In the USA, individuals living in cars due to partial homelessness result from a complex interplay of factors. High housing costs relative to income, stagnant wages, and income inequality drive this issue. Job loss, weak social support, medical expenses, evictions, and lack of affordable housing also contribute, while systemic problems and inadequate policies further perpetuate the phenomenon.
It is difficult to make exact projections for the housing market as it is still unclear how quickly or to what degree the Federal Reserve will reduce inflation and borrowing costs without having a substantial negative impact on demand from consumers for anything from houses to cars. I suggest you Consider a fiduciary with mortgage-backed securities knowledge for guidance
The new mortgage rates are crazy, add to that the recession and the fact that mortgage rules are getting more difficult, and home prices will need to fall by a minimum of 40% (more like 50%) before the market normalizes. For now, get your money (as much as you can) out of the housing market and get into the financial markets or gold. If you are at a cross roads or need honest advice on the best moves to take now, it is best to seek an independent advisor who knows about the financial markets..
consider moving your money from the housing market to financial markets or gold due to high mortgage rates and tough guidelines. Home prices may need to drop significantly before things stabilize. Seeking advice from a financial advisor who understands the market could be helpful in making the right decisions.
Stacy Lynnn Staples" is the licensed fiduciary I use. Just research the name. You’d find necessary details to work with a correspondence to set up an appointment..
I don't usually watch amanpour, but I'm glad I caught this video. I'm a 71 year old retired woman. I have been homeless for about a year. I'm one of the lucky ones because I have a van I can sleep in. No running water and no toilet or shower. It's not easy, but the real problem for me is the cold weather. I'm thinking of going south somewhere for the winter. "WINTER IS COMING"
Hi, I’m 50 years old self employed with money in the bank & I have been on the brink of homelessness since selling my house two years ago. My plan had been to rent in a new town until I found an old house in a comfortable neighborhood. I was kicked out of my rental after the landlord abruptly decided to raise the rent by 30%. I found a small place on a busy road where I’m constantly distressed by 18 wheelers going by at 60mph and neighbors who smoke excessive amounts of cannabis. Every house I look at is snatched up by investors looking to flip or create short term rentals. In order to buy a 2 bedroom 1 bathroom house on a quarter acre I would need to be able to pay cash of $7-800k. It’s absurd.
71 year and retired, if you are only on social security, you only have one choice, go and live abroad, I am 25 years younger, and when my time comes I will be retiring in France. Why, most European countries have agreement with USA, within 6 months you are enrolled in their social security, and that will cover 70% of all my healthcare costs, the supplemental private insurance costs 150$ per month. And I am covered at 100%. No deductible, no coinsurance and all that BS. Between my army pension and social security, and my 401K I will be above 3k per month. In Europe you will live very comfortably, better healthcare ( You get to see real doctors, no Nurse practitioners, PA's...) and the quality of the food so much better. You can get nice houses away from major cities around 200K 300K. So do your homework
@@raminsamii745One day they may see you as an illegal alien and may not allow you to live there legally. It's a good solution when you don't have a family, but if you have kids or grandkids, that will be on you to abandon them and their village. When you leave your kids will have fewer grandparents or none at all. A virtual call is only that, it doesn't give hugs and doesn't support your family when they need it. Of course I would make the same call when things get hard. But I know things like that weaken families and young people in the long run.
We effectively made building housing illegal, especially low-income housing. Add in private equity, "foreign investors", building codes, NIMBYs, politics, local laws, heavy costs with permits, and other issues that have made it impossible to build. She brought up a great point about seniors being stuck in their homes because they have nowhere to go.
Cities have poor control over commerce. Anything they want to build anywhere. They need %commerce building permits, %residential building permits, to bring it into and keep it in balance. Suburban and rural have illegal zoning laws, and leave in place until some builder takes them to court. Friends of the Mr said they'd pay for development, if we oversaw, but investigating, I found it'd require lawsuits. Aka "snob zoning". Business interests have pushed state laws for their benefit, something this author is in denial about. Added to my own state's requirements for elderly housing and condos, a massive "club house" on the premises. Must have kitchen, heated/cooled, parking for x visitors to the clubhouse (plowing/salt/sand in winters). $$$$$
Learn from europe’s city planning. Build upwards in walkable, vibrant communities with services / business on street level !!!!! US, until you change your ways, samo samo
Let this one marinate; No one was held accountable for the mortgage crisis that caused the housing crisis, but it’s criminal to be homeless, now. It’s not the permits.
I think it was approx. 1991 that I read in a Kiplinger Letter an L.A. judge deemed it illegal to kick homeless off of public property. Yet, I see it being done over and over, around the country. Let this one marinate; Insane, that in the US, you have to pay to have your feet on the ground. Either rent, or property purchase/property taxes.
Last week, while stock prices dropped significantly, retail investors sold $1 billion worth of shares, whereas institutional investors purchased over $14 billion. This is a prime example of market manipulation.
Yes, a good number of folks are raking in huge 6 figure gains in this downtrend, but such strategies are mostly successfully executed by folks with in depth market knowledge
A lot of folks downplay the role of advisors until being burnt by their own emotions. I remember couple summers back, after my lengthy divorce, I needed a good boost to help my business stay afloat, hence I researched for licensed advisors and came across someone of utmost qualifications. She's helped grow my reserve notwithstanding inflation, from $275k to $850k.
How can I participate in this? I sincerely aspire to establish a secure financlal future and am eager to participate. Who is the driving force behind your success?
Carol Vivian Constable is the licensed advisor I use. Just research the name. You’d find necessary details to work with a correspondence to set up an appointment.
Thank you so much for your helpful tip! I was able to verify the person and book a call session with her. She seems very proficient and I'm really grateful for your guidance
After investing in 5 residential rental properties in the 2000's, what I see happening now is greed. Private equity firms and large investment corps are gobbling up properties for short-term vacation rentals. Why rent to someone for a month when you can rent by the night and double your profits. Or they just hold them vacant until they appreciate. This strangles availability and drives up property values. Neighborhoods with what used to be affordable housing are also being destroyed by developers who lobby for building codes that allow them to tear down affordable homes, put up 3-story slot homes from lot line to lot line, and sell them for 4 times the price of the home that was there. It's also pathetic to drive through the mega-mansion suburbs full of 4k+ sq ft homes with one or two people living in them now that the children have grown. Those gigantic homes could have a few generations of family members, but instead, every one of their kids also has to have a home of their own. I was happy to rent to low and middle-income families who were great tenants. But, housing is not about providing homes anymore, like everything in this country it's about making money.
This is a big part of the problem, and a part that is not given the recognition that it needs. We are a country that has embraced greed and short term profits over a healthy, functional society and culture. Greed is the main thing that is thriving at the expense of civilization.
@@imperialmotoring3789where do you live? Are there regular Americans near where you live? Why are they not viable to rent to? This seems kind of strange.
One issue in my community is that existing homes in the 1200-1800 square feet range are being bought up by companies as rental properties. The people who would buy them (young couples and families, seniors) end up renting, so they can't build equity, have no control over the condition of the home or the ever increasing rent. The only new houses, condos, and apartments being built are high end so there is almost no entry-level option. I would also love to see more building of duplexes, as this would allow people to purchase a home that provides some income, ensure on-site landlords, increase rental stock, and increase housing density.
_"I would also love to see more building of duplexes, as this would allow people to purchase a home that provides some income, ensure on-site landlords, increase rental stock, and increase housing density."_ And that mentality is a part of the reason we have a housing problem. We have too many HGTV Babies (you're included) who regurgitate a lot, but don't understand the math and the practicalities of what they hell many of you are spouting. You all's home buying mythology is a lot of putting the driver out in front, he's pulling the wagon, which is pulling the horse. HGTV has remained on the air for so long, because it's been successful at selling people dreams. And you're comment shows just how successful they've been with the propaganda.
Need to look at all the housing taken off the market for Airbnb and other short term rentals. Investment companies buying up large swaths of housing for investment purposes isn’t helping the situation either. Also, we all know where affordable housing goes when it’s available. It rarely goes to the people that need them.
The reason Airbnb's went bonkers is largely because we had NEAR ZERO INTEREST RATES for more than a decade where bond yields were like 1/5% and mortgages were like 3%. Investors could by CERTAIN properties, rent them out, then get a great yield!
Corporations have the ready cash to buy property. If you needed to sell your home in 30 days due to a job change or family situation, and a corporations was willing to buy in 21 days having taken off 5% of the asking price, you'll go with that faster than waiting on a non corporate buyer who's wishy-washy about getting a bank approval.
Tell that to the conservatives... I live in Missouri.. The same politicians who voted to allow foreign entities to purchase farm land also allow private equity to purchase residential housing... There used to be regulations against this but conservatives thought that taking care of citizens over businesses wasn't good for their coffers.
Two words: Private Equity. We need to acknowledge that the rise of PE correlates with all aspects of life that have gotten worse over the last two decades.
Yes. Private equity is destroying all aspects of our culture in the name of greed. All of the money is ending up in the hands of a few at the expense of the country.
Excellent insights, knowledge and very helpful perspective, thank you. Jerusalem, I look forward to reading your book as a senior that has been baffled, unclear and heartbroken while recognizing the housing crisis across our county for years. At 61 years, this was not such a factor throughout most of my life. Witnessing extremely hard working people unable to buy a home let alone be "housed" has been devastating and to some degree normalized. To be able to build millions of homes that are not super sized/grotesque in scale, yet rather for quality of life, family affordability and a sense community in mind could be a magnificent renaissance for our nation and most certainly our hearts. Thank you for your work, much appreciated.
Max Profit works hard to keep it as is. For a while, boom was followed by bust, in which people could catch a break. I tell youth, who've worked hard to save, I don't know that that'll be the case any more, being as investors are buying for sake of flipping for fast money from cosmetic refresh.
Snob Zones, swift reading on zoning affordable housing out of wealthy communities, written by a wealthy lawyer who fights the zoning laws, in Connecticut.
Laws have to be changed. We need more tiny homes and efficiency apartments that are more affordable so that people can downsize affordably. There should be limits set on how high rents can be raised according to square footage. Builders want to build more expensive homes rather than affordable homes. My efficency apartment is now costing $800, half of my wages, at age 60. That's with a doctorate and license.
What I see here in New England is many houses sitting empty. No one can afford them. This has jacked up rent because those families who would have purchased a home are now renting apartments.
Not a bad idea. And she deserves decent lighting for video; she's very pretty behind those dark shadows and the glare. I'll seek out her book to give to my local government people.
@markvogel3473 - She'll fit right in, because she's nothing more than a talker. She spoke a lot of beautiful words but lack a good bit of life experienced practicalities. She mentioned "illegal to build homes", which is 100%. If a particular area code was planned to house $1m homes, builders can't build $100k homes in that same area because it will upset the value of the homes there. And very quickly that $100k home will be priced at $500k just to keep up. Also, she doesn't realize women in a marriage decides what home her and her husband/domestic partner purchases. If they already have children, or are looking to start a family, she will not choose a 1500sq.ft. 3-bedroom home with a 20x20 1.75 car garage. She is easily eying a 2300sq.ft home. She also fails to realize "affordable housing" is only 1/4th of the issue. For those who, even with government assistance can afford the downpayment on a home, the long-term issue will be being able to afford in the increasing property tax. If the person or couple is struggling to maintain the mortgage and utilities, they will quickly find themselves behind on their property taxes and will lose the home. I challenge her to live in a HUD subdivision for 12 months, and if she's as astute as she projects herself, by month #4, she will have a change of ideology. The remaining 8 months will be needed to cement that changed ideology.
My grandfather was a developer and builder of small starter homes in the 1950s through early 70s. He would be appalled by the restrictions on new housing because of smaller floorspace. The home he built for my grandmother and himself was a cozy little nest with only 2 bedrooms and one bath. It was plenty. Unfortunately, he passed away at 61 in the middle of another project. Bigger isn't better. It's just more restrictive and costly.
Builders are building grandiose, there's not much more expense for them in oversized living/bedroom space. While two houses on same lot means two kitchens, baths, driveways, etc. Builders aren't innocent in this either.
@@buzoff4642 - They are building what women want. Wives are typically the ones who make the decision, so builders have to build to their desires. If they don't those homes will be difficult to sell. And once construction is completed, the builders have to pay interest on each home until it's purchased. So, you build what is deemed the most sellable in that price range.
@@thespadestable Re: "what women want" Not seeing that. If target was what women want, every house at least in the north would have a "mudroom" entrance. To take off jackets, boots, pocketbooks, and a place to put down mail, packages. groceries carried in. This is the driver: "you build what is deemed the most sellable in that price range" in accordance with the state of the economy for that time. And with land zoning high, "in that price range" will be the biggest living space they can sell. Previously, bust economy would bring about smaller house/housing. Condos, for instance, used to be scarce, but not any more.
@@buzoff4642 - It's obvious you're not married, you've never gone house hunting with a wife, nor did you pay attention to story after story of the housing crash failures. Women drive housing purchases. And since you didn't mention square footage, and what can and can't be squeezed into home a 1300 sq.ft. home as opposed to a 2100sq.ft. home, which aides in it being sellable, then please move it on to chatting about this with the other uninformed entitled babies within this comment section. Because homeownership is not a right. Hence, the reason why we had the last housing market crash and had so many people getting caught up in it for buying foolishly.
When a corporation makes millions of dollars reported quarterly and they lay off many workers and/or don't pay them well with benefit's it's easy to know who's really controlling our economy and the wealth gap. Not the Federal Government.
Who created this set of conditions? Yes, the federal government. Reagan, give the rich more money, by cutting their taxes, for "job creation". Bush1 and Clinton, NAFTA, for that job creation to take place in Mexico. Offshoring acceleration ever since. Imported goods, gotten at 3rd world labor rates, on the store shelves for same price when made here, pocketing extra profit. Offshore work, onshore worker glut. Really pissing off US workers, being made to train their replacement before being laid off. Politically, it's called corruption, when elite purchase legislation, for "campaign donations".
Here in Nashville, new buildings closer to town are usually 1 million or more. More affordable housing is being pushed further and further out forcing people to drive 45 minutes to an hour to reach the downtown area. This is a problem. There's also the issues of private equity buying up houses and renting them out.
Not new, here in southern New Hampshire, in large part due to proximity to Boston. As near as I can tell, highest metro salary impacts house prices within 1 hour's commute. The investor grab has now pushed this over the top, selling to those bailing out of Washington DC, NYC and Boston. $500K looks like a bargain to those relocating from major metro.
@@kevinjenner9502 Japan's in a weird state for housing, much like the unoccupied "ghost houses" after the 2008 bust. But Japan's ghost houses are more commonly inherited, left empty.
This young woman missed entirely the biggest factor that has caused loss of affordable housing in this country: GENTRIFICATION. Treating housing as though it were a COMMODITY - as opposed to a place where people can raise their families and live out their lives - is also an equal opportunity destroyer. This issue is not about race; it is about money and GREED. I live in a small home in a lower middle-class neighborhood in the suburbs. We moved here because my husband got a job in this municipality. We paid $27,100 for our house in 1971. Our real estate taxes were about $760/yr. Today, the valuation attached to my house is almost $300,000, and my taxes are $3,000/yr. That property valuation is fantasy. Everything in my house is original to the house. I never had the money to remodel or install any new anything. But, houses exactly like mine - all built at the same time - have zoomed up in valuation. Why? A minor factor is that some new owners remodeled (although there is little remodeling anyone can do with small rooms in a small house). The major factor that has driven this affordable housing disaster is, when houses were up for sale, buyers FAR outbid the asking prices. Those buyers never intended to actually live here and raise their families here. They intended to use these houses as COMMODITIES, making a few changes to the house, then turning it around for a quick sale to yet another person, who intended to use it the same way and make high profit on it, out-bidding the asking price, and ditch it the same way. One couple stayed in a house across the street for only 4 months before re-selling it at a much higher price. I quit bothering to get to know any of the "new neighbors". They weren't neighbors; they were leeches, bleeding long-time neighbors dry. With each new improvement and hugely-increased purchase price came MUCH higher taxes for the long-term residents, who are now trying to survive in their homes on tiny Social Security checks. The hugely increased taxes are eating many of us alive. We can't sell and go anywhere else. THIS WAS affordable housing with low taxes when we bought these homes. Our homes have been ARTIFICIALLY increased in property valuation and taxes solely because of those commodity leeches. Young couples starting out can't afford these houses now. People in the same financial class my husband and I were in when we bought this house could never buy it. These homes are now unaffordable for low middle-class earners. They have been ARTIFICIALLY priced out of this market. Another huge problem that is causing the crisis of unaffordable housing is that wealthy people are buying older, perfectly good homes with plenty of rooms in lower middle-class neighborhoods, tearing them down, and erecting mansions on those lots. We have lost a LOT of affordable housing this way in my large suburban area. Entire streets have gone through this sort of transition. Meanwhile, the new homes there cause a HUGE increase in the value of surrounding homes with a commensurate increase in taxes on those homes. Many of those older residents are having a tough financial time keeping up with the artificially-increased valuation and taxes on their properties, which have not changed. Local, county, and state elected officials will do nothing about it because these kinds of activities put much more money from taxes into their pockets, even if it drives old people out of their homes and even if it makes housing unaffordable. All of these factors have contributed to the housing crisis. None of these activities are based on race, at least in my area (although they ave been in parts of the City). Using homes for profit must be curtailed. No matter how many affordable homes the government causes to be built, "entrepreneurs" like those I've described will eventually come along and do the very same things to them, treating them as commodities, and driving up the prices of the homes, making those homes unaffordable, too. If Kamala Harris wants to give small business startups $50,000, I hope to heaven that she does NOT allow the money to be used like this.
You are so spot on! Gentrification is a disaster for long-term residents and the beginning of the end for a long-established community. Property values go up, taxes go up, rents go up, local government gets bought, and then Walmart muscles in and destroys your long-established local businesses. Next they want a gym, outlet stores, and huge paved parking lots where you currently have forests, streams and wildlife habitat. Gentrification is like opening the hatch on a submarine under water - once the first developer leaks in it's too late to try to close the hatch. The trickle becomes a flood and then it's all over...
She missed a lot, because she's only been trained words and ideologies. She hasn't lived the words that are coming out of her mouth. As a segment of the people within this comment section has noted, they are admired by her "intelligence" and "oration"; none really did the math to what she spent so much time saying.
Yep, this exactly. I saw it happening almost six years ago in my area when I tried to buy my first home (I had to quit my search) and it's only gotten worse. I'm so glad that I'm not the only one to connect the dots and not blame younger generations for what's going on now.❤
To be sure, the regulatory hurdles, land use constraints, geographic demand mismatches and supply/demand imbalances that Demsas describes all feed the housing crisis, but it is striking how the primary driver of housing unaffordability - RE asset price inflation - aka the financialization of housing via collateralized debt based money (with it's inherent and embedded growth obligations) - is not mentioned or even recognized. Because we fail to understand the nature of money itself, we cannot and will not understand why house price inflation is a feature, not a bug.
I really disagree that underbuilding is the problem. I think the problem is the way the real estate sector is structured. When it is very easy for some people to borrow a lot of money the prices go up. It’s not supply. It’s inflation. Where I live, in Southern Maine, we have had explosive building in the past five years. My home town is unrecognizable. Lots with under a half acre now have multiple houses on them. One house looks directly into the back of another. I sold my home of 17 years because I could not stand to see what my neighborhood was looking like with tall, narrow buildings popping up wherever they could fit. Many of these buildings are EMPTY for 4 months of the year. For the rest of the year, they are second homes and vacation rentals. If you build more housing in my town, it will be the same. The buildings will not go to people who need a full time home. They will be investments.
Well, if you're going to get real about things, I see no way to build affordable homes for US min wages, $2.13 an hour for tipped workers, $7.25 for the rest. And that's not including wage theft workers, illegal migrants who're often ripped off for weeks if not months of work, who're ironically, often doing housing construction.
Miss Jerusalem, thank you for breaking down the multiple layers surrounding the housing crisis. I hope President-elect Harris hires you in some capacity. Best wishes on your new book. 👩🏾💻
When you can't find a one bedroom "studio" apartment for rent starting below $1,200.00/month in Wisconsin, much less anything that might have enough room to breathe deeply in, maybe then you start to realize why so many people are on the street.
Good idea, and I think corporations will find a tax loop hole around that. Private owner out of state owners may suffer because they may not qualify for a loop hole, just saying.
Simply write laws that only allow for owner - occupancy and then enforce them. If the owner doesn’t personally live on the land for 6 months of the year, it must be sold or rented to long term occupants. No AirBnB.
“Simply?” Here in Albuquerque, bills have come before the city council multiple times to limit short-term rentals in order to free up already scarce housing for actual residents. No dice. Republican council members keep shooting them down. The American mentality of “make as much $$ as possible regardless of the human cost” is nearly impossible to dislodge.
@@ochervelvet9687 Canvas your vicinity. Possibly homeowners are also Airbnb'ing, not just council members. If mainly council, then you've a shot at changing that, via canvasing and rousing for a vote.
I love this interview, and I’m planning to buy the book. I’ll be eager to read about the other issues that make home ownership impossible, such as Airbnb, foreign ownership, and above all, Private Equity, the sociopath industry buys up so much of the housing but also doctor’s and veterinary practices. I was reading of someone who had to place her cat for 36 hours in a vet clinic, and came away with a bill for thousands of dollars. We are letting these PE jackals run rampant, and it has to stop.
I've been working for affordable housing since the 1980's. It keeps getting worse and so many more homeless people. As a senior now l moved away from California near my son..it took 8 years to find an affordable senior apartment. My debts were zero before l moved but ll had to use credit to move. Every place l have lived lve seen big million dollar homes going up and few starter homes. Thanks for discussing this
Let's also not miss hedge funds/p.e.firms buying starters for rentals & pushing up housing prices & rental prices. In OH buying just under 20% of the modest houses. Pushing up property taxes making it more difficult for people to.keep theory houses so they can buy more. The #1 mortgage lender decided to make less mortgages. Instead the plan is to finance build to rent starter homes. When we have been claiming starter homes.were too expensive to build.
Like in the UK, the issue of the supply of homes is not the size of the home. The issue is the infrastructure of the access roads, water supply, sewage control and power supply that is required in addition to the homes. It would also help, in the US, the home of the million-dollar termite mound of a tar-paper shack, if the too-big-fail banks had not been permitted to to write off homes already built and demolish them to get them off the books.
Many of the "ghost houses" of 2008 were indiscernible as to who owned them. Ironic, eh? Banks kicked out occupants, but once receiving bailout monies, had no interest in the property. Cities couldn't figure out who owned the bundled mortgages (for property taxes, etc.), so the structures languished, and eventually knocked down due to no maintenance/hazardous.
@@charlessmyth As my favorite Scottish economist put it, The public['s tax monies] are the insurance for the rich. Two of the core justifications for capitalism are - Reward of profit, due to putting their capital at risk. In this case when public comp's industry failure, they bare no risk. - Competition, which ensures progress, benefiting the public. In this case, broad monopolies over market guts progress, and importing a labor glut means no competition for workers.
Los Angeles has been having a building boom for the past decade at least, and thanks to the recent laws from the state, the building restrictions were reduced-- yet the rents are higher than ever. Many new apartment buildings sit 25% or more vacant because 1 bedroom apartments are renting for 2,600 or more.
@@buzoff4642 - They are making a killing, but they also are having to pay into killing expenses. Renters have it a bit easy; they stay if they want, they leave if they want, and if they don't want to pay the rent, or can't pay they rent, they eventually leave. But it's the landlord who is stuck with keeping is or her investment moving forward. It's only the daydream wannabe landlord who doesn't understand the reality of being a landlord. People seem to have forgotten what landlords went through during Covid and tenants were either out of work, or their income were cut. Many landlords were still making payments on their investments or were stuck having to defer until the economy got better. No one knows how many landlords to this day are still paying into deferments stemming back from 2020 and into 2021.
Wholesale lumber prices are way down yet retail prices are still high. Paint is up 300% in 4 years. Is it any wonder it's impossible to build an affordable house?
And salaries are increasing. Builders have their payroll to meet, and all the contractors and sub-contractors have their payroll to meet. Illegals might be here illegally, but they keep each other aware on when it's in their favor to ask for more money.
It is true, but stymied affordable housing has many tentacles tying it up. Then there's the silent overlay, industry entitlements, cheapest workers, at high cost locations that suit them. Not a one, campaigning for federal positions, on Living Min Wage. Shameful.
I have penciled many homes recently that she is describing. I have designed and built bigger houses. People are ready for this now. 1920s Bungalos solved this by raising quality while reducing size. They are still very popular with most regarding them. I lived in a postpandemically designed "sanitary" house built after Spanish Flu. The ideas were great but largely forgotten. They have some beautiful solutions. People love that. People are ready. 😊
AGREED, the McMansions were a huge mistake. Now, with fewer and fewer children in families a bungalow is large enough. Less of a carbon footprint as well. Also, neighbors become closer and the loneliness and isolation is addressed.
In so cal I have seen my neighborhood go from houses for sale signs just 20 years ago to no one selling. Everyone is staying put because not many can afford to turn around and buy something else. It's very depressing to see. Young generation happy to just rent something or staying and living with their parents because there is no way they can afford half a million dollar avg home or more
Not everyone is going to be able to have a great home in a fashionable neighborhood downtown, with top schools nearby, and walk to work. That was never available even to Boomers. People need to be willing to buy the existing cheaper housing stock far from downtown in mixed neighborhoods. And the U.S. needs to start banning housing trusts and foreign investors from crowding out Americans from owning in downtown areas
All public schools should be equal in rigor and standard. It should all be of high standard and high rigor. And it is in many countries that finance education federally via income taxes as opposed to property taxes (linked to value and someone's paycheck). So that can be fixed and it will solve the issues of too high property tax and people losing homes when they have medical bills. No not everyone will have a prime location. And that's fine. But a person should not be moving from a neighborhood just because a school or their work status. All neighborhoods can have small apartments and streets with mansions. That's actually better because it forces rich people to look in the eye of poorer people and be more cognizant of the realities of an average person or family.
Foreign investment is a huge problem, but so is capitalism without checks. Most people don't live or want to live downtown. I'd like to move now (for schools unfortunately, because that should not be necessary), which is going to be an unnecessary expense/transaction even though I want a home of the same size and quality. But it's going to be a problem to move retired parents to make sure they are closer and it's easier to help them daily without a long commute. So they won't be able to buy a small home there or for that matter a small condo. Everything is more expensive than the house they have now. Even renting would be more expensive than the 1500 sq ft home they have. They need a 700-1000 sq ft home, but they are stuck in a 1500 sq ft home. See how that's not normal?
We need more interviews like this. In my modest and very nice neighborhood, we have several section 8 homes in a row. No one is complaining, and organizations have helped remodel these homes. Houses sell quickly at competitive prices, they are predominantly 1400 - 1800 square feet and well kept. I think race is becoming less of an issue now, and as other commenters have said, it is more about gentrification, building McMansions in the middle of ranch houses, which happened in my mom’s old neighborhood. But the greater need for the community she lived in is for modest size housing.
We need to manage the single family houses we have; create tax or penalty for "second home", for non-owner occupied, for business in home (non residential) and high tax for foreign owners.
She's been indoctrinated. She is the perfect sponge. Now, give her about 10-15 years and she's looking at her "live in forever" home purchase, and the very people she says deserve a home, will be the very people she will not want to risk her investment around.
It's class warfare. It's in US' DNA. Reawakened with cross pollinating greed of Thatcher and Reagan. Clinton jumped in, branding it "third way", aka "centrist", which looks mighty industrial beneficial, to retain Brand D, since Brand R already occupied. I expect "globalized" detached investor pressure also brought international "take it out of the workers' pockets".
PEI, Canada here 👋 i didn't watch the video... so let me guess... Real Estate Investment Trusts, fiduciary responsibility, capitalism and lack of political will to provide affordable housing... same as here??? 🤔
Yup. Hi there. My late grandfather was from PEI. Last name Dyment from O'Leary Station. As you know, not everybody born on the island can stay on the island. I learned that the hard way when I married a native of Martha's Vineyard and moved there from the Boston area to raise a family and care for his elder parents. He walked out after 5 years, both of his parents died on the same day, I was stuck on the rock with 2 little kids and my strong back. I had a mortgage, of course, and realized that without a steady source of income, impossible on the island, I'd lose everything eventually no matter how many summer jobs I worked when I could find them. Every winter, back to square one. Ugh. So, yes, too many willing workers and too little housing. Everywhere now.
There are WAY more housing units than people. We don’t need to build more housing. This is hedge funds buying up housing and sitting on it, AirBnB eliminating long term rental property, this is a finance problem. Not a supply problem.
Hedge funds are not sitting on a material amount of housing that’s not being utilized. That’s nonsense. And for the big financial institutions that do own these homes, they bought those homes at the peak and they will get burned.
1500 sq ft starter home? Back in the 1950s into sixties starter homes were 800 sq ft to 1000 sq ft! And the punchline is that back then there were many good paying manufacturing jobs that paid well! Now we have the opposite: tons of low paying jobs and few new starter homes being built, and the starter homes that do get built are 1500 sq ft. How is this sustainable?
Tax cuts for corporations gave them excess cash and they used it to buy up real estate. It was easier than investing in innovation research and development
Airbnb has taken hundreds of thousands of homes out of the residential market and turned those homes into hotels and motels causing a massive shortage of homes to be bought or rented to live in long term. Airbnb has single handedly taken hundreds of thousands of homes out of the residential real estate market.
You are not understanding the housing market. There is not a shortage of houses for sale. Houses may sit up for sale 6 months or more until a buyer comes along and they agree on a price. They do not go instanteously and Air BNBers grab them like an auction. In fact hardly ever do you have two people bidding on a house at once. And an AirBNBer will be easy to outbid if that ever happens. They will only buy if it is a deal so its worth doing, because they already likely will have to pay double the property taxes on it yearly. A homeowner will bid more, they have a bank backing them and simply will have more mortgage payments. The higher they pay for the house, the more interest profit the bank makes. Please know this before the politicians spoon out the bs
@@c.rutherford Man I don't know what you're talking about. Just doing a simple Google search of how many active listings Airbnb has in the United States shows 2,250,000 homes are active on the Airbnb site in the USA. That is 2,250,000 homes that would go to people to buy and live in if Airbnb weren't around. And that's just Airbnb there are other websites that are similar to Airbnb like VRBO and they have their own inventory of short-term rentals on their site and other similar ones. If these homes were not being used for hotel purposes there would be a lot more inventory available which would bring prices crashing down. Airbnb and other sites like them are a major contributor to skyrocketing home prices.
@@c.rutherford Man I don't know what you're talking about. Just doing a simple Google search reveals Airbnb has 2,250,000 homes active in the USA on their website. And that's just Airbnb. There are other companies similar to Airbnb that also have their own inventory of homes active on their website like VRBO and others. If these homes were not being used for hotel and motel purposes they would come on the market and housing prices would crash due to so much inventory coming in. But because these companies have taken these homes off the market and are using them as hotels and motels. We have skyrocketing housing prices because of the supply taken by these companies. And what your not understanding is the more supply we have the further prices of homes will come down. That is the law of supply and demand. Companies like Airbnb and others like them are a major contributor to high housing costs and rent.
We start every conversation about a Major Problem with "We" But in Reality and Practice, "We don't "truly value, care or commit and Act for "We" .. it's All About (I me & mine) .. "I get Human Nature" But we're "Failing to evolve as Social Animals and as a Civilization" ..
Gee, didn't hear one mention of gentrification. I was forced out of my home & community in a big east coast city because of a building boom AND rising prices. I ended up in a smaller ring city with poor public transit & greater distances for basic necessities. I don't drive & the nearest supermarket in nearly a mile away. In my old home I had a market a half a block away. BTW, my former home was a three family semi attached, it's now a larger two family luxury condo way out of the range of the finances of the people who once lived in that community. How does that help the housing crisis? I would also point out the dangerous future we are laying the groundwork for with the current boom in construction of "5over1's" build with manufactured building materials.
This is another example of foundational inequalities in our economy and how we use the legislative process to reward wealth with more wealth. The hall, airbnb, economy, NIMBY, and all of the incentives serve to put a thumb on the scale for people of relative means to increase their wealth while stigmatizing anyone who is just trying to improve their housing situation. The politics are not that complex in the end. Local action and local advocacy is imperative to change the dynamics
I agree, when I moved to Wisconsin they were building 4 bedroom houses. Finding a 2 bedroom was impossible. No new builds of smaller homes because they wanted to sell houses for $600,000.
Europe has had multiple centuries to create cities built for density on scarce land. America has had two centuries build on the premise of endless land availability, so everyone had that assumption of a half acre to build a house on. We’re finally catching up with the concept of density and increasing demand for housing. It will take a while to move towards the ‘townhouse’ model that has shaped European urban landscapes for hundreds, if not thousands of years.
Politicians talk about tax cuts or funding to build more new houses but there is never anything to help a homeowner that buys an old house and restored it. There are a lot of houses out there that need some work but, unlike other countries, we have little to no tax breaks or grants for saving buildings.
Who do we blame. Every elected and authority under them. Obviously they are the problem. Stop voting against our working-class best interest. One way to do that is to stop voting along party lines, but rather for progressive community leaders advocating on our behalf. Put them in office as the community's public servants. Stop sending the bad food back to the kitchen, only to have the chef spit in what comes back. That's the best analogy I can come up with at the moment.
The same people who create the Only Single Family On Large Lots zoning find they're hitting the wall. But then, here in New England, these zoning laws are voted on by the public. Our elderly vote themselves tax cuts, when old and it's costing a fortune, well beyond their retirement income.
Ms. Demsas talks about the attention coming from the top down, and maintains that local folks pay less attention to housing as a local political issue. True, there is great resistance in state and local government to meeting the actual needs of the voters, and more to the needs of contractors. Locally, however, it is possible to resist the inroads of the fantasies of large contractors by creating and enforcing zoning laws. These big moneyed people have all the time in the world to attempt to lawyer their way past local obstacles - and they do have the time to wear away resistance - but they can also be as easily stymied by the local community. Redirecting local attention locally, and away from the idea that the problem is national or even beyond their control is essential to changing this mad rhythm of spiralling prices.
Since 1965 already, 90-miles east, along the interstate, from downtown LA, California City, Mojave, is ready to accept all of the commercial and residential development needed to be supplied :-)
Baltimore City has 15 - 20K vacant and dilapidated single family and attached row houses. A look at the local Sunday Sunpapers real estate transaction pages show how many homes are selling for $6,000 or less, many in the $25,000 range and many more less than $100K.
On the east coast people still live in housing that was originally build in 1900 or even earlier. Our rowhomes have small footprints and there are a few remaining cities like Baltimore, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with decently priced starter homes. I live in Baltimore in a great walkable neighborhood with a great local school and my small rowhome was 233k when I bought it. Its only gone up by 50k since I moved in.
I find it interesting that there’s no mention of the outsized influence on the housing supply of private equity and airbnb constricting supply of units across the economic spectrum. Private equity bought 44% of all single family units in 2023, and Airbnb alone accounts for 7 million units that could be rented or owned. Interesting exclusions there, @jerusalem 🤨.
You're right, anytime I hear anybody talk about the housing shortages without mentioning private equity, Airbnb and the Federal reserve. The housing crisis is US sponsored.
I feel like the focus is always primarily on homeowners. Homeowners aren't the only citizens paying taxes (including property taxes) or voting. Renters are being absolutely gouged nowadays, too. Renters vote. Renters pay the property taxes of the landlords (landlords can't pay property taxes without renters giving them the money). They deserve consideration, representation, and a say in the development of their communities as much as those who own homes. ❤
This country swings from One Extreme (Crisis) to the other .. We've lost our "Values" as a people & culture to "Care enough" to be Serious, committed and Disciplined to Address & Solve Huge Problems .. We don't truly value "the we" ..
I would like to build a duplex. According to the law, I cannot build a multifamily home. I work as a building mechanic. I know how to build a basic home to code. It doesn't matter.
Yes, zoning laws are a problem. People are 100% behind them, until their kids have to move away, and again when they try living off of Social Security.
@@buzoff4642 It is not just zoning. There are lots of laws that prevent owners from building homes. The depth of labor in many states will prevent the owner from building because they don't have a license for each skilled trade it takes to build a house. This prevents people from building their way out of this problem.
@@lprice5583 True. Plumbing/septic, electric, safety issues. I don't know about the rest of the building construction, it may vary by state. I know my neighboring state, Massachusetts, has mighty high bar for energy efficiency (windows/insulation/heat cool utilities), very expensive building there. Ironically, they've prolific use of illegal labor for construction, who're targeted for wage theft.
Get government out of the way and you’ll see very low cost high-tech housing pop up like weeds. Government is the problem and capitalism is the solution.
Jerusalem's intelligence and spirit sparkle. I'm glad to see this interview. It seems to me that housing has become primarily a financial instrument, and only secondarily a shelter. Didn't Marx say that use-value, on the capitalist market, eventually is overtaken by exchange value as a commodity? That is exactly where we are at now. We don't build houses to house people, hospitals to heal people; we don't invent drugs to meet medical needs, we don't build prisons to confine and reform people. Everything is a financial instrument. And many are falling out of the game, homeless.
I agree that the root cause of this problem is a lack of supply. We need to build more houses. But building houses is an expensive and uncertain venture. Home building supplies have skyrocketed in cost. There is a shortage of construction workers. No easy solutions here.
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In the USA, individuals living in cars due to partial homelessness result from a complex interplay of factors. High housing costs relative to income, stagnant wages, and income inequality drive this issue. Job loss, weak social support, medical expenses, evictions, and lack of affordable housing also contribute, while systemic problems and inadequate policies further perpetuate the phenomenon.
It is difficult to make exact projections for the housing market as it is still unclear how quickly or to what degree the Federal Reserve will reduce inflation and borrowing costs without having a substantial negative impact on demand from consumers for anything from houses to cars. I suggest you Consider a fiduciary with mortgage-backed securities knowledge for guidance
The new mortgage rates are crazy, add to that the recession and the fact that mortgage rules are getting more difficult, and home prices will need to fall by a minimum of 40% (more like 50%) before the market normalizes. For now, get your money (as much as you can) out of the housing market and get into the financial markets or gold. If you are at a cross roads or need honest advice on the best moves to take now, it is best to seek an independent advisor who knows about the financial markets..
consider moving your money from the housing market to financial markets or gold due to high mortgage rates and tough guidelines. Home prices may need to drop significantly before things stabilize. Seeking advice from a financial advisor who understands the market could be helpful in making the right decisions.
Stacy Lynnn Staples" is the licensed fiduciary I use. Just research the name. You’d find necessary details to work with a correspondence to set up an appointment..
I looked up her name online and found her page. I emailed and made an appointment to talk with her. Thanks for the tip
I don't usually watch amanpour, but I'm glad I caught this video. I'm a 71 year old retired woman. I have been homeless for about a year. I'm one of the lucky ones because I have a van I can sleep in. No running water and no toilet or shower. It's not easy, but the real problem for me is the cold weather. I'm thinking of going south somewhere for the winter. "WINTER IS COMING"
Take care of yourself. I hope something affordable becomes available to you soon.
Hi, I’m 50 years old self employed with money in the bank & I have been on the brink of homelessness since selling my house two years ago. My plan had been to rent in a new town until I found an old house in a comfortable neighborhood. I was kicked out of my rental after the landlord abruptly decided to raise the rent by 30%. I found a small place on a busy road where I’m constantly distressed by 18 wheelers going by at 60mph and neighbors who smoke excessive amounts of cannabis.
Every house I look at is snatched up by investors looking to flip or create short term rentals. In order to buy a 2 bedroom 1 bathroom house on a quarter acre I would need to be able to pay cash of $7-800k. It’s absurd.
71 year and retired, if you are only on social security, you only have one choice, go and live abroad, I am 25 years younger, and when my time comes I will be retiring in France. Why, most European countries have agreement with USA, within 6 months you are enrolled in their social security, and that will cover 70% of all my healthcare costs, the supplemental private insurance costs 150$ per month. And I am covered at 100%. No deductible, no coinsurance and all that BS. Between my army pension and social security, and my 401K I will be above 3k per month. In Europe you will live very comfortably, better healthcare ( You get to see real doctors, no Nurse practitioners, PA's...) and the quality of the food so much better. You can get nice houses away from major cities around 200K 300K. So do your homework
Me two
@@raminsamii745One day they may see you as an illegal alien and may not allow you to live there legally. It's a good solution when you don't have a family, but if you have kids or grandkids, that will be on you to abandon them and their village. When you leave your kids will have fewer grandparents or none at all. A virtual call is only that, it doesn't give hugs and doesn't support your family when they need it. Of course I would make the same call when things get hard. But I know things like that weaken families and young people in the long run.
We effectively made building housing illegal, especially low-income housing. Add in private equity, "foreign investors", building codes, NIMBYs, politics, local laws, heavy costs with permits, and other issues that have made it impossible to build. She brought up a great point about seniors being stuck in their homes because they have nowhere to go.
Sum up all that in 1 word: Republicans
Good point. Low income housing MUST be built in Martha's Vineyard.
Cities have poor control over commerce. Anything they want to build anywhere. They need %commerce building permits, %residential building permits, to bring it into and keep it in balance.
Suburban and rural have illegal zoning laws, and leave in place until some builder takes them to court. Friends of the Mr said they'd pay for development, if we oversaw, but investigating, I found it'd require lawsuits. Aka "snob zoning".
Business interests have pushed state laws for their benefit, something this author is in denial about. Added to my own state's requirements for elderly housing and condos, a massive "club house" on the premises. Must have kitchen, heated/cooled, parking for x visitors to the clubhouse (plowing/salt/sand in winters). $$$$$
It must be built everywhere.
Learn from europe’s city planning. Build upwards in walkable, vibrant communities with services / business on street level !!!!!
US, until you change your ways, samo samo
Let this one marinate; No one was held accountable for the mortgage crisis that caused the housing crisis, but it’s criminal to be homeless, now.
It’s not the permits.
I think it was approx. 1991 that I read in a Kiplinger Letter an L.A. judge deemed it illegal to kick homeless off of public property. Yet, I see it being done over and over, around the country.
Let this one marinate;
Insane, that in the US, you have to pay to have your feet on the ground. Either rent, or property purchase/property taxes.
Because everyone was in on it; it was a pig pile ..
Last week, while stock prices dropped significantly, retail investors sold $1 billion worth of shares, whereas institutional investors purchased over $14 billion. This is a prime example of market manipulation.
Yes, a good number of folks are raking in huge 6 figure gains in this downtrend, but such strategies are mostly successfully executed by folks with in depth market knowledge
A lot of folks downplay the role of advisors until being burnt by their own emotions. I remember couple summers back, after my lengthy divorce, I needed a good boost to help my business stay afloat, hence I researched for licensed advisors and came across someone of utmost qualifications. She's helped grow my reserve notwithstanding inflation, from $275k to $850k.
How can I participate in this? I sincerely aspire to establish a secure financlal future and am eager to participate. Who is the driving force behind your success?
Carol Vivian Constable is the licensed advisor I use. Just research the name. You’d find necessary details to work with a correspondence to set up an appointment.
Thank you so much for your helpful tip! I was able to verify the person and book a call session with her. She seems very proficient and I'm really grateful for your guidance
A Jerusalem Demsas book on housing and it's only $10? Copped in a heartbeat. She's the most important reporter in the country right now
After investing in 5 residential rental properties in the 2000's, what I see happening now is greed. Private equity firms and large investment corps are gobbling up properties for short-term vacation rentals. Why rent to someone for a month when you can rent by the night and double your profits. Or they just hold them vacant until they appreciate. This strangles availability and drives up property values. Neighborhoods with what used to be affordable housing are also being destroyed by developers who lobby for building codes that allow them to tear down affordable homes, put up 3-story slot homes from lot line to lot line, and sell them for 4 times the price of the home that was there. It's also pathetic to drive through the mega-mansion suburbs full of 4k+ sq ft homes with one or two people living in them now that the children have grown. Those gigantic homes could have a few generations of family members, but instead, every one of their kids also has to have a home of their own. I was happy to rent to low and middle-income families who were great tenants. But, housing is not about providing homes anymore, like everything in this country it's about making money.
Plus it's hard to find people that are not illegals to rent to (at least where I live).
This is a big part of the problem, and a part that is not given the recognition that it needs. We are a country that has embraced greed and short term profits over a healthy, functional society and culture. Greed is the main thing that is thriving at the expense of civilization.
Yes, we need to get our congressmen and women to disallow this raging housing monopoly.
@@imperialmotoring3789where do you live? Are there regular Americans near where you live? Why are they not viable to rent to? This seems kind of strange.
@@martywilsonlife I live on the Southside of Chicago. You may have heard of it? I doubt you would want to even drive through it!
One issue in my community is that existing homes in the 1200-1800 square feet range are being bought up by companies as rental properties. The people who would buy them (young couples and families, seniors) end up renting, so they can't build equity, have no control over the condition of the home or the ever increasing rent. The only new houses, condos, and apartments being built are high end so there is almost no entry-level option. I would also love to see more building of duplexes, as this would allow people to purchase a home that provides some income, ensure on-site landlords, increase rental stock, and increase housing density.
_"I would also love to see more building of duplexes, as this would allow people to purchase a home that provides some income, ensure on-site landlords, increase rental stock, and increase housing density."_
And that mentality is a part of the reason we have a housing problem. We have too many HGTV Babies (you're included) who regurgitate a lot, but don't understand the math and the practicalities of what they hell many of you are spouting. You all's home buying mythology is a lot of putting the driver out in front, he's pulling the wagon, which is pulling the horse.
HGTV has remained on the air for so long, because it's been successful at selling people dreams. And you're comment shows just how successful they've been with the propaganda.
Need to look at all the housing taken off the market for Airbnb and other short term rentals. Investment companies buying up large swaths of housing for investment purposes isn’t helping the situation either. Also, we all know where affordable housing goes when it’s available. It rarely goes to the people that need them.
Exactly
I am a homeowner in Florida. I get postcards and letters daily, from investment corporations trying to buy up houses. " Fast Cash" is promised.
@@stevenFL8245 Getting these too, in New Hampshire, but not as many.
I also hear some people rent an apartment in popular cities, for when they're there on a rare occasion, and Airbnb'ing the place the rest of the time.
The reason Airbnb's went bonkers is largely because we had NEAR ZERO INTEREST RATES for more than a decade where bond yields were like 1/5% and mortgages were like 3%. Investors could by CERTAIN properties, rent them out, then get a great yield!
Private equity is devouring the country.
Private equity even affects dogs and cats...no joke. Check who ouns your vet.
@@marciamartins1992 Rich people.
Don't let corporations buy up all the housing!
Just raise interest rates and they won't!
Corporations have the ready cash to buy property. If you needed to sell your home in 30 days due to a job change or family situation, and a corporations was willing to buy in 21 days having taken off 5% of the asking price, you'll go with that faster than waiting on a non corporate buyer who's wishy-washy about getting a bank approval.
Tell that to the conservatives... I live in Missouri.. The same politicians who voted to allow foreign entities to purchase farm land also allow private equity to purchase residential housing...
There used to be regulations against this but conservatives thought that taking care of citizens over businesses wasn't good for their coffers.
@@thespadestable You again. So negative and defensive of the status quo.
@@thespadestable true. We MUST stop that!!!!!
Two words: Private Equity. We need to acknowledge that the rise of PE correlates with all aspects of life that have gotten worse over the last two decades.
Yes. Private equity is destroying all aspects of our culture in the name of greed. All of the money is ending up in the hands of a few at the expense of the country.
Exactly, please write to your congress people. Eventually a monopoly with develop
Has nothing to do with the housing crisis.
@SegFaultMatt when a whole mess of private, single dwelling are bought in an area, renovated or not, and rented out as opposed to selling
@SegFaultMatt when a whole mess of private, single dwelling are bought in an area, renovated or not, and rented out as opposed to selling
Excellent insights, knowledge and very helpful perspective, thank you. Jerusalem, I look forward to reading your book as a senior that has been baffled, unclear and heartbroken while recognizing the housing crisis across our county for years. At 61 years, this was not such a factor throughout most of my life. Witnessing extremely hard working people unable to buy a home let alone be "housed" has been devastating and to some degree normalized. To be able to build millions of homes that are not super sized/grotesque in scale, yet rather for quality of life, family affordability and a sense community in mind could be a magnificent renaissance for our nation and most certainly our hearts.
Thank you for your work, much appreciated.
Max Profit works hard to keep it as is.
For a while, boom was followed by bust, in which people could catch a break.
I tell youth, who've worked hard to save, I don't know that that'll be the case any more, being as investors are buying for sake of flipping for fast money from cosmetic refresh.
Snob Zones, swift reading on zoning affordable housing out of wealthy communities, written by a wealthy lawyer who fights the zoning laws, in Connecticut.
Laws have to be changed. We need more tiny homes and efficiency apartments that are more affordable so that people can downsize affordably. There should be limits set on how high rents can be raised according to square footage. Builders want to build more expensive homes rather than affordable homes. My efficency apartment is now costing $800, half of my wages, at age 60. That's with a doctorate and license.
NYC, now renting
- janitor closets to live in
- apartments full of bunk beds, who's beds are rented for 8 hour shifts.
What I see here in New England is many houses sitting empty. No one can afford them. This has jacked up rent because those families who would have purchased a home are now renting apartments.
Scroll up. Mainer saying many houses in his former neighborhood now used by snowbirds.
Attention Kamala Harris: Hire this bright, knowledgable young person to help with the national housing crisis.
Not a bad idea. And she deserves decent lighting for video; she's very pretty behind those dark shadows and the glare. I'll seek out her book to give to my local government people.
Yes. Kamala has a plan to raise the costs of all housing by 25K.
I agree. We need more conversation. How about not letting people build 30,0000 square foot home
Wow. What an articulate knowledgeable young woman. Someone please let her inform policy!
@markvogel3473 -
She'll fit right in, because she's nothing more than a talker. She spoke a lot of beautiful words but lack a good bit of life experienced practicalities.
She mentioned "illegal to build homes", which is 100%. If a particular area code was planned to house $1m homes, builders can't build $100k homes in that same area because it will upset the value of the homes there. And very quickly that $100k home will be priced at $500k just to keep up.
Also, she doesn't realize women in a marriage decides what home her and her husband/domestic partner purchases. If they already have children, or are looking to start a family, she will not choose a 1500sq.ft. 3-bedroom home with a 20x20 1.75 car garage. She is easily eying a 2300sq.ft home.
She also fails to realize "affordable housing" is only 1/4th of the issue. For those who, even with government assistance can afford the downpayment on a home, the long-term issue will be being able to afford in the increasing property tax. If the person or couple is struggling to maintain the mortgage and utilities, they will quickly find themselves behind on their property taxes and will lose the home.
I challenge her to live in a HUD subdivision for 12 months, and if she's as astute as she projects herself, by month #4, she will have a change of ideology. The remaining 8 months will be needed to cement that changed ideology.
My grandfather was a developer and builder of small starter homes in the 1950s through early 70s. He would be appalled by the restrictions on new housing because of smaller floorspace. The home he built for my grandmother and himself was a cozy little nest with only 2 bedrooms and one bath. It was plenty. Unfortunately, he passed away at 61 in the middle of another project. Bigger isn't better. It's just more restrictive and costly.
Yes. Costlier taxes, utilities, renovations, and repairs come with bigger houses, and less outdoor space.
Builders are building grandiose, there's not much more expense for them in oversized living/bedroom space. While two houses on same lot means two kitchens, baths, driveways, etc. Builders aren't innocent in this either.
@@buzoff4642 -
They are building what women want. Wives are typically the ones who make the decision, so builders have to build to their desires. If they don't those homes will be difficult to sell. And once construction is completed, the builders have to pay interest on each home until it's purchased.
So, you build what is deemed the most sellable in that price range.
@@thespadestable Re: "what women want"
Not seeing that. If target was what women want, every house at least in the north would have a "mudroom" entrance. To take off jackets, boots, pocketbooks, and a place to put down mail, packages. groceries carried in.
This is the driver: "you build what is deemed the most sellable in that price range" in accordance with the state of the economy for that time. And with land zoning high, "in that price range" will be the biggest living space they can sell. Previously, bust economy would bring about smaller house/housing. Condos, for instance, used to be scarce, but not any more.
@@buzoff4642 -
It's obvious you're not married, you've never gone house hunting with a wife, nor did you pay attention to story after story of the housing crash failures. Women drive housing purchases.
And since you didn't mention square footage, and what can and can't be squeezed into home a 1300 sq.ft. home as opposed to a 2100sq.ft. home, which aides in it being sellable, then please move it on to chatting about this with the other uninformed entitled babies within this comment section.
Because homeownership is not a right. Hence, the reason why we had the last housing market crash and had so many people getting caught up in it for buying foolishly.
When a corporation makes millions of dollars reported quarterly and they lay off many workers and/or don't pay them well with benefit's it's easy to know who's really controlling our economy and the wealth gap. Not the Federal Government.
Who created this set of conditions? Yes, the federal government.
Reagan, give the rich more money, by cutting their taxes, for "job creation".
Bush1 and Clinton, NAFTA, for that job creation to take place in Mexico. Offshoring acceleration ever since. Imported goods, gotten at 3rd world labor rates, on the store shelves for same price when made here, pocketing extra profit.
Offshore work, onshore worker glut. Really pissing off US workers, being made to train their replacement before being laid off.
Politically, it's called corruption, when elite purchase legislation, for "campaign donations".
Here in Nashville, new buildings closer to town are usually 1 million or more. More affordable housing is being pushed further and further out forcing people to drive 45 minutes to an hour to reach the downtown area. This is a problem. There's also the issues of private equity buying up houses and renting them out.
The same true for New York
Commuter societies such as Japan pay a premium for housing based on their proximity to Train/Transit stations.
Not new, here in southern New Hampshire, in large part due to proximity to Boston. As near as I can tell, highest metro salary impacts house prices within 1 hour's commute. The investor grab has now pushed this over the top, selling to those bailing out of Washington DC, NYC and Boston. $500K looks like a bargain to those relocating from major metro.
@@kevinjenner9502 Japan's in a weird state for housing, much like the unoccupied "ghost houses" after the 2008 bust. But Japan's ghost houses are more commonly inherited, left empty.
The medicine for this is HIGHER INTEREST RATES to drive out investors. If mortgages were 12%, no one would be interested and prices would go down!
This young woman missed entirely the biggest factor that has caused loss of affordable housing in this country: GENTRIFICATION. Treating housing as though it were a COMMODITY - as opposed to a place where people can raise their families and live out their lives - is also an equal opportunity destroyer. This issue is not about race; it is about money and GREED.
I live in a small home in a lower middle-class neighborhood in the suburbs. We moved here because my husband got a job in this municipality. We paid $27,100 for our house in 1971. Our real estate taxes were about $760/yr. Today, the valuation attached to my house is almost $300,000, and my taxes are $3,000/yr. That property valuation is fantasy. Everything in my house is original to the house. I never had the money to remodel or install any new anything. But, houses exactly like mine - all built at the same time - have zoomed up in valuation. Why? A minor factor is that some new owners remodeled (although there is little remodeling anyone can do with small rooms in a small house).
The major factor that has driven this affordable housing disaster is, when houses were up for sale, buyers FAR outbid the asking prices. Those buyers never intended to actually live here and raise their families here. They intended to use these houses as COMMODITIES, making a few changes to the house, then turning it around for a quick sale to yet another person, who intended to use it the same way and make high profit on it, out-bidding the asking price, and ditch it the same way. One couple stayed in a house across the street for only 4 months before re-selling it at a much higher price. I quit bothering to get to know any of the "new neighbors". They weren't neighbors; they were leeches, bleeding long-time neighbors dry. With each new improvement and hugely-increased purchase price came MUCH higher taxes for the long-term residents, who are now trying to survive in their homes on tiny Social Security checks. The hugely increased taxes are eating many of us alive. We can't sell and go anywhere else. THIS WAS affordable housing with low taxes when we bought these homes. Our homes have been ARTIFICIALLY increased in property valuation and taxes solely because of those commodity leeches. Young couples starting out can't afford these houses now. People in the same financial class my husband and I were in when we bought this house could never buy it. These homes are now unaffordable for low middle-class earners. They have been ARTIFICIALLY priced out of this market.
Another huge problem that is causing the crisis of unaffordable housing is that wealthy people are buying older, perfectly good homes with plenty of rooms in lower middle-class neighborhoods, tearing them down, and erecting mansions on those lots. We have lost a LOT of affordable housing this way in my large suburban area. Entire streets have gone through this sort of transition. Meanwhile, the new homes there cause a HUGE increase in the value of surrounding homes with a commensurate increase in taxes on those homes. Many of those older residents are having a tough financial time keeping up with the artificially-increased valuation and taxes on their properties, which have not changed. Local, county, and state elected officials will do nothing about it because these kinds of activities put much more money from taxes into their pockets, even if it drives old people out of their homes and even if it makes housing unaffordable.
All of these factors have contributed to the housing crisis. None of these activities are based on race, at least in my area (although they ave been in parts of the City). Using homes for profit must be curtailed. No matter how many affordable homes the government causes to be built, "entrepreneurs" like those I've described will eventually come along and do the very same things to them, treating them as commodities, and driving up the prices of the homes, making those homes unaffordable, too. If Kamala Harris wants to give small business startups $50,000, I hope to heaven that she does NOT allow the money to be used like this.
You are so spot on! Gentrification is a disaster for long-term residents and the beginning of the end for a long-established community. Property values go up, taxes go up, rents go up, local government gets bought, and then Walmart muscles in and destroys your long-established local businesses. Next they want a gym, outlet stores, and huge paved parking lots where you currently have forests, streams and wildlife habitat. Gentrification is like opening the hatch on a submarine under water - once the first developer leaks in it's too late to try to close the hatch. The trickle becomes a flood and then it's all over...
All of this sums up the area I live in to a T.
She missed a lot, because she's only been trained words and ideologies. She hasn't lived the words that are coming out of her mouth. As a segment of the people within this comment section has noted, they are admired by her "intelligence" and "oration"; none really did the math to what she spent so much time saying.
Yep, this exactly. I saw it happening almost six years ago in my area when I tried to buy my first home (I had to quit my search) and it's only gotten worse. I'm so glad that I'm not the only one to connect the dots and not blame younger generations for what's going on now.❤
Absolutely. Commodification is the enemy, on almost every level.
To be sure, the regulatory hurdles, land use constraints, geographic demand mismatches and supply/demand imbalances that Demsas describes all feed the housing crisis, but it is striking how the primary driver of housing unaffordability - RE asset price inflation - aka the financialization of housing via collateralized debt based money (with it's inherent and embedded growth obligations) - is not mentioned or even recognized. Because we fail to understand the nature of money itself, we cannot and will not understand why house price inflation is a feature, not a bug.
Thank you Jérusalem for your bright input. It was brilliantly highlighted where we're not taking action in changing outdated laws (housing).
I really disagree that underbuilding is the problem. I think the problem is the way the real estate sector is structured. When it is very easy for some people to borrow a lot of money the prices go up. It’s not supply. It’s inflation.
Where I live, in Southern Maine, we have had explosive building in the past five years. My home town is unrecognizable. Lots with under a half acre now have multiple houses on them. One house looks directly into the back of another. I sold my home of 17 years because I could not stand to see what my neighborhood was looking like with tall, narrow buildings popping up wherever they could fit. Many of these buildings are EMPTY for 4 months of the year. For the rest of the year, they are second homes and vacation rentals.
If you build more housing in my town, it will be the same. The buildings will not go to people who need a full time home. They will be investments.
Well, if you're going to get real about things, I see no way to build affordable homes for US min wages, $2.13 an hour for tipped workers, $7.25 for the rest.
And that's not including wage theft workers, illegal migrants who're often ripped off for weeks if not months of work, who're ironically, often doing housing construction.
That does make it necessary to regulate these processes to a more fair distribution of property ownership.
Miss Jerusalem, thank you for breaking down the multiple layers surrounding the housing crisis. I hope President-elect Harris hires you in some capacity. Best wishes on your new book. 👩🏾💻
poverty and slave wage- corporate greed - govt oppression. Lack of regulations- elitism. Empathy is the dividing line. Either u have it or u don’t
Brilliantly explained
When you can't find a one bedroom "studio" apartment for rent starting below $1,200.00/month in Wisconsin, much less anything that might have enough room to breathe deeply in, maybe then you start to realize why so many people are on the street.
It's horrible I know. Wages are not sufficient.
Tax absentee ownership.
Good idea, and I think corporations will find a tax loop hole around that. Private owner out of state owners may suffer because they may not qualify for a loop hole, just saying.
Simply write laws that only allow for owner - occupancy and then enforce them. If the owner doesn’t personally live on the land for 6 months of the year, it must be sold or rented to long term occupants. No AirBnB.
“Simply?” Here in Albuquerque, bills have come before the city council multiple times to limit short-term rentals in order to free up already scarce housing for actual residents. No dice. Republican council members keep shooting them down. The American mentality of “make as much $$ as possible regardless of the human cost” is nearly impossible to dislodge.
@@ochervelvet9687 Canvas your vicinity. Possibly homeowners are also Airbnb'ing, not just council members. If mainly council, then you've a shot at changing that, via canvasing and rousing for a vote.
I love this interview, and I’m planning to buy the book. I’ll be eager to read about the other issues that make home ownership impossible, such as Airbnb, foreign ownership, and above all, Private Equity, the sociopath industry buys up so much of the housing but also doctor’s and veterinary practices. I was reading of someone who had to place her cat for 36 hours in a vet clinic, and came away with a bill for thousands of dollars. We are letting these PE jackals run rampant, and it has to stop.
Blackrock.
I enjoyed the different stages ( for age groups) and our individual needs as we age. It's going to prepare me better now.
Awesome interview!! More, please!
I've been working for affordable housing since the 1980's. It keeps getting worse and so many more homeless people. As a senior now l moved away from California near my son..it took 8 years to find an affordable senior apartment. My debts were zero before l moved but ll had to use credit to move. Every place l have lived lve seen big million dollar homes going up and few starter homes. Thanks for discussing this
Let's also not miss hedge funds/p.e.firms buying starters for rentals & pushing up housing prices & rental prices. In OH buying just under 20% of the modest houses. Pushing up property taxes making it more difficult for people to.keep theory houses so they can buy more. The #1 mortgage lender decided to make less mortgages. Instead the plan is to finance build to rent starter homes. When we have been claiming starter homes.were too expensive to build.
Like in the UK, the issue of the supply of homes is not the size of the home. The issue is the infrastructure of the access roads, water supply, sewage control and power supply that is required in addition to the homes. It would also help, in the US, the home of the million-dollar termite mound of a tar-paper shack, if the too-big-fail banks had not been permitted to to write off homes already built and demolish them to get them off the books.
Many of the "ghost houses" of 2008 were indiscernible as to who owned them. Ironic, eh? Banks kicked out occupants, but once receiving bailout monies, had no interest in the property. Cities couldn't figure out who owned the bundled mortgages (for property taxes, etc.), so the structures languished, and eventually knocked down due to no maintenance/hazardous.
@@buzoff4642 So long as the banks and the mortgage bundlers, etc., were made whole: s'all good, man :-)
@@charlessmyth As my favorite Scottish economist put it, The public['s tax monies] are the insurance for the rich.
Two of the core justifications for capitalism are
- Reward of profit, due to putting their capital at risk. In this case when public comp's industry failure, they bare no risk.
- Competition, which ensures progress, benefiting the public. In this case, broad monopolies over market guts progress, and importing a labor glut means no competition for workers.
There is NO housing crisis. I lived in SF for 40 years. Pro squatter laws are preventing landlords from renting available spaces.
Los Angeles has been having a building boom for the past decade at least, and thanks to the recent laws from the state, the building restrictions were reduced-- yet the rents are higher than ever. Many new apartment buildings sit 25% or more vacant because 1 bedroom apartments are renting for 2,600 or more.
Clearly landlords there are making a killing on what rent they do get, such that their okay with 25% vacant.
Its just crazy!
@@buzoff4642 -
They are making a killing, but they also are having to pay into killing expenses. Renters have it a bit easy; they stay if they want, they leave if they want, and if they don't want to pay the rent, or can't pay they rent, they eventually leave. But it's the landlord who is stuck with keeping is or her investment moving forward.
It's only the daydream wannabe landlord who doesn't understand the reality of being a landlord.
People seem to have forgotten what landlords went through during Covid and tenants were either out of work, or their income were cut. Many landlords were still making payments on their investments or were stuck having to defer until the economy got better. No one knows how many landlords to this day are still paying into deferments stemming back from 2020 and into 2021.
Wholesale lumber prices are way down yet retail prices are still high. Paint is up 300% in 4 years. Is it any wonder it's impossible to build an affordable house?
And salaries are increasing. Builders have their payroll to meet, and all the contractors and sub-contractors have their payroll to meet. Illegals might be here illegally, but they keep each other aware on when it's in their favor to ask for more money.
No mention of hedge funds buying up housing stock, converting it to rentals, and the effect that has on first time home buyers? Is that not true?
Van life better option than renting from corporate landlords f*** them
It is true, but stymied affordable housing has many tentacles tying it up.
Then there's the silent overlay, industry entitlements, cheapest workers, at high cost locations that suit them.
Not a one, campaigning for federal positions, on Living Min Wage.
Shameful.
I wished she had talked more about this subject. It is untenable as it will lead to monopolies even in the housing market!
I have penciled many homes recently that she is describing. I have designed and built bigger houses. People are ready for this now. 1920s Bungalos solved this by raising quality while reducing size. They are still very popular with most regarding them. I lived in a postpandemically designed "sanitary" house built after Spanish Flu. The ideas were great but largely forgotten. They have some beautiful solutions. People love that. People are ready. 😊
AGREED, the McMansions were a huge mistake. Now, with fewer and fewer children in families a bungalow is large enough. Less of a carbon footprint as well. Also, neighbors become closer and the loneliness and isolation is addressed.
People are ready, but are the real estate investors ready? Is congress ready? Is local government ready? I think not.
In so cal I have seen my neighborhood go from houses for sale signs just 20 years ago to no one selling. Everyone is staying put because not many can afford to turn around and buy something else. It's very depressing to see. Young generation happy to just rent something or staying and living with their parents because there is no way they can afford half a million dollar avg home or more
Not everyone is going to be able to have a great home in a fashionable neighborhood downtown, with top schools nearby, and walk to work. That was never available even to Boomers. People need to be willing to buy the existing cheaper housing stock far from downtown in mixed neighborhoods. And the U.S. needs to start banning housing trusts and foreign investors from crowding out Americans from owning in downtown areas
All public schools should be equal in rigor and standard. It should all be of high standard and high rigor. And it is in many countries that finance education federally via income taxes as opposed to property taxes (linked to value and someone's paycheck). So that can be fixed and it will solve the issues of too high property tax and people losing homes when they have medical bills. No not everyone will have a prime location. And that's fine. But a person should not be moving from a neighborhood just because a school or their work status. All neighborhoods can have small apartments and streets with mansions. That's actually better because it forces rich people to look in the eye of poorer people and be more cognizant of the realities of an average person or family.
Foreign investment is a huge problem, but so is capitalism without checks. Most people don't live or want to live downtown. I'd like to move now (for schools unfortunately, because that should not be necessary), which is going to be an unnecessary expense/transaction even though I want a home of the same size and quality. But it's going to be a problem to move retired parents to make sure they are closer and it's easier to help them daily without a long commute. So they won't be able to buy a small home there or for that matter a small condo. Everything is more expensive than the house they have now. Even renting would be more expensive than the 1500 sq ft home they have. They need a 700-1000 sq ft home, but they are stuck in a 1500 sq ft home. See how that's not normal?
@@laliday "rich people to look in the eye of poorer people"
Avoided at all costs. Note the poorest, janitorial, subcontracted, and after hours.
Rich people looking in the eyes of poor people...lol that was last century.
Great video, I love how she focused on how this issue is hurting everyone young and old.
Purchased this book, thank you! This is my new area of sociology research and the policy problems are of central importance!
Thank you for your excellent information I gained a greater understanding of why we have a housing shortage I will get your book great interview
We need more interviews like this. In my modest and very nice neighborhood, we have several section 8 homes in a row. No one is complaining, and organizations have helped remodel these homes. Houses sell quickly at competitive prices, they are predominantly 1400 - 1800 square feet and well kept. I think race is becoming less of an issue now, and as other commenters have said, it is more about gentrification, building McMansions in the middle of ranch houses, which happened in my mom’s old neighborhood. But the greater need for the community she lived in is for modest size housing.
Excellent Review she has done. God Bless this young lady.🙏 Keeping Holy Prayers for All to get housed and global peace.🙏
Ya but when developers are allowed to chop up property here in New York they still double charge on the price.
Excellent interview! I am working on affordable homes now in New Mexico!
Enjoyable informative interview, thank you.
We need to manage the single family houses we have; create tax or penalty for "second home", for non-owner occupied, for business in home (non residential) and high tax for foreign owners.
AGREED
Blaming local zoning laws but not discussing the effects of urban renewal, HUD investments, corporate landlords, and present day redlining is crazy.
It's a complicated mess. But email your congressmen with your concerns and viewpoint.
She's been indoctrinated. She is the perfect sponge. Now, give her about 10-15 years and she's looking at her "live in forever" home purchase, and the very people she says deserve a home, will be the very people she will not want to risk her investment around.
Excellent comments!
Excellent segment, thank you.
Jerusalem very Brilliant ,i'm praud of you.🎉
Economic discrimination supplants race discrimination.
It's class warfare. It's in US' DNA. Reawakened with cross pollinating greed of Thatcher and Reagan. Clinton jumped in, branding it "third way", aka "centrist", which looks mighty industrial beneficial, to retain Brand D, since Brand R already occupied.
I expect "globalized" detached investor pressure also brought international "take it out of the workers' pockets".
Yes it does, I've noticed it coming for a while. Greatest disparity in modern times.
Sorry we're not improving if we build old traditional style houses. We need flexibility and multifamily houses
Yup, and smaller homes. Families are smaller and we need to slow the carbon footprint, the whole building process is draining,
PEI, Canada here 👋 i didn't watch the video... so let me guess... Real Estate Investment Trusts, fiduciary responsibility, capitalism and lack of political will to provide affordable housing... same as here??? 🤔
Yup. Hi there. My late grandfather was from PEI. Last name Dyment from O'Leary Station. As you know, not everybody born on the island can stay on the island. I learned that the hard way when I married a native of Martha's Vineyard and moved there from the Boston area to raise a family and care for his elder parents. He walked out after 5 years, both of his parents died on the same day, I was stuck on the rock with 2 little kids and my strong back. I had a mortgage, of course, and realized that without a steady source of income, impossible on the island, I'd lose everything eventually no matter how many summer jobs I worked when I could find them. Every winter, back to square one. Ugh. So, yes, too many willing workers and too little housing. Everywhere now.
No. Large lot/large house zoning laws, major metro relocaters to (relatively) cheaper locations competing with institutional investors.
There are WAY more housing units than people. We don’t need to build more housing. This is hedge funds buying up housing and sitting on it, AirBnB eliminating long term rental property, this is a finance problem. Not a supply problem.
And why do you believe that? Presuming across the US.
Agreed
Hedge funds are not sitting on a material amount of housing that’s not being utilized. That’s nonsense. And for the big financial institutions that do own these homes, they bought those homes at the peak and they will get burned.
1500 sq ft starter home?
Back in the 1950s into sixties starter homes were 800 sq ft to 1000 sq ft!
And the punchline is that back then there were many good paying manufacturing jobs that paid well!
Now we have the opposite: tons of low paying jobs and few new starter homes being built, and the starter homes that do get built are 1500 sq ft.
How is this sustainable?
Tax cuts for corporations gave them excess cash and they used it to buy up real estate. It was easier than investing in innovation research and development
exactly
Miss Jerusalem is informed and passionate apparently. Keep the information coming please. We need more details always.
Airbnb has taken hundreds of thousands of homes out of the residential market and turned those homes into hotels and motels causing a massive shortage of homes to be bought or rented to live in long term. Airbnb has single handedly taken hundreds of thousands of homes out of the residential real estate market.
You are not understanding the housing market. There is not a shortage of houses for sale. Houses may sit up for sale 6 months or more until a buyer comes along and they agree on a price.
They do not go instanteously and Air BNBers grab them like an auction.
In fact hardly ever do you have two people bidding on a house at once. And an AirBNBer will be easy to outbid if that ever happens. They will only buy if it is a deal so its worth doing, because they already likely will have to pay double the property taxes on it yearly. A homeowner will bid more, they have a bank backing them and simply will have more mortgage payments. The higher they pay for the house, the more interest profit the bank makes. Please know this before the politicians spoon out the bs
@@c.rutherford Man I don't know what you're talking about. Just doing a simple Google search of how many active listings Airbnb has in the United States shows 2,250,000 homes are active on the Airbnb site in the USA. That is 2,250,000 homes that would go to people to buy and live in if Airbnb weren't around. And that's just Airbnb there are other websites that are similar to Airbnb like VRBO and they have their own inventory of short-term rentals on their site and other similar ones. If these homes were not being used for hotel purposes there would be a lot more inventory available which would bring prices crashing down. Airbnb and other sites like them are a major contributor to skyrocketing home prices.
@@c.rutherford Man I don't know what you're talking about. Just doing a simple Google search reveals Airbnb has 2,250,000 homes active in the USA on their website. And that's just Airbnb. There are other companies similar to Airbnb that also have their own inventory of homes active on their website like VRBO and others. If these homes were not being used for hotel and motel purposes they would come on the market and housing prices would crash due to so much inventory coming in. But because these companies have taken these homes off the market and are using them as hotels and motels. We have skyrocketing housing prices because of the supply taken by these companies. And what your not understanding is the more supply we have the further prices of homes will come down. That is the law of supply and demand. Companies like Airbnb and others like them are a major contributor to high housing costs and rent.
How is getting people housed not supported by dems and reps
We need a third party
They can't even SAY Living Min Wage.
Bernie was the only 1.
🌿🇺🇲🌿🇺🇲 Excellent Commentary and Video: Miss Demsas was remarkable with the deep understanding of the almost insurmountable problems we face. Amazing.
Wall Street!
We need high density housing, communities with central squares and public transport.
She’s 100% spot on. There needs to be more affordable housing available. Private equities firms have been allowed to make this problem worse
Great interview. I always wondered why all the houses were so big post 90s real estate.
We start every conversation about a Major Problem with "We" But in Reality and Practice, "We don't "truly value, care or commit and Act for "We" .. it's All About (I me & mine) .. "I get Human Nature" But we're "Failing to evolve as Social Animals and as a Civilization" ..
Gee, didn't hear one mention of gentrification. I was forced out of my home & community in a big east coast city because of a building boom AND rising prices. I ended up in a smaller ring city with poor public transit & greater distances for basic necessities. I don't drive & the nearest supermarket in nearly a mile away. In my old home I had a market a half a block away. BTW, my former home was a three family semi attached, it's now a larger two family luxury condo way out of the range of the finances of the people who once lived in that community. How does that help the housing crisis?
I would also point out the dangerous future we are laying the groundwork for with the current boom in construction of "5over1's" build with manufactured building materials.
Simple tRUMP added important TAX to CANADA wood that increased proving home making . 🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤
This is another example of foundational inequalities in our economy and how we use the legislative process to reward wealth with more wealth.
The hall, airbnb, economy, NIMBY, and all of the incentives serve to put a thumb on the scale for people of relative means to increase their wealth while stigmatizing anyone who is just trying to improve their housing situation. The politics are not that complex in the end. Local action and local advocacy is imperative to change the dynamics
Boomers can’t find anything cost effective to downsize into.
Thanks so much for this insightful interview!!
I agree, when I moved to Wisconsin they were building 4 bedroom houses. Finding a 2 bedroom was impossible. No new builds of smaller homes because they wanted to sell houses for $600,000.
Jerusalem needs to expand her appreciation of the problem :-)
Yes, there are other factors. Maybe email her?
great interview, on both parts
Awesome interview. Very good info!!
Europe has had multiple centuries to create cities built for density on scarce land. America has had two centuries build on the premise of endless land availability, so everyone had that assumption of a half acre to build a house on. We’re finally catching up with the concept of density and increasing demand for housing. It will take a while to move towards the ‘townhouse’ model that has shaped European urban landscapes for hundreds, if not thousands of years.
Lake county in California allows primary resident homes to start at 360 sq ft in rural areas administered by the county building department.
Read Mathew Desmond. Problem is usually zoning laws in White Flight suburbs. Yes still NIMBY. Racism and Classism still prevail.
Politicians talk about tax cuts or funding to build more new houses but there is never anything to help a homeowner that buys an old house and restored it. There are a lot of houses out there that need some work but, unlike other countries, we have little to no tax breaks or grants for saving buildings.
Who do we blame. Every elected and authority under them. Obviously they are the problem. Stop voting against our working-class best interest. One way to do that is to stop voting along party lines, but rather for progressive community leaders advocating on our behalf. Put them in office as the community's public servants. Stop sending the bad food back to the kitchen, only to have the chef spit in what comes back. That's the best analogy I can come up with at the moment.
The same people who create the Only Single Family On Large Lots zoning find they're hitting the wall. But then, here in New England, these zoning laws are voted on by the public. Our elderly vote themselves tax cuts, when old and it's costing a fortune, well beyond their retirement income.
Ms. Demsas talks about the attention coming from the top down, and maintains that local folks pay less attention to housing as a local political issue. True, there is great resistance in state and local government to meeting the actual needs of the voters, and more to the needs of contractors. Locally, however, it is possible to resist the inroads of the fantasies of large contractors by creating and enforcing zoning laws. These big moneyed people have all the time in the world to attempt to lawyer their way past local obstacles - and they do have the time to wear away resistance - but they can also be as easily stymied by the local community. Redirecting local attention locally, and away from the idea that the problem is national or even beyond their control is essential to changing this mad rhythm of spiralling prices.
Including investor buy/flipping?
Good points
County permits and zoning offices tend to be underfunded relative to demand. The permitting rules can be very idiosyncratic and complicated.
Some restrictions on # of permits per year, to avoid slamming school influx.
Bad assumption, all apartment and condo buildings are filled with kids.
Since 1965 already, 90-miles east, along the interstate, from downtown LA, California City, Mojave, is ready to accept all of the commercial and residential development needed to be supplied :-)
She knew Her Stuff!!! Keep fighting..
Baltimore City has 15 - 20K vacant and dilapidated single family and attached row houses. A look at the local Sunday Sunpapers real estate transaction pages show how many homes are selling for $6,000 or less, many in the $25,000 range and many more less than $100K.
No work, eh?
I'd imagine the trend is to get out of Baltimore. No jobs? Crime? Bad schools? They have to figure out the whys of the problems before the hows.
On the east coast people still live in housing that was originally build in 1900 or even earlier. Our rowhomes have small footprints and there are a few remaining cities like Baltimore, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with decently priced starter homes. I live in Baltimore in a great walkable neighborhood with a great local school and my small rowhome was 233k when I bought it. Its only gone up by 50k since I moved in.
There ARE houses. They’re just in blighted areas people don’t want to move to.
I find it interesting that there’s no mention of the outsized influence on the housing supply of private equity and airbnb constricting supply of units across the economic spectrum. Private equity bought 44% of all single family units in 2023, and Airbnb alone accounts for 7 million units that could be rented or owned.
Interesting exclusions there, @jerusalem 🤨.
You're right, anytime I hear anybody talk about the housing shortages without mentioning private equity, Airbnb and the Federal reserve. The housing crisis is US sponsored.
Ms. Demsas is making a lot of sense. Work for the Harris/Walz administration!
I feel like the focus is always primarily on homeowners. Homeowners aren't the only citizens paying taxes (including property taxes) or voting. Renters are being absolutely gouged nowadays, too. Renters vote. Renters pay the property taxes of the landlords (landlords can't pay property taxes without renters giving them the money). They deserve consideration, representation, and a say in the development of their communities as much as those who own homes. ❤
This country swings from One Extreme (Crisis) to the other .. We've lost our "Values" as a people & culture to "Care enough" to be Serious, committed and Disciplined to Address & Solve Huge Problems .. We don't truly value "the we" ..
she does not understand what is happening in housing. the market is the problem.
Please tell us then
I would like to build a duplex. According to the law, I cannot build a multifamily home. I work as a building mechanic. I know how to build a basic home to code. It doesn't matter.
Yes, zoning laws are a problem. People are 100% behind them, until their kids have to move away, and again when they try living off of Social Security.
@@buzoff4642 It is not just zoning. There are lots of laws that prevent owners from building homes. The depth of labor in many states will prevent the owner from building because they don't have a license for each skilled trade it takes to build a house. This prevents people from building their way out of this problem.
Good point . We need to promote many good and exciting trade schools across the country. Liberal arts degrees are going to become a hobby.
@@lprice5583 True. Plumbing/septic, electric, safety issues. I don't know about the rest of the building construction, it may vary by state. I know my neighboring state, Massachusetts, has mighty high bar for energy efficiency (windows/insulation/heat cool utilities), very expensive building there.
Ironically, they've prolific use of illegal labor for construction, who're targeted for wage theft.
Get government out of the way and you’ll see very low cost high-tech housing pop up like weeds. Government is the problem and capitalism is the solution.
Jerusalem's intelligence and spirit sparkle. I'm glad to see this interview. It seems to me that housing has become primarily a financial instrument, and only secondarily a shelter. Didn't Marx say that use-value, on the capitalist market, eventually is overtaken by exchange value as a commodity? That is exactly where we are at now. We don't build houses to house people, hospitals to heal people; we don't invent drugs to meet medical needs, we don't build prisons to confine and reform people. Everything is a financial instrument. And many are falling out of the game, homeless.
I agree that the root cause of this problem is a lack of supply. We need to build more houses. But building houses is an expensive and uncertain venture. Home building supplies have skyrocketed in cost. There is a shortage of construction workers. No easy solutions here.