My comment about “Public Employees sucking at the tit” is based on the fact that we have 2 classes of workers in this country now. Private market workers with 401k’s at best, and the public workers with unions politicians don’t dare cross, who get pensions, benefits and work schedules unheard of in the private sector. I don’t disagree we need to pay for the work of public employees to be done, and Wall Streeters are WAY overcompensated, but at least in NJ so are a lot of public employees. A cop with 6 years and a little overtime (overtime being considered a sacrosanct perk) makes over $100k plus $30k of bennies. I know a supervising social worker with Ivy degrees and 20 years experience who doesn’t make close to that, nor do they get to retire in their mid 40’s at full pension and start another career.
We have here in NJ a whole class of “political made men” who can go from public job to public job, always vesting their pensions. Most recently ex-governor McGreevey played this game in a 6 month job to put him “over the top”. There was a disclosure last year about a County High School teacher who also had a FULL TIME job as a SUPERVISOR with the city’s parking authority! He was a “made man” in the public employee patronage system.
I asked him for evidence to back up his statement, he responded with remarks like how he knew I was a landlord from my first post and didn’t present any evidence to back up his line of argument. So, we aren’t talking “past” each other as much as he’s pre-determined his line of argument and don’t bother asking for any facts to support it. Whatever. If some kid wants to rant on the Internet that everyone who owns a second property is upper class, he can do so. I see it all the time in the comments on pieces on the rising costs of housing in general. To a lot of people, it is a binary world. You’re either a renter getting screwed by a landlord or your some fatcat who owns a bunch of property who is jacking up rents and throwing grandmothers in the street. There is no in-between.
The fascinating thing, here in London, is that a lot of developments are simply empty. Sold, but empty.
There’s a “groovy building” on Old Street roundabout - all bubbly shaped - it’s half empty.
People are most definitely parking cash here, more and more, and the availability of housing is not really increasing. The property behind my house (the bank’s house) is undeveloped - but there have been offers up and down my road to buy houses to create a way in.
For more new flats. To stand empty.
Honestly - come to London in 15 years - it’ll be cheap!
(Was still 9 cents plus a penny tax until just a couple of years ago, but the cost of coffee finally ended that. Now, with the tax man’s share, it’s an even 4 bits.)
I fail to see where I did that. Actually, I went out of my way to point out that rising rents are not solely attributable to evil landlords, and that instead of cartoonish evil landlords, there are multiple factors at play. I also pointed out that the current system of exchange and utilization of the means of production means that all commercial activity is morally suspect on some level, which is a nuanced perspective, and far from claiming all landlords are inherently assholes.
So, as a related aside, I’ve been looking for apartments in the bay area. I already have a mortgage so I am very price sensitive.
I am decently paid, and I am not complaining. But 50% of my income for an apartment, plus 25% for my existing mortgage? I am seriously considering renting a friends garage
Another friend might want a roommate. But it would be with half a dozen other guys. They are all great… But that’s a lot of guys in one place. I’m honestly not old, but I’d be the Dad of the group
I’ve lived in big houses, I’ve lived in tiny… Things. I think it’s tiny thing time again :D. I just wish I could plop a shipping container somewhere and get power/water/sewage. I’ll build everything, that part is easy. But a legal lot for a $2k container would be $350k minimum.
I may join up with @popobawa4u after all is said and done
####(Actually if anyone in the bay area has a studio/loft/room for rent, pm me. Perfect credit etc, it is just so damn expensive)
If I had a home or even just a garage in the Bay Area, I’d jump at the chance for quid pro quo renting some of my space to @japhroaig All the renovation, bread, beer, and food I could want in exchange for a room or two and a few electrical outlets? Sign me up!
My place is full and under rent control so I couldn’t replace anyone even if I wanted to… Hell, one of my tenants doesn’t even actually live in my duplex but I couldn’t prove it to the Berkeley rent board legally. It is just a coincidence that her roommate always refers to the primary renter as “visiting soon” or “back next month” and she’s never there (for the last two years) or that the address on her checking account is another place. I assume she just holds onto the lease because it is rent controlled, in her name, and gives her a place to store her stuff. There’s nothing I can do about it either.
But yeah, landlords are all slumlords taking advantage of renting folks.
The Shipyard in the East Bay (in Berkeley) and NIMBY in Oakland used to have people doing exactly that. Then the various cities shut both down on those fronts.
I must assume your mortgage is holding onto some place in another state or something?
One of my best friends, who has been living in the Bay Area for over 20 years (since college) is leaving in two months forever. His mortgage is horrible (I assume he bought at the height at a bad interest rate or something) and he realized with the current boom in Berkeley where he is that he could sell his place and go to another state and buy something outright. Since he has two partners, the idea of them going from high mortgage to no mortgage is a dream for them that only California real estate offers but he knows that once he leaves the Bay Area, he’s never going to be able to afford to come back.
Yes, you are exploiting other people’s fear of homelessness. That is a true fact. The system is set up so other people have to pay you money to exist, and you derive permanent benefits from it which they do not. The least you could do is not gloat about it.
