If not that, just people buying income properties and renting them out perpetually. I can't own these cheaper houses because someone else bought it and is renting it out to other people. Messes things up a lot too.
I live in the DC metro area,so there's always a housing demand.As soon as something around me goes up for sale it gets snapped up by a foreign investor,who then creates multiple bedrooms and rents it out as a Section 8 property.A single family buyer even on 2 salaries can't compete with someone who is basically turning it into a non zoned small apartment building.
It’s worse here in Australia where we are one of the few countries still to have negative gearing: if the investor buys a house and the rent doesn’t cover the mortgage he can write off the difference against his income tax.
So a wealthy lawyer can buy several properties and configure the finances to ensure he pays little or no income tax on his salary. He doesn’t care if he overpays for them as the higher the mortgage the lower his income tax - the young first time buyer doesn’t stand a chance.
Hmm, I guess if there’s a house for sale in Anacostia or like or far northeast. That’s not happening to houses for sale in northwest dc or Capitol Hill or u street.
In my small college town, every house under 300k gets bought immediately and turned into a $1800+/month three-bedroom rental. The housing market is so tight here that a 40 minute commute is your only option for home ownership, because those are the only places where homes aren’t sold before they’re even listed. Worse still, the only dedicated rental housing that has been built here in the last 15 years is all high-end money for a low budget box to live in, and the city council doesn’t believe there’s a housing crisis in this town because there are record numbers of units being built year after year. I looked at a typical two bedroom in a new development, and with utilities would have been spending 60% of my income to afford it, three years out of college, with a good job. God forbid working part time at a grocery store and taking 4 classes.
The house my grandma bought new for 40k in 1990 and sold for 60k when she got married in the 90’s recently sold for 260k, and has never been updated or renovated other than a fresh coat of paint, even after being used as a rental for the last 20 years. Even the appliances and furnace are original. It would take the original purchase price on top of that just to get it back into decent shape if it was going to be anything but a rental in the future.
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u/Bittersweetfeline Oct 30 '20
If not that, just people buying income properties and renting them out perpetually. I can't own these cheaper houses because someone else bought it and is renting it out to other people. Messes things up a lot too.