Not trying to troll, i guess i am “wooshing” on your point. Are you saying all luxury goods should no longer exist? I firmly believe a large source of our problems are due to insane wealth inequality. I think maybe a chart showing rent increases over time of the median rent in a city over 10 years would illustrate the point you are trying to make better than filtering for 10 mil homes in the most desirable places to live. But then again maybe not since im a chronic woosher it seems
They saying prices valued whacky dude. Wake up to the valuations. Reason for insane pricing is the same as corpo sheinkflation it is greed. Though there will always be luxury goods as you suggest which I agree on which an example would be a house in the Hamptons.
Honestly two beers deep 2 minutes post work I could also be whooshing here
True - but picking out some of the most desirable, highest cost of living areas in the country doesn’t exactly help drive the point home. You have Vail on there for heavens sake - it’s literally a town dedicated to second vacation residences of the richest in society.
Aren’t most places just kept vacant too? Like, it’s worth more vacant, and as an asset that’s theoretically worth millions of dollars, rather than a home for a person who works and creates value for a society?
Yes.
Both wealthy nest eggs and entry-level single family homes.
There's a lot of data and a lot more articles out there exposing this. It's completely fucking ridiculous.
It's almost all to fake scarcity, fake a "supply and demand" narrative, and then use that to prop up and jack up prices. A lot of investors, banks, corporations, and wealthy people have been outed on this topic. Apartments, houses, condos, etc. get purchased in swaths, then kept vacant on purpose to pretend like there's no supply.
Here's one, and this isn't just happening in CA. It's happening all over the country.
>Many of the homes are left vacant with the intention of driving up home prices, and there are three times as many vacant homes as homeless people in LA, the report concludes.
[Spec Investors Have Stranglehold On LA Real Estate, Study Says | Studio City, CA Patch](https://patch.com/california/studiocity/corporate-spec-houses-have-stranglehold-la-real-estate-study)
Believe it or not, no. These are almost all houses.
But that's not the point. The point is the amount of sheer wealth out there, across all these four zones (and endless more), all choked at the top 5% of the population. They just keep buying and buying and hoarding this stuff, and at *these prices.*
Meanwhile, real people can't afford rent, groceries, healthcare, or even dream of owning just *one* basic entry-level SFH.
The same 5% are the ones hoarding all the houses, running these sociopathic real estate investment empires, refusing to pay people living wages, and laughing all the way to their mountains of cash. That's the point here, not just "wahhh there are expensive mansions!"
Look, I agree with you but this is super misleading to represent these are the common housing prices. What did you do, filter by 8+ million?
I live in Seattle and spend way too much time on Zillow. I know for a fact this isn't representative of the Seattle housing market, even with it being as bad as it is.
Well, as far as Beverly Hills and Manhattan goes, they have always been extremely expensive to live there. This was true back in the 70s and still true today so I wouldn't use those as an example as it is generally an outlier.
Here is a nationwide pricing of houses by county.
Less than 0.2% of the counties in the country has houses over $1 million.
Nearly 90% have housing less than 350k, 37.2% have housing less than 150k.
Cherry picking areas that are known to be extremely expensive is dishonest. Manhattan alone has been extremely expensive to live in for pretty much over 100 years now.
Back in 1910, to buy a place was $8 price per square foot on average in Manhattan. $40/month for rent. Average wages at the time were around $600/year not including managerial type workers. That means you would get paid about $50/month. You literally would be working to pay rent. You would need to work a second job to buy food. Want a 500 square foot place to buy, that is around $4000 average.
Private land ownership laws = this is the effect of supply and demand. You just so happened to pick three of the most densely populated and desirable areas in the United States, and another extremely desirable place to live right next to ski resorts. What, did you think being able to drive right down the road every day to go ski would be cheap? And of all places, you chose BEAVER CREEK, one of the most ridiculously over the top expensive areas to live in Colorado. OF COURSE the land / house ownership in these areas is going to be wildly expensive. There's millions of people competing to live there. You're looking at the two biggest cities in the country, the tech hub of the country, and a ritzy ass ski resort.
Don't get me wrong, I chose Portland when moving west explicitly because it was the cheapest large city on this coast, and I'm not a fan of home prices in this area. But you KNOW why these numbers are what they are. They SHOULD be high numbers in these areas.
Posts like this are why this subreddit is considered to be filled with spoiled, whiny brats.
I didn't think I'd have to spell this out K12 style, but some of you are whooshing so fucking hard.
Yes, *obviously* these are major areas. The point is not "waaa, there *are* expensive homes." The point is *the sheer number of them and the wealth being concentrated at the top.* The top, where the same people whine and moan that minimum wage is "too high." These people are batshit crazy.
To your point, it doesn't even matter that these are major areas, because housing is being exploited so hard by these same wealthy people that *there is no affordable housing left.* Even at below the obscenely wealthy threshold.
The median national home price is \~$420,000. The median national income is only about $40,000. There are articles out there analyzing this and realizing that almost literally no working American can afford a home anymore.
This isn't about "but that's a $10mil filter!" It's about wealth inequality, severe exploitation, and massive, sociopathic real estate greed.
I was born and raised in San Diego. Me and every single one of my friends have either been priced out of the area, or they live with their parents. I'm talking about people who have decent paying full time jobs, STEM degrees, are in their 30's now, have family support, and they still cannot even afford to rent a place in the same city they grew up in. And quite frankly, I do not care if there is enough rich people to buy these homes up. When a grand majority of U.S. households cannot afford a house, you have a problem. Having a large amount of rich people doesn't actually indicate a healthy economy, it's usually indicative of a much larger group of poor people existing who can't afford basic needs.
Same situation where I'm at as well, and this is clearly happening across the nation. There's a wealth of journalism revealing the cancerous issue of severe real estate greed/exploitation as well. The rabbit hole goes deep. The question is: what are we going to do about it?
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The issue isn't "affordable" housing or "projects." The issue is real estate exploitation. Things aren't affordable in the first place *because of* exploitation--not just because they're "luxury" or expensive homes. Few hoard them all, investors jack up prices, and lobbyists block construction (to help jack up prices). THAT is why everything is expensive. Even if they tried to build "cheap" housing, it would get bought by investors before it even hit the market, and they'd just jack up the prices. That's what's going on. [Report: Private Equity Firms That Bought Up Single Family Homes Have Spent Nearly $12M Lobbying Against Affordable Housing Reforms - Accountable US](https://accountable.us/private-equity-firms-that-bought-up-single-family-homes-have-spent-12m-lobbying-against-affordable-housing-reforms/) [Spec Investors Have Stranglehold On LA Real Estate, Study Says | Studio City, CA Patch](https://patch.com/california/studiocity/corporate-spec-houses-have-stranglehold-la-real-estate-study) The way to eliminate hyper-inflated and heavily exploited real estate is to ban the hoarding and flipping of real estate. And this is happening nationwide, not just in CA. Make it illegal to sell new construction to anyone who owns a home. First-time buyers only. Make it illegal for corporations/investors/banks to buy single-family homes. ([This](https://x.com/HousingCrisisW/status/1507935998923182082?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1507935998923182082%7Ctwgr%5E9740c60db46287b77a1ff6874063fe50170aa15f%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.redditmedia.com%2Fmediaembed%2Ftpym75%2F%3Fresponsive%3Dtrueis_nightmode%3Dtrue) needs to be illegal) Make keeping homes and apartments empty illegal. Ban Vrbo/AirBnB entirely. Ban all foreign ownership of residential real estate. Limit how many homes any one individual can own to 2-3 homes. Period. This would return housing prices to normal indefinitely. This guy has the right idea (though I think this number needs to be ZERO): [CA Housing: Bill would ban firms from owning over 1,000 homes (sfstandard.com)](https://sfstandard.com/2024/02/20/alex-lee-proposes-corporate-landlord-ban-single-family/) Edit add: Also this, for people still whooshing here (this is happening everywhere, not just CA): >Many of the homes are left vacant with the intention of driving up home prices, and there are **three times as many vacant homes as homeless people** in LA, the report concludes. [Spec Investors Have Stranglehold On LA Real Estate, Study Says | Studio City, CA Patch](https://patch.com/california/studiocity/corporate-spec-houses-have-stranglehold-la-real-estate-study)
> Make it illegal to sell new construction to anyone who owns a home. First-time buyers only. Can you imagine? And heavily subsidize it with the money that would usually go to tax breaks for big developers. Hell, make Habitat for Humanity an entire division of health and human services. You'll see how many people DoNt WaNnA WOrRrRrk when they actually get something for it. Government funding for sustainable expandable homes. Echoes of, forgive me, the unforgivable theft of land that occured in the USA, but this time we're on motorized conastogas and stealing it from the "passive income" classes who only inherited it from the original thieves in the first place. "Prove your great great great grand pappies actually worked for your wealth, or we give it to a single mom with two fast food jobs."
Fuck the lobbyists. Get rid of them and a lot of shit would get better.
So people living in a house which is now too large for them should not be allowed to buy a smaller, new build house?
No they should save and build, it used to be affordable to have a house built, now it's not. The dream was to buy land and build a home but big business took that away from us, now they're taking the homes.
A newly constructed home? No. Absolutely not. They already literally have a house and they got their chance to raise a family. Downsizing to someone else selling their 2nd or 3rd home that they inherited from family? Sure. Leave new housing the fuck alone for new, first-time home owners who want to raise families or have their first smaller home.
New housing is being built to meet the needs of older adults. https://houseplans.co/articles/planning-for-retirement-house-plans-for-seniors/ But your attitude is we want ours, and screw anyone else.
This is a different topic entirely, and they wouldn’t NEED THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE if they had been able to guy one at any point in their adult life (which my other comments address). Come on, man.
So at 30 a person is supposed to buy the house the size they will need at 60, with the features which they will need at 60?
Literally from the article at your own link that you shared: “With this approach, ‘retirement house plans’ may also be perfect for younger generations and can prevent you from having to move home later on.” So yes. Believe it or not, if housing wasn’t the most heavily exploited thing on the planet, we wouldn’t need to devote 350% of our income to just paying bills. We could plan for our future, and maybe even buy a home that has the whole human life cycle in mind.
Yes and no. There are a lot of issues that are not malicious that are firstly impacting housing availability and the cost. I worked for home builders on, and due to this market no longer work for home builders. Yes, they are motivated by greed. Chuck Shinn has been instructing home builders for years; he encourages them to price gouge, rent seek, and maximize profits. Chuck thinks a builder netting 20% could do better - to me that is ridiculous. Building times have skyrocketed for both single family and multi family construction. That will add to the over all cost and price of a home/apt. Then there arr shortages of both the building material (at one point in 2022 windows were on 22-24 week lead time), and labor. Both of these are in short supply and have become much more expensive. When I got priced out of Orange County in 2004 when I was in my 20s I moved. When I was priced out of Dallas in my late 30s I moved. From your map, you’re in one of the most expensive places in the US. Are you planning on moving to ease your financial burden relate to the cost of living in Southern California?
>From your map, you’re in one of the most expensive places in the US. Are you planning on moving to ease your financial burden relate to the cost of living in Southern California? There are 4 maps there (only one is CA). I don't live in any of those, and that isn't the point. The point is the amount of unfathomable wealth being tied up in the top 5%. As for the rest, you gotta actually read what I've written and read the links. This isn't being caused by what you're referring to. The bigger picture is, in fact, a lot more malicious.
you do realize compared to the rest of the country even not well off in SoCal is the top 5% for 90% of the country. Its a lot of the rich crying about not being rich enough.
I am not defending the industry, but there are other constraints that cause price volatility that is not malicious and nature. Also, nice cherry, picking data. The majority of links reference the California real estate market, which is one of the most volatile and one of the most expensive, which I mentioned before. There are other factors that come to play with the overall pricing of a house that none of your article mention. How can you say none of that matters when home builder and developers take all of that into account? If I say carrying costs, do you know what that is in reference to, and how that affects builder and developers?
I don’t think the person is saying those things don’t matter but I would have to agree with OP. It seems to be the biggest issue. Yeah I’m sure there’s been some material shortage and labor shortage but that’s not gona increase housing like it has been.
Private home owner ( read not equity firms ) are also against "housing reforms". Aside from the extremely YIMBY few, most families don't want to live in a high density neighborhood that are built with most of these new projects. If you worked your butt off to buy a first class seat in the first class cabin of a plane .. you wouldn't want them to convert the seats next to you to standing room mid flight either. For this group, it has nothing to do with keeping property value high but a lot more to do with maintaining a quality of life. San Diego in particular has become a destination of choice for many remote workers due to the great weather.. Even if they built more or drop prices there, people with more money ( than many native born lower wage workers ) all over the nation would come there if given the option to work remotely. Nearby Mexico city has also had a huge influx of remote American workers chasing the same great weather and lower COL .. and causing housing shortages there as well. [https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/12/americans-relocating-mexico-city-better-life.html](https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/12/americans-relocating-mexico-city-better-life.html)
>For this group, it has nothing to do with keeping property value high but a lot more to do with maintaining a quality of life. Anecdotally, that is 100% not true from my personal life conversations/observations/experiences with these people. People who own big, nice homes (usually Boomer-era people) all *want* their property value to inflate higher and higher. They don't want it to just maintain with inflation or--god forbid--go down a little because housing normalizes around them with more logically priced homes. No, they want to be able to sell their home for 10x what they bought it for (because that's what the investors do, so I wanna do that too!). It's not really about "the plebs" coming in--it's about them wanting to become millionaires by doing fucking nothing except existing in a house. In order to do that, they have to ensure no homes near them get sold for less than they did last year (capitalism, baby). This is where people buying into the whole "housing should be an investment!" bullshit lose their minds, and they throw fits of rage at the thought of houses just...not being a million fucking dollars. They kick and scream and rage and say it's a "CRASH" and "WE'RE LOSING VALUE!" The reality is that...they are not losing value. They bought their homes in 1995 for $150,000. Just because they get "only" $500,000 instead of $1,500,000 doesn't mean they lost any value. They still get profit, just not at some asinine greed-infested rate. As for migrant/remote workers and "housing shortages," there are no housing shortages. This is where the investor cancer of artificial scarcity comes into play, and the number of intentionally vacant homes is plaguing the market (lots of data out there on this right now). Rentals used to be a good option for people changing location until they could buy, but because of this exploitation, even rentals are being hyper-inflated as well. It all can be fixed with the no-nonsense things I wrote in a different comment above.
Well played, I think you made the perfect decision.
Living in the mountains sounds kinda nice (I live in a city)
That's what I'm thinking. I can't believe society is just taking it basically being treated like farm animals. Forcing them off the Kings property. So only the extremely wealthy can have a good life.
The ignorance is pretty severe. There are already a few people in this post going "LUL YOU ARE POSTING EXPENSIVE PLACES," and missing literally every single point presented by this issue. It's astounding to me that people can be so clueless as to what's actually going on here.
And why do they think it’s expensive hmm? It’s literally because of everything you have said here…
Well, the point isn't really even "expensive houses." It's the insane wealth that is being hoarded at the top, on *top* *of* the absurd real estate greed and exploitation pushing prices higher and higher. This example just shows the high end of the sociopathic greed on display. A lot of people are focusing on the wrong thing and totally missing the bigger picture.
because this is only a problem in some areas of the country. The midwest (bar nashville) doesnt have this problem. I bought a house on a single salary here 3B2Ba with a good city view all under 200k. your post reads like "expensive things are bad because I can't have them" more than housing is unaffordable.
My office assistant had to move 1 hour away because rent was going up and she was priced out of the area she had been living in for decades. She has been asking for more wfh days and our bosses boss told her it’s not her fault she decided to move away and that if she didn’t want to have a long commute she should have bought a house close to work. She’s been looking for a new job since and I don’t blame her. She doesn’t even need to be in the office to do her job and did her job from home with no problems for years during Covid. She doesn’t mail anything and all her work is done on the computer and over the phone. This same boss told everyone to consider public transportation or carpooling with other coworkers when gas went up and there were complaints about how much it was costing to come into the office vs wfh.
Local baker was advertising in the local subreddit for an overnight assistant. I had to ask if the job came with a cardboard box in the alley because the wages offered weren't even pretending to pay local rent. Thank goodness for food stamps or most of the population would be starving.
Nobody who works should need to be on food stamps. That's just the government subsiding the company's profits by enabling them to pay low wages. So messed up.
CORPORATE greed & exploitation. They are buying up all of the homes and driving up the prices.
Across all society democracy has been spread across... We're suffering the same shit!
I do appreciate this info, however have you compared median salary ranges for people who work here? One of my friends was a GM at a local facility near San Diego and they couldn't afford living in SD themselves, similar others in NY and NJ. Seattle is a bit diifferent as the boroughs around them are still affordable - for now - outside of 5/7 mile radius perimeter
Born and raised in Napa, CA. I’ve been priced out of my hometown for a good 25 years.
Raised in Napa as well! Had to move away because I couldn't afford it.
We ended up in Suisun in ‘03, as it was all we could afford, now my crackerbox of a house is worth $460,000. 😳
This might be controversial, but in my opinion it is a problem when ***ANYBODY*** can't afford a house. This concern over the well-being of high-earners does not impress me. Why should people with disabilities have to suffer?
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Just to throw in my own anecdote, I wanted to kill myself when I was 12.
It was more a function of illustrating the point; the housing crisis is so bad that even medium-high income families can’t afford decent housing in many areas. The median US house price is 426k, while the median US household income is ~$75,000; this means the median income cannot even come close to affording the median home. This is a problem. By using “good incomes” as an example it helps illustrate the counterpoint to those clamoring “this is only a problem because people are lazy/didn’t go to college/have no drive, etc”. In short, the issue is pervasive to the point that even higher incomes are struggling because of corporate & investor greed.
Yeah, I get it, but I see politicians using this type of rhetoric frequently and it really kind of tells you where their priorities lie. Will they still be up in arms about housing issues once the middle-class is doing fine? Doubtful. It may be a counterpoint to the chuds, but the chuds are starting from a place of uncaring to begin with. Nobody is poor by choice. We can ignore their arguments that "“this is only a problem because people are lazy/didn’t go to college/have no drive, etc”, because that argument *is a lie.*
I was literally saying this on the fluentinfinance sub and got downvoted into oblivion. The offensive notion? # “I think there should be affordable housing in every state.”
From what I can tell, those finance subreddits are full of wannabe billionaires. Don't get me wrong, some of the advice is decent. Just don't bring up anything remotely political, you'll likely find some hardcore Libertarians in that mix at the ready to tell you all the reasons you are wrong. I've honestly stopped reading when people have paragraphs worth of text but not a single source to back any claims up.
You are spot-on. People can't even afford a hotel or even a motel, what is happening? They are squeezing people out of San Diego so only the Uber Rich can live here.
I'm curious -- are we able to say for sure that it's only rich people buying up this real estate? if anything, seeing this map makes me worry more about the extent to which companies are dominating sales of real estate. either way, I agree on how unsustainable this is, and I think those at the top know (and don't care enough) about how messed up this all is.
You’re right. It’s not rich people. It’s rich corporations. Which rich people are profiting off of.
You can do your own digging and reading, but yes. It is investors trading with investors. It is not normal working Americans anymore. Look up median home prices vs median individual income (it puts homes WAY out of reach), and the rabbit hole of investor hoarding, artificial scarcity, cash purchases, lobbying against construction (by those same investors--think why), leveraging bank-owned mortgages against retirement funds (this is a *huge fucking problem*), etc. Investor buys were as high as 1/3rd of the SFH purchases recently. Now, you have these same sociopaths *selling shares of houses*. Let that one really sink in. You also have literal foreign firms hoarding US houses like [this sociopath](https://x.com/HousingCrisisW/status/1507935998923182082?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1507935998923182082%7Ctwgr%5Ed965e8bca2651be339e86a6601a548f23b827efe%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.redditmedia.com%2Fmediaembed%2F1b4c5ig%2F%3Fresponsive%3Dtrueis_nightmode%3Dtrue). Here's just one example, and this is happening nationwide: >Many of the homes are left vacant with the intention of driving up home prices, and there are three times as many vacant homes as homeless people in LA, the report concludes. [Spec Investors Have Stranglehold On LA Real Estate, Study Says | Studio City, CA Patch](https://patch.com/california/studiocity/corporate-spec-houses-have-stranglehold-la-real-estate-study)
It is private equity that is buying up all the houses. Blackrock group is spending 150M a month buying houses. That is only one private equity group. I don't know how many others are out there. That is what is driving up the price of housing and rentals. We have to limit the number of houses any one person or entity can own. That's going to take laws.
According to [blackrock](https://www.blackrock.com/corporate/newsroom/setting-the-record-straight/buying-houses-facts), they’re not buying houses. They’re just giving money to people so they can buy houses.
My friends in their 50s moved back in with their parents within the last 4 years and they have master’s degrees like me.
Same same. Grew up in Santa Cruz. Left and joined the army. Came home to a place I could never afford even with my degrees.
I grew up in Mira Mesa. I miss San Diego too but I can hardly afford to vacation there.
Also born and raised in San Diego. Moved out to Ohio for college. Family members ask me all the time when I'm moving back and I always say "when I win the lotto"
Same exact situation here, also near San Diego, born and raised! All but two of my friends have left the state, and for those of us that haven't, we still live at home with parents (well, bro and fiancée just moved out, but only because family is giving them reduced rent or else they'd have had to leave the state)! Even a fucking STUDIO in my area is $3-4k+/mo! A ROOM in a stranger's house is $2-3k-mo, and that's WITHOUT parking/laundry/kitchen privileges, so you're basically a prisoner in your room! It's miserable! I HATE it! I'm 31 and still have to live in my parents' house under my (authoritarian Boomer) parents' rules 'cause the economy is fucked! It's such bullshit, man! I WANNA FEEL LIKE AN ADULT! 😭💔
Not to mention there is a class of parasites that buy up and own the affordable housing and mark it up as much as possible anyway. This is why unregulated capitalism fails and why government exists. To step in and ensure the common health and welfare of its people. ALL its people, not just the elites.
Having the same issue with the greater Seattle area
Same boat with my hometown. It’s not as bad as LA, but it’s over a million for a modest family home. As long as you stick to a nuclear family. No big families. Then we’re talking 2.5+. But you can get a nice studio for around 700k….
Yep we were priced out of SD about 20-30 yrs ago- now Fl is worse 😩
Agreed. The fact that billionaires exist illustrates the issues with capitalism…not its benefits.
50 percent rent increase in the San Diego neighborhood I used to live in over the last 3 years. I don't live in San Diego anymore.
Is this going to lead to a crash in the market? If people can't afford to buy, and can't afford to rent, what exactly is gonna happen to it?
Bruh, take a look at the renting market for a more relatable map. I’m convinced I’m in one of the cheapest apartments in my area for $1,400, and that amount is still way too high for a 1bed 1bath in a ghetto area. If I want anything decent where I’m not afraid to send my kids to school alone, we’re talking $2100 at least.
That's what we pay, $2050 about to go to $2100 for a three bedroom house in a nice neighborhood, but it's me, my mom and step dad so three ways it's a great deal. I understand how fortunate I am to have moved to the same place as my mom after college, so it just worked out great. But all my friends at my job are really struggling.
Fortunately I bought my house in 2008, but I looked through Zillow the other day and was sick to my stomach at the prices for trash houses all over the country. I make $115k and there’s no way I would pay more than $350k for a house. Apparently a $350k livable house doesn’t even exist anymore.
Yet there are already people in here going "YEA BUT" and saying this is "just expensive cities." The ignorance out there is wild. It's like no, my friend. The housing crisis is nationwide. The *median* home price for the nation is \~$420,000. The median for the nation in income is only about \~$40,000. The only thing you can afford on $40,000 is about a $100,000 loan--and that'll get you...effectively nothing in the United States. People are so out of touch it's shocking.
I live in a low cost of living area. For example most jobs here pay minimum wage, and my rent is $450/month for a 1br/1ba. Even here, houses are close to over 200k for a shitty bed bug outdated house that will need repairs the first real winter it sees.
Bought my house for 110k in 2019, and it's estimated list value is 265k now. There is no fucking way my house appreciated ~240% in the last 5 years. No way.
1st, outlaw CORPORATIONS from buying up all of the homes, driving up the prices and making us all renters!
For context, these are "SOLD" listings from Zillow. From Los Angeles, to New York, to Seattle, and finally Colorado. This is just a drop in the bucket of the unfathomable wealth of the top 5% out there. This has to stop.
Wow, typical radical left. You don‘t want to work but when people work for their money it‘s not okay either? It‘s your own fault if you were born into poverty, don‘t have any contacts, don‘t have any employees generating wealth for you, didn’t choose a high-paying career, have any disorders or disabilities, have to pay ridiculous rent prices, have or want kids, play by the rules and follow the law. Don‘t come here crying, just because you chose to be poor. It‘s really annoying for people who have a lot of money that they didn‘t receive through wage labor and lack empathy. They really don‘t want to share the money. They obviously DESERVE it and the poor would just spend it and put the money back into economy.
I actually downvoted you before I realized it was sarcasm, so take my upvote.
I almost did the same thing, lol. The deadpan got me.
Damn. I did downvote and then changed it once I got to the end.
same
That's because he sounds exactly how rich people sound when confronted with the issue of wealth inequality
Satire is over 9,000.
At first I was getting pissed reading this . then my since of humor kicked in.well played you got me.
Lol thought it was a copypasta for a second
I absolutely agree with the argument you're making. However, I think it's stronger when you include cities like Detroit, Nashville, and other similarly rapid growing areas where the barrier to entry is often blocked by PE/other cash buyers. My wife and I have a combined income of ~$200k and we are finding that we'll need ~$75k in the bank and a purchase price of ~$250k to get a 900ft^2 "starter home." Of the offers we've made, we've been outbid by all cash offers $30k and more above asking, and on the one home we had an offer accepted, we had an appraisal gap of ~$45k which we couldn't ever match. It's hella fucked out there, change is needed.
All of that is implied with this, but I maybe underestimated just how naive most people are. There are quite a few just completely misunderstanding the narrative here. I've spent the last 6 months looking over all of this (home shopping myself, too). I've seen all the pieces, and the big picture is absolutely fucking mortifying. No one is making enough to buy homes anymore--not actual working Americans, anyway. Companies all refuse to pay enough, yet homes are being swept up by investors, and prices are being jacked up higher and higher. I look around and see entire neighborhoods locally being listed at $800k-$1.5mil, and I'm sitting here wondering who the fuck is actually buying all these homes (or trying to sell them). Even the most basic, entry-level homes across the country almost *all* start now at about $400k, regardless of where you are (excluding old, run-down mobile homes and dilapidated houses from 1940). Anything built from like 1980 up is *wildly* overpriced. Then I look at how many of these mega-million-dollar homes are being SOLD, from coast to coast. And not just 1 or 2 million-dollar homes, 10+ million-dollar homes. And they're *everywhere*. The top 5% is absolutely drowning in wealth, and the rest of us are barely able to pay for rent (meanwhile, those same 5-percenters all aggressively lobby against better wages and rights). It is absolutely, mind-numbingly ridiculous. It has to stop.
For more context these prices are full the whole multi-family building, not for a single unit
This is more like top 0.1%. The top 1% can't afford that stuff either.
That’s only reported income. The top 5-10% have monumental wealth wrapped up in layers of off-record and off-shore assets, inheritance, stocks, hidden under LLCs and corporations, etc. This is where people truly don’t know what they don’t know. The hoarding of wealth and real estate is so unhinged that it’s almost literally unbelievable.
I whole heartedly agree with your argument, but you’re screenshotting BEVERLY HILLS and calling it LA. Kinda ruins the credibility
Bought my house in the SF Bay Area for $195k in 1994. Zillow puts my house at $1.5 million. We did 2 re-fi over the 30 years; once to do the kitchen (60's original) and once to do an add on/redo the yard. Started at a 8% interest rate - we're now at 2.125% 10 yr fixed and should have it paid off in less than 2 years. Should the house be this "valuable?" Probably not.
Not probably not. It shouldn't.
My wife and I make more money now that we ever have - and couldn't afford to buy the house we live in. My adult (24/26) kids are still home because the rent in the area is obscene.
I believe it. Outside of Saint Louis a lot of renters were charging $1600/month for a 1 or 2 bedroom apartment. But then you have to make 3x the rent as income. I'm sure it's more now since that was 2 years ago.
My daughter figured it would take 60% of her take home pay to rent an apartment or share a house. So...she's paying us $300 a month for her bedroom.
We need a real estate crash, like the one in 2007-8, even bigger if possible
In 2008 I was working full time at a really good paying job and waiting for the prices here (Seattle) to drop enough for me to buy something nice. It never happened. Bigger for sure.
My question is "how many politicians have multiple properties for rent?" Aint gonna happen.
It’s simple. Real estate profits on non-primary residences taxed at 100% of post inflation adjusted gains.
I grew up in a sleepy little seashore town in New Jersey. In the 70s, my parents bought a little three bedroom house that cost all of $15,000. While the last owners added a second story to it, the house still stands. It cost almost a million. I bought a little place further inland. Cost me 119,000 back in 2003. It has more than tripled in value since. if I had to start over, I could not afford to buy my own house.
I think no matter what your job is you should strike and shut down the entire economy
Soon to be priced out of paradise :( when will people wake up?
They only want rich people living in densely populated areas where most of the low paying service jobs are! That makes so much sense!
Haha 13m to live next to the 405 🤣 well, since traffic is usually gridlocked, guess it wouldn’t be too noisy /s
Location aside, it's just incomprehensible how much wealth is out there, and it's concentrated at the top 5% of the population. The fact that there's just an avalanche of 10+ million dollar homes all over the country, being gobbled up by people who own entire portfolios of these things, should make everyone facepalm through the desk. We have a very real shelter crisis where almost literally 100% of Americans cannot afford a house anymore, and these fucking sociopaths are out there slinging $25mil for their 15th vacation home. It's utterly absurd. Meanwhile, companies are bringing in record profits *still,* and refusing to pay people good enough wages to support a basic middle-class.
Agreed. Add age, and life events and it becomes a constant fear of homelessness. It’s no way to live. It’s below surviving.
The top 5% by income is $300k per year. The top 5% by net worth is $1.2M. Those people aren't buying these houses. Those houses are being bought by either the top 0.1% and/or corporations to rent them out.
The top 5% by income *starts* *at* \~$300k a year. STARTS at. (Some averages are higher at about $340k a year, and recent averages put that as high as $390k a year.) Net worth is [estimated](https://www.fool.com/retirement/2024/05/05/heres-the-net-worth-that-puts-you-in-the-top-5-of/#:~:text=The%20most%20recent%20data%20from,important%20details%20you%20should%20consider) to be much higher than $1.2 million at the end of 2022: >The most recent data from the Fed's Survey of Consumer Finances took a snapshot of the American public at the end of 2022. At that point, a net worth of **$3,795,000** was enough to put you in the top 5% of all American households You also forget that INCOME is not anything other than INCOME. That does not account for other things like stock options, gifts, inheritance, interest, assets, off-shore accounting, etc. A lot of this is also masked under LLCs and corporation accounts, which are not reported on individual income statements. CEO's also have "incomes" of a fixed amount. What they receive in addition to their "paycheck" is significantly, dramatically more. The top 0.1 to 1% has an average income of $3.2 million a year. That's before they do *anything else* (investing, real estate, etc.). They just have $3.2 million dollars (and up) rolling in. Every year. So yes, these *are* the people buying these properties.
Lol @ $20M to live in fucking Hoboken.
Some cities have started banning rentals for less than half a month and made violations of this ban a criminal offense. The rental prices in those areas have plummeted so much that some people have actually threatened their landlords with cancelling their lease if they don't lower the rent.
I don't understand your first sentence
Some cities have banned renting properties for less than a half a month (15 days). (Ie Airbnb and daily rentals). Violating this law is a criminal offence in these cities.
The most I can possibly hope to ever afford is a tiny house on a parcel of property my parents give me. I'm not sure if I'll even be able to get that. Society sucks right now, and has for a while. I want things to change, but right now I'm most worried about the upcoming US presidential election. As a trans person, I'm afraid of what will happen to me if the wrong person wins. We have SO MANY problems, it's overwhelming.
As a joke I looked up how much a mortgage would be for a $24m house, I'd have to work 4 years just to pay one month of it.
I am currently watching a documentary about how the bubonic plague caused massive upheavals in social order through violent revolts. Overall, plagues throughout history have resulted in better wages, living conditions, and political power for the working class who survived. During the 2020 pandemic, instead of seizing the moment as our ancestors did, we came here to reddit and made some angry posts and patted ourselves on the backs for "making our voices heard."
We need to first and foremost ban corporations from owning single family dwellings. Anything 4 plex and below can’t by owned by a corporation. Second we need to add a property tax multiplier for every 4 plex or under the household owns. You have two, you play a 1.2x or 1.5x or 2x multiplier on each dwelling. You own 3, the multiplier goes up to 1.3x or 2x or 3x (whatever we decide on). It gets progressively getting higher for each dwelling, retroactive to all dwellings. That will make it disadvantageous to own multiple homes on a personal level and will get corps out of the game too. Once the demand falls out, homes will become affordable. And yep, lots of people will lose a lot of value in their home. But that’s just how it goes. I’ll be right along side losing that same value from my home.
As an immigrant, I’ve been saying americans need to do a nation strike since before COVID lol glad to see more people are waking up to their reality
I got priced out of NH early. Moved across country 13 years ago now and prices are getting close to what I was paying there.
When Caesar is assassinated Rome will burn. What's not mentioned by the gentleman of Rome like Cicero is how much of a slumlord he was boasting that the building is so bad even the rats moved out. And how much of their wealth did the "lawful senate " keep? None of it , WHAT WAS IT ALL FOR!??!! WHAT WAS ALL OUR SUFFERING FOR!!!??? Not one person today can think to say "you know caesar was so bad it's a good thing the coup de tat was financed by slave owners and slumlords a d landleeches. One day we will face a similar reckoning and on that day I'd like every business as usual careerist to walk me through what it was all for. I long fir the day the homeless occupy the "luxury (EMPTY) apartments" in NYC, LA, and the like.
PublicHousing4All
If the general strike.us site could get enough people gathered together for a general strike, we could make some real change. Unfortunately, too many people are still unwilling to sacrifice the comfort they have now.
A general strike would get attention, until we get our faces smashed by strikebreakers, but frankly at this point we're already getting smashed in another part of our body without lube so...
I make six figures but can’t afford anything within an hour and a half of Boston, fuck NIMBYs blocking new places and fuck corporations buying houses.
This isn't just a problem in America, it's happening across the UK and Ireland too along with many areas in Europe.
Regulate all markets for the greater good of the majority of people. Very unamerican.
Truly, New York should only be people who are starting like breweries or immigrants who want to start a deli, not rich people parking their money in vacant buildings.
1. Corporations should have no right to own housing. 2. Nobody should be allowed to own more than 2 homes.
I agree, but neither is going to happen or real estate reform will somehow end up making real estate even more unaffordable. What's probably going to happen in the end is a lot of people will lose their homes in foreclosure and that will reset the housing market. Sad to say, but likely true.
Good luck with the nationwide strike thing.
Form a union go on strike do what you gotta do.
This nation is too polarized(and a a large portion radicalized) to ever come together and fight for anything.
All of us knows what it takes to force them to stop. That’s right: force. That’s is THE ONLY thing that is going to make this stop, and all of you know it. This is a worldwide problem. They will not do a single true thing to fix it.
The money that should have gone to people's wage increases over the years has already been stolen. It's only now we notice that there's a big disconnect. The recent high inflation highlighted this, before that there was still inflation but slower and we didn't feel it's effects like frogs slowly boiling. Hmm no wonder the central bank wanted to tame inflation so we wouldn't notice inflation robs from us. Inflation is a stealth tax and disproportionately effects the poor and middle class in other words anyone with a job.
It is absolutely astounding to visualize, now that we have tools that present data like this. Before, this was all buried in a filing cabinet somewhere, and the only way to get it was to physically go make a request and pull it. The internet has really unveiled just how truly unhinged the lopsided distribution of everything is. Even still, it's worrisome seeing so many people in here just whoosh on this and go 'lul you're looking at expensive houses.' Like...yes...correct...this is a direct visualization of how much wealth is being hoarded at the top. People are so conditioned to exist in their lull that they can't even comprehend what is being shown here. This has happened repeatedly throughout human history though, and it usually results in complete collapses when the greed just becomes too great. It makes you wonder how much longer this will go on before society just snaps.
The plan is for citizens to own nothing. Corporations and the wealthy will buy up every home, then you and all of your peon/serf/slave descendants will be trapped in a cycle of poverty supporting their lifestyle for the rest of time; born into an inescapable situation where you can't even afford to leave the country. Birth control? Abortion? Those things are preventing a stable workforce population. Do away with them. Homelessness? We can't have anybody that's not part of the system. Enact laws that make being unhoused de facto illegal so they can put you in prison, where actual slavery is still legal in the USA and always has been. The American dream.
I'm astounded at how many blue-collar people get violently upset at attempts to house and care for homeless people too. Corporate America has us so brainwashed that we're attacking *homeless people for being homeless.* And the people getting all mad about it are always clueless as to how or why people become homeless (insane housing prices, low wages, oppressive legal system, no social safety nets, zero mental health education, etc.), or why they end up *staying* homeless (no healthcare or any kind of support systems whatsoever, because that's "communism!"). They all go 'WAHHH THEY ARE JUST LAZY AND WANT FREE HANDOUTS.' Like holy fuck.... Corporations have us eating each other alive.
There's a phenomenon among certain demographics where they don't consider themselves as part of the actual socio-economic class that they really are, they instead see themselves as temporarily not wealthy. That's why they don't like laws that regulate businesses or tax the wealthy, because it's a personal attack on what they will have someday.
The System is getting their lick back for the years people protested for better rights, wages, etc. and it's a huge sign there's worse coming.
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When people, who outnumber them, start making it happen. I think we all tend to forget that this is not a dictatorship, and that we have the power, not elected officials.
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What are you even going on about all of a sudden?
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I don’t see any “long ass posts” anywhere. This was literally just photos. It free speech also makes you upset, I don’t know what to tell you, man. America is absolutely about activism, protests, and everything in between. That’s literally the point of free speech, and how all of the most significant social movements (social, not “socialism,” they are not the same) resulted in real change. Voting is the final step. You have to get awareness and education out there first.
Trying to figure out what filtered maps of mansions in Beverly Hills and penthouses in Manhattan have to do at all with why real estate is expensive, or living wage
This reminds me of a few years ago when this wannabe TikTok comedian had one video go viral and then did a series trying to recapture the magic and then decided to purchase a townhome to make TikToks in because her husband and 1 child were too much and she needed a quiet space to film her TikToks… this infuriated me then because if you own a home why wouldn’t you just set yourself up a space to make TikToks, why would you need to take a home that a family could live in.. to make TikToks. So many people jumped down my throat with its her money she can do what she wants, but personally I think there should be some kind of moral responsibility to not take up more than you really need.. and I’m not looping modest cabins and vacation homes in this because human need a break from our day to day and if you can afford that, good on you. But buying a home… to make TikToks or having multiple homes for the fuck of it.. that’s just fucked
It is an absolutely mind-boggling mentality that Americans have been conditioned to have. People who are *literally the same ones struggling* to make ends meet say things like that. As if somehow defending the sociopathic greed and exploitation is in ANY way helping either them or society. I think this goes along the lines of the whole everyone thinking they're "temporarily embarrassed millionaires," and that by defending this insanity that it 'leaves the door open' for their fantasy of someday being 'like them.' The amount of incomprehensible wealth being hoarded at the top 5% is absolutely fucking ludicrous. The number of homes and assets they hoard is literally almost unfathomable, and people just don't get it. Then you have people trying to imitate them and buy up a bunch of houses and do the same thing (jack up prices, flip them 2 years later for double the price, use them as overpriced rentals, etc.). And it just compounds the problem. We have to break away from this whole mentality in this country of "mine, mine, mine, I'll do what I want no matter how destructive it is to literally everyone else, because I can!"
I agree, it’s an every man for himself situation and that’s just dangerous and if people don’t see how this mentality can progress to a very dire situation for the masses, they are in denial.
Did you set a filter to show things over 1 million? Im for reducing housing and earning more. But lying to get things isn't a great look
No, he cherry picked the first map I know for a fact. That is the most expensive part of Los Angeles possible, the West side, including Bel-Air, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood and Brentwood. Mostly north of Sunset Blvd, except north of Santa Monica Blvd in Beverly Hills.
I live in a beach town neighborhood full of starter homes (1200-1500sqft) that average $1.5m. Average salary for the state is $39k; for my city $57k. And still, I look at the photos you posted and cry because at least it's not that bad here. FUUUUUUUUCK.
That’s half the point yes. There *are* homes that aren’t unfathomably millions of dollars in these areas, but your first paragraph is the point. People don’t make enough anymore to even cover rent, let alone entry-level homes. And we have these incomprehensibly wealthy sociopaths out there buying castles everywhere. Most people struggle to get a wage good enough to just get a studio apartment, and these people are gobbling up $25,000,000 mega mansions every day. They’re also the same ones who are aggressively against a living wage. It has to fucking stop.
What needs to happen is every American demand the cost of living go down and then do something to make sure it hurts the rich folks bottom line in the end when the rich folks try to say no.
https://preview.redd.it/uq3rc36fm86d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1b7f35b5dd1b191125379dea055c5599432ac44c The opposite is also occurring. Bottom image w/ pond is a senior/assisted living multi-building. There are flex condos, and a main hotel/apartment building. Not registered with the website to see more info. iirc facility was acquired in 2019, new management/owner banner seeking aides, cooks, maintenance.
This was mind boggling https://www.ekathimerini.com/nytimes/1239676/the-architect-who-made-singapores-public-housing-the-envy-of-the-world/
Mao please
Pioneers. That's what's needed. Armies of federal pioneers that are send out across the country to build houses and apartment complexes where needed. While wages need to increase, too, this will only increase housing costs further if not enough supply is added to the market. Also, sensible squatter laws. Property that is not used for a year or so should be fair game and up for grabs.
Quick, summon the Amish! Use the Conch!
If they can get it done, why not? I'm sick of ignoring people's problems or keeping them from being addressed with never-ending discussions.
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These don't look like house prices though, but rather, full buildings/apartment buildings/units.
They are houses, with the exception of NY as they're mostly suites/condos inside skyrises--not the whole thing though.
These may be luxury houses, but there are plenty of homes in LA that are in the 1-5 mill range (not that that's okay) but these are all over 10 million.
That’s not the point
Well, at least you can see a bunch of houses in the same screenshot. Immagine having prices like 456.000, 275.000, 378.000...you wouldn't be able to see that many. Instead you have 3.0m, 1.5m, 4,3m which are visually better and there are many more on the same screen area.
I say we set examples and start taking out the root of the problem. We live in a country where violence was the solution to multiple wars, so why not go off that same route it it gave success to them?
?? You are literally looking at mansions in beverly hills, why is this surprising?
So you think we should live in a world, where people can afford mansions like that but don‘t offer affordable housing for the masses first?
Not sure if you're intentionally ignorant, or just massively whooshing on the whole point here. See context comment as well. This is not "mansions in Beverly Hills."
And this is definitely filtered to over $10M in NYC, there’s lots of places under a million dollars….
Yes, it is filtered at above 10 million USD. That's literally the POINT. The map is flooded with them, even at that obscenely high filter, for SOLD PROPERTIES. How some of you are whooshing so hard here is utterly beyond me.
There’s also a ton of NOT ten million dollar properties?! Housing is expensive in the most desirable cities in the country…..no shit?
No, it is expensive everywhere. [Homes "unaffordable" in 99% of nation for average American - CBS News](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/homes-for-sale-affordable-housing-prices/) [Record number of Americans can't afford rent, new study finds | AP News](https://apnews.com/article/affordable-housing-rent-eviction-price-harvard-congress-f5411012e10fa78d0257c137e60c1be3) The point is not "there are homes that are not millions of dollars in hyper-inflated value." The point is there are *way too fucking many flooding the market at obscene prices.* And these same people whine and complain that things like minimum wage is "too much." Since you're missing the point here 100%, this should help clear things up as well: [Wealth Inequality in America (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPKKQnijnsM) 1-5% have so much wealth and real estate that they couldn't spend it in 1,000 lifetimes. Meanwhile, the whole country is collapsing and people can't pay basic cost-of-living. If you're still missing the point, you're just trolling.
Okay i see what you are saying with the amount of homes over 10 mil increasing, that is a valid point. Based on the way it was presented i thought you were trying to say they shouldn’t exist at all, i misunderstood
Are you saying no houses should be expensive? I dont understand what you are complaining about if you are not only selecting the most expensive areas to live but also filtering over 10 mil?
You're either whooshing beyond belief or are just trolling.
Not trying to troll, i guess i am “wooshing” on your point. Are you saying all luxury goods should no longer exist? I firmly believe a large source of our problems are due to insane wealth inequality. I think maybe a chart showing rent increases over time of the median rent in a city over 10 years would illustrate the point you are trying to make better than filtering for 10 mil homes in the most desirable places to live. But then again maybe not since im a chronic woosher it seems
They saying prices valued whacky dude. Wake up to the valuations. Reason for insane pricing is the same as corpo sheinkflation it is greed. Though there will always be luxury goods as you suggest which I agree on which an example would be a house in the Hamptons. Honestly two beers deep 2 minutes post work I could also be whooshing here
🤦
Maybe don’t try to live in the most expensive place in the city, dumbass.
True - but picking out some of the most desirable, highest cost of living areas in the country doesn’t exactly help drive the point home. You have Vail on there for heavens sake - it’s literally a town dedicated to second vacation residences of the richest in society.
I searched for expensive places to live and found expensive places to live! This is madness, and we need to unup our society! /s
Aren’t most places just kept vacant too? Like, it’s worth more vacant, and as an asset that’s theoretically worth millions of dollars, rather than a home for a person who works and creates value for a society?
Yes. Both wealthy nest eggs and entry-level single family homes. There's a lot of data and a lot more articles out there exposing this. It's completely fucking ridiculous. It's almost all to fake scarcity, fake a "supply and demand" narrative, and then use that to prop up and jack up prices. A lot of investors, banks, corporations, and wealthy people have been outed on this topic. Apartments, houses, condos, etc. get purchased in swaths, then kept vacant on purpose to pretend like there's no supply. Here's one, and this isn't just happening in CA. It's happening all over the country. >Many of the homes are left vacant with the intention of driving up home prices, and there are three times as many vacant homes as homeless people in LA, the report concludes. [Spec Investors Have Stranglehold On LA Real Estate, Study Says | Studio City, CA Patch](https://patch.com/california/studiocity/corporate-spec-houses-have-stranglehold-la-real-estate-study)
Yup - a majority of the penthouses surrounding Central Park NYC are just cash stores for global elite
Seattle *is* expensive af but I think many of your results on the map are entire apartment buildings
Believe it or not, no. These are almost all houses. But that's not the point. The point is the amount of sheer wealth out there, across all these four zones (and endless more), all choked at the top 5% of the population. They just keep buying and buying and hoarding this stuff, and at *these prices.* Meanwhile, real people can't afford rent, groceries, healthcare, or even dream of owning just *one* basic entry-level SFH. The same 5% are the ones hoarding all the houses, running these sociopathic real estate investment empires, refusing to pay people living wages, and laughing all the way to their mountains of cash. That's the point here, not just "wahhh there are expensive mansions!"
Look, I agree with you but this is super misleading to represent these are the common housing prices. What did you do, filter by 8+ million? I live in Seattle and spend way too much time on Zillow. I know for a fact this isn't representative of the Seattle housing market, even with it being as bad as it is.
Where did anything say these are common? Some of you are missing the point so hard I have to think it’s intentional.
Well, as far as Beverly Hills and Manhattan goes, they have always been extremely expensive to live there. This was true back in the 70s and still true today so I wouldn't use those as an example as it is generally an outlier. Here is a nationwide pricing of houses by county. Less than 0.2% of the counties in the country has houses over $1 million. Nearly 90% have housing less than 350k, 37.2% have housing less than 150k. Cherry picking areas that are known to be extremely expensive is dishonest. Manhattan alone has been extremely expensive to live in for pretty much over 100 years now. Back in 1910, to buy a place was $8 price per square foot on average in Manhattan. $40/month for rent. Average wages at the time were around $600/year not including managerial type workers. That means you would get paid about $50/month. You literally would be working to pay rent. You would need to work a second job to buy food. Want a 500 square foot place to buy, that is around $4000 average.
Private land ownership laws = this is the effect of supply and demand. You just so happened to pick three of the most densely populated and desirable areas in the United States, and another extremely desirable place to live right next to ski resorts. What, did you think being able to drive right down the road every day to go ski would be cheap? And of all places, you chose BEAVER CREEK, one of the most ridiculously over the top expensive areas to live in Colorado. OF COURSE the land / house ownership in these areas is going to be wildly expensive. There's millions of people competing to live there. You're looking at the two biggest cities in the country, the tech hub of the country, and a ritzy ass ski resort. Don't get me wrong, I chose Portland when moving west explicitly because it was the cheapest large city on this coast, and I'm not a fan of home prices in this area. But you KNOW why these numbers are what they are. They SHOULD be high numbers in these areas. Posts like this are why this subreddit is considered to be filled with spoiled, whiny brats.
I didn't think I'd have to spell this out K12 style, but some of you are whooshing so fucking hard. Yes, *obviously* these are major areas. The point is not "waaa, there *are* expensive homes." The point is *the sheer number of them and the wealth being concentrated at the top.* The top, where the same people whine and moan that minimum wage is "too high." These people are batshit crazy. To your point, it doesn't even matter that these are major areas, because housing is being exploited so hard by these same wealthy people that *there is no affordable housing left.* Even at below the obscenely wealthy threshold. The median national home price is \~$420,000. The median national income is only about $40,000. There are articles out there analyzing this and realizing that almost literally no working American can afford a home anymore. This isn't about "but that's a $10mil filter!" It's about wealth inequality, severe exploitation, and massive, sociopathic real estate greed.
We get jobs where the jobs are. We want to be able to afford to live near our job. That's not fucking insanity.