Sat May 14, 2016, 04:34 PM

Baobab (4,667 posts)

Poll: If you had to, could you successfully re-rent or re-buy your current home at market rate?

Thank you, basically that is the question.

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Some context- my theory is that Americans are actually much poorer than we think we are and that this poverty is concealed because many people are paying below market rate for their current housing, but if they had to move they could not afford to.

That is a time bomb waiting to happen, if for example, energy prices went up a lot due to natural gas export (projected as part of a pending trade deal) and cities lost their "rent stabilization" regulations. (It is hard to see how affordable housing could be preserved in cities if the cost of energy jumps up a lot, suddenly)

Housing is a scarce resource and many right wingers feel that the existing populations of cities are preventing their economic development and basically want them to move elsewhere so that new tenants can live there at market rate. For a ong time rent stabilization regulations have been a target of their anger, because they tie rent of a specific apartment to the CPI plus some small amount, for a specific tenant. However, that affordable apartment is limited to that specific apartment. This arrangement is a vastly inadequate substitute for public housing which was basically outlawed in 1994 in countries that signed on to GATS.

A series of bad Supreme Court decisions (for example, Kelo v. City of New London - 2006,) now allows condemnations under eminent domain to allow real estate development for profit. However, neighborhoods have to be designated as blighted first. A sudden spike in the cost of natural gas might be argued to cause older buildings (which one never sees in the rest of the world where energy prices are much higher) to be designated as blighted (and presumably replaced by market rate condo housing with some small portion set aside for 'low income' displaced property owners, (other provisions might be set up for property owners who are disabled).

The outcome of the election will probably decide if that is done.

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15 replies	Author	Time	Post
Poll: If you had to, could you successfully re-rent or re-buy your current home at market rate? (Original post)	Baobab	May 2016	OP
No. But I've been in this house (well, not when I was living in other countries, but	MADem	May 2016	#1
Yes we could	liberal N proud	May 2016	#2
Yes	Major Nikon	May 2016	#3
I could	dumbcat	May 2016	#4
No. Our house has more than doubled in value.	Arugula Latte	May 2016	#5
This message was self-deleted by its author	NRaleighLiberal	May 2016	#6
It would be tough	FLPanhandle	May 2016	#7
Depends on the area and market of course	madville	May 2016	#8
Hell no. Our area is notorious for high cost of housing whether you rent or buy....	Hekate	May 2016	#9
I live in Seattle	FuzzyRabbit	May 2016	#10
Yep, same here	AgingAmerican	May 2016	#11
One really crazy new development in some areas is people moving here from other countries	Baobab	May 2016	#12
Go to Detroit	1939	May 2016	#13
Those are exactly the kinds of buildings that could end up costing twice as much or more to heat	Baobab	May 2016	#15
Nope!	PasadenaTrudy	May 2016	#14

Response to Baobab (Original post)

Sat May 14, 2016, 04:40 PM

MADem (135,425 posts)

1. No. But I've been in this house (well, not when I was living in other countries, but

this has been my "home of record address"

for over a half century.

A half century or more ago, houses weren't priced so crazily.

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Response to Baobab (Original post)

Sat May 14, 2016, 04:44 PM

liberal N proud (59,799 posts)

2. Yes we could

We are currently evaluating our prospects in anticipation of a possible relocation in the near future.

What can we get for our current home, what can we afford where we might be moving.

We purchased this home in 2000 and did not let the realtor, bank or anyone else tell us what we could afford and because of that we rode through the housing crisis unscathed.

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Response to Baobab (Original post)

Sat May 14, 2016, 04:46 PM

Major Nikon (36,336 posts)

3. Yes

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Response to Baobab (Original post)

Sat May 14, 2016, 04:51 PM

dumbcat (2,103 posts)

4. I could

I'm even thinking about buying another house in my neighborhood for my son. Housing prices are very reasonable here

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Response to Baobab (Original post)

Sat May 14, 2016, 04:57 PM

Arugula Latte (50,566 posts)

5. No. Our house has more than doubled in value.

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Response to Arugula Latte (Reply #5)

NRaleighLiberal This message was self-deleted by its author.

Response to Baobab (Original post)

Sat May 14, 2016, 05:01 PM

FLPanhandle (7,107 posts)

7. It would be tough

Waterfront homes in Florida have exploded in value, plus add in over a decade of projects/improvements around the property that I built myself.

I could but it would be on the upper end of what I would want to spend.

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Response to Baobab (Original post)

Sat May 14, 2016, 05:02 PM

madville (7,184 posts)

8. Depends on the area and market of course

I paid $90,000 for my 1100 sq ft house on one acre of land 10 years ago. My property taxes are $700 a year and homeowners insurance is $550. Right now I could sell it for about $90,000.

5 acres of land around here is currently going for about $15,000-25,000 or $3,000-5,000 an acre. I could probably build a new house the same size as mine for about $80,000.

Our "for sale" market around here is saturated, lots of houses and land for sale at good prices. Rentals are less abundant but a decent house is $600-900 a month.

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Response to Baobab (Original post)

Sat May 14, 2016, 05:03 PM

Hekate (84,038 posts)

9. Hell no. Our area is notorious for high cost of housing whether you rent or buy....

We bought our home over 30 years ago, and it was a challenge then. It would be impossible now.

We helped our son buy a fixer upper several years ago, and he and his wife have room mates. Our daughter rents, and she has room mates. It's a way of life.

Edited to add: The little house our son bought was almost falling down and still cost $500,000.

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Response to Baobab (Original post)

Sat May 14, 2016, 05:10 PM

FuzzyRabbit (1,846 posts)

10. I live in Seattle

and my house has nearly quadrupled in value since I bought it 20 years ago. When I moved here this was a low rent neighborhood, now a $500,000 fixer-upper is considered a bargain.

It's crazy. Houses are rarely on the market for even a week. During the last year every house sold in the neighborhood went for thousands more than asking price, one for $150,000 more.

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Response to FuzzyRabbit (Reply #10)

Sat May 14, 2016, 05:25 PM

AgingAmerican (12,958 posts)

11. Yep, same here

We paid 99k in 98. Worth 400k+ now and the main floor is just over 800 sq ft. crazy.

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Response to AgingAmerican (Reply #11)

Sat May 14, 2016, 05:34 PM

Baobab (4,667 posts)

12. One really crazy new development in some areas is people moving here from other countries

who literally are looking for shelters for their money, the story goes that they "want to pay more" but that's not really true, they likely do want to get value for their money. But the fact remains that some houses or especially condos in certain cities are being bought literally to sit there empty.

The thing I am worried about is a part of the transatlantic trade and investment partnership that could end up making natural gas and electricity rices soar and subsequently, result in the loss of a lot of affordable housing.

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Response to Baobab (Original post)

Sat May 14, 2016, 08:17 PM

1939 (1,683 posts)

13. Go to Detroit

Houses there are very affordable.

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Response to 1939 (Reply #13)

Sun May 15, 2016, 12:10 AM

Baobab (4,667 posts)

15. Those are exactly the kinds of buildings that could end up costing twice as much or more to heat

if the price of natural gas in the US rises due to the exporting of natural gas for the first time since the 1970s, "until its gone".

If that happens then there will be a lot of pressure from real estate developers to declare older houses (built before 1960) as blighted which is a step to acquiring the land via eminent domain.

Typically in the past it was for some public use but now its become okay to just give it to real estate developers. For profit. So people might turn some neighborhood into a nice place, and then suddenly get a notice that in 60 days there will be a hearing for redevelopment and their whole neighborhood is going to be razed to build condos or a mall or whatever. involuntarily.

The sudden jump in gas prices due to T~T I --- P would give them a national excuse to do that on a massive scale.

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Response to Baobab (Original post)

Sat May 14, 2016, 11:19 PM

PasadenaTrudy (3,998 posts)

14. Nope!

It was bought in '64 for $40K, now worth close to $2M.

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