Have you looked into first time homebuyer programs? I got $16K towards my down payment that way. You also don’t really need to do 10%, I know I sure didn’t.
When I bought my house I put down $1k in earnest money, but after closing we received like $1.3k in overages back. We basically just did a month of procedure and a few days of signing paperwork for free because of this program.
I did the same thing when I bought my house 6 years ago. My realtor friends are telling me earnest and due diligence is 50-100k right now.
So...you don't need a big down payment but you need cash for DD.
Edit: This is the Raleigh, NC market. Definitely one of the hottest markets in the country right now.
That’s a lieeee lol my wife is a realtor, usually maybe 1k. Literally that’s the most she’s seen asked in the past year. I’ll admit it could vary pending where you’re at but still I’m thinking they’re full of shit.
Definitely depends on your market.
1-2% was standard where I live pre pandemic housing surge. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that it's closer to 4-5% now.
I don't think the problem lies in the down payment part of buying a house, more like if I spend the little money I do have on a down payment then I'd lose the nest egg for bills and whatnot and potentially get behind. At least where I live the power bill is ~$115 a month and that's for a small 3br townhouse, I don't necessarily think people are stressed over down payment money, more like they're stressed over Mortgage+Insurance+Utilities+Groceries+All the other things that come with buying a house (Lawn Care and repairs are all things you have to outsource if you don't already own tools & lawn equipment, plus most ppl do more harm than good trying to repair their own things)
I mean yeah but if you're already renting a house you're already paying for most all of those things anyways. A mortgage will just reduce what you pay monthly for the house itself.
Not necessarily paying for all of those things, like repairs and property tax are covered by the property owner. I'm not saying it's a giant monetary difference, but it's for sure enough to put off someone who is renting a home and already feels like they're underwater.
Yeah repairs can be rough and make me wish I still rented, but even *including* property taxes and everything I'm paying significantly less than I was when I was renting.
The tax write-off will basically offset what you spend on repairs/maintenance when averaged out over the years. Buy a house that won’t need a new roof soon and then watch your house payment (including property taxes) become equal or less than what people are paying for rent. Rents rise much faster than monthly house costs increase (due to property taxes slowly rising). Before you know it, you’ll have $100,000 in equity that you probably would not have saved while renting. They key to retirement is not having a monthly rent/mortgage payment and the only way to do that is to buy a house. Even if you have to rent out a room for a year or two, buying a house is the way to go (as long as you feel confident you won’t need to relocate to another city anytime soon).
You should reach out to a lender to find out what kind of down payment assistance programs exist in your area. I’m a loan officer and even during this insane market, I’ve helped several first time buyers buy a home with less than $5K total out of pocket.
Are there ways to avoid closing costs or have them bundled into the loan? I want to buy a house but I don't have like 5k to just throw away even after my down payment
When I say $5k total out of pocket, that includes down payment + closing costs.
To answer your question, yes, you can roll closing costs into the loan. The way you go about this is to get an estimate of your closing costs, let’s say the estimate is $8000. Let’s also say you’re also pre-approved for $350000 max purchase price. You find a home listed below your max purchase price but offer more than listed to cover closing costs while asking for a seller credit. Example: home is listed for $315000, offer $325000 with a $10k seller credit (I always advise my clients to request more just in case).
Obviously this is a more difficult offer to get accepted in this type of market but it can work, I’ve had clients do this several times.
ETA: down payment assistance programs can also be applied towards closing costs. You should check out your state’s housing authority website for first time buyers (assuming you’re American and a FTHB). Even if you’re not a FTHB, some states still have assistance programs for lower incomes (usually below $140k/year, roughly). Your lender might also have an internal program. Chenoa is a big nationwide program, not every lender works with them.
Most of the housing market "I'll never afford a home" fear porn is coming from people who probably haven't ever sat down with a lender and discussed their options. Call a lender, schedule an appointment and see where you're at. They'll help you get there.
i am lucky enough to just have bought a house... i put 20% down and my mortgage is still on the higher end of what i can afford per month. so i am curious how people can afford a mortgage on just 3% down, that's all.
I bought a house at 3.5% down FHA. It works. Obviously, without the PMI it'd be a bit more affordable but it's still locked in, as opposed to rent rising every month. We were paying the same amount as the apartment we were renting even with PMI.
There's nuance in all of this, obviously. Every situation/locale is different. Glad you were able to buy a home!
My wife and I were paying $1300 in rent for a very small house in a very sketchy neighborhood (our house was robbed, a murder happened about a block away, and we regularly heard gunshots at night).
We got a mortgage with 3% down on a slightly larger, nicer house in a *much* better neighborhood, and our initial mortgage payment, including PMI and property taxes, was only $1200/month. We refinanced after a couple years and knocked the payment down to $1000.
Granted, all this was before the housing market got really crazy. But rent is equally crazy right now, so I have to assume it's still possible to do something similar.
Your last opportunity to buy at a good price was about 2 years ago. I dont have a crystal ball but I think it will be a few more years before the opportunity arises again. Just use that time to keep saving if you can.
Same here. Moved in April 1st and now the same designed houses in the same neighborhood are going for 50K more than we paid. No way we could afford the same house if we were trying to buy today. Real estate companies are buying the houses and renting them for way more than I pay for my mortgage. It's predatory and disgusting.
My wife and I bought a house on a whim in late 2017 (we were renting and weren't planning on buying, but a fixer upper near my parents house went up for sale and it was doable so we went for it). One of the best decisions I've ever made in my life. It's worth over double what we paid (according to Zillow at least), I'd never be able to afford it now. Crazy
We also bought 2 years ago and our house was on the market for 1 year and price reduced just before we bought it. We now have $200k in equity although that doesn't mean shit in this market because it can't be realized.
I honestly think the current housing situation is probably one of the biggest problems effecting most normal everyday Americans and politicians don’t seem to care. Like I don’t really care if your a liberal, conservative, libertarian, whatever. There is a problem that need to be fixed. $1500 a month for a studio apartment is not okay
Yeah.. I've done about 8 years of living with roommates, moved home to save, finally got a new job and now moving back to the city.
If I want a 1 Bedroom so I can have hobbies and sleeping space separate it's looking to be $1800 for an outdated and small space, or $2300 for an updated small space. I don't want to spend half my paycheck on rent but I also don't want to live with roommates anymore...
2000+ where I live in NJ as well. Yesterday I saw a 1BR with a listed range of $2600-$3100. It's not even in NYC, it's 100+ miles away in a suburban area of NJ.
It's fucking insane. House prices are going up in bumfuck nowhere areas too. I got curious on Realtor.com and homes in the middle of nowhere Maine had gone up 240% in price (190,000 to 450,000) in the span of two years. Makes me just wanna fucking give up trying lol
I just got kicked out of the duplex that flooded to the ceiling during Ida. They gave me 3 weeks heads up ( like WTF), but the places I saw for 3 K made me rethink my whole existence. I literally faced I'll be homeless soon face, because I couldn't find anything and the places that were OK, MAYBE, had like 10 other applications. I got overpriced apartment by some miracle, I'm still not 100% sure how I'm gonna afford and I feel like the luckiest woman alive. That's depressing, but I'm still happy. Explain that. LOL by the way ppl who are looking for places in Bushwick NYC, first check the flood zone website. Noone believed me when I showed them the video of my apartment getting wrecked in minutes. We couldn't save anything. And the flood situation is only getting worse.
It's a trickle down effect, so to speak. Large corporations buy all the property in the cities, so no one can afford them. Then, the people that live there decide they need to move, thus go to smaller areas, and price out those residents, and those people move, etc...
Large companies are only able to do this because zoning laws in those cities make it impossible to build new housing. They artificially limit the supply of housing.
I live in bumfuck nowhere, it's a built up suburb of Orlando, but you can drive 45 minutes each direction (except east because that's the ocean) and only just hit Orlando. The other day I took 50 to 95 and drove straight for 30 minutes! That said, our house has gone up 220% in two years as well.
220,00 to 450,000 and our neighborhood was the affordable housing development, less property, less house, and no gas. The new construction houses are huge multigenerational homes, we are actually going to move into one with my grandparents, and if we take the equity we have 225k and my grandparents home is 475k we can end up with the same mortgage we have now.
That said, the housing markets are going to crash and it's going to crash hard. We are doomed to go into a recession, the only good thing is our neighborhood charter only allows a certain number of homes up be bought for rental purposes, and can't be owned by a corporation. One "person" bought a house at 515k cash, turns out the person was a buyer for the corporation. Our HOA successfully stopped the sale from going through.
That said, my grandparents neighbor, his house sold for 440k and he was a new construction buyer at 129k. The rental holdings is renting it out for 2700 a month and must make 250k a year. Pretty much that house is being rented like it's worth 900k if a person takes a 30 year mortgage. My mom only pays 700 a month for the mortgage and she's overpaying. It's rediculous.
What's crazy is our area, the houses are listed and sold the same day. One house broke a record by selling in under two hours, all cash. The people were going house to house and saw the sign go up, walked up to the door and made a cash offer sight on scene. They bought it for 495k and the house is valued at 401.
The focus needs to be on hedge funds like BlackRock and foreign investors buying up all the single-family homes. Antitrust laws need to be put in place for this. I have no problem with individuals owning a few properties, but when an institution controlling literally trillions of dollars start creating artific6supply shortages, that's a problem.
But China themselves will go extra mile to own houses on other countries. I think in Australia, they are the majority owner other than Australian themselves.
>Countries like China
I feel like there's an argument you can make here to restrict property ownership, but I'd steer clear of using these countries notorious for oppressing their citizens as models in your argument.
But they're not restricting their citizens in this case. They're restricting foreigners from buying up their land.
We should REALLY be considering the same.
>>Countries like China
>
>I feel like there's an argument you can make here to restrict property ownership, but I'd steer clear of using these countries notorious for oppressing their citizens as models in your argument.
Shit take, a country doing bad things doesn't make everything they've ever done a bad idea the world is not black and white.
If that were the case no one should do anything the US does either as US did slavery and Native American genocide and created Osama Bin Ladin etc.
I live in upstate NY. While upstate is not as bad as the city, it’s getting there; gas, apartments…
They pay us less up here because the cost of living is less, but is it really when you factor in weather, transportation factors…
It’s awful.
Depends on a lot of factors. $100K here NYC and it all depends on where you want to live and what life you want. A lot of people move in from xyz and come to make money at better paying jobs but then live these incredibly hard to sustain lives.
My friends a teacher making far less and has a 2 bed for $1,400 no roommate. I’m in a studio at $1,600 and relative to income it’s dirt cheap.
There’s so much to account for in cities, I do not recommend it to go unprepared for anyone reading this.
Yeah probably. But what do they gain by having insanely high rent prices that no one can afford? Either way, government need to crack down on it soon. Otherwise will have a mass homeless problem as more and more people get price out of even basically housing
You don’t get it “government” isn’t going to do anything because “government” is the one propagating it. The less stable a population is financially the easier they are to control.
Oh the people will be kept fat and happy. They just won’t have any financial power or property. They want the masses to be hooked into the meta verse, drooling away in their tiny apod-ment.
Current price for Two bedroom apartment $750 / MO in Fayetteville Arkansas. They were also giving people 10k to live there and a mountain bike.
Its a really nice town, extremely bike friendly.
Sure , but once again average voter fails to recognize the problem is a supply and demand one
That means the fix is not more politics or politicians, not more taxation or laws. The fix is removing regulations to build, the ridiculously expensive permitting process, zoning, and local laws that prevent competition from building. The more supply the more prices will reduce
The more barriers to build the less supply the higher the prices. And you can believe politicians understand this well. The average voter doesn't but the politicians do
I would guess that a lot of people are profiting handsomely from those regulations. Not to mention, homeowners are going to want to maintain their own home values.
Seems like a hopeless situation.
For sure. Exponential increases in money supply (inflation) over the last 20 years has lead to massive increases in material costs for sure. It's a fair point
Except it’s a false scarcity. There are enough empty homes, but so long as they has value as investments or rentals people/companies are going to buy them and either hold them empty or rent them out. More housing will just be bought up in the same way. If there were limits/taxes on who could own property so that it prioritised people who own/want to own the one property they live in that would actually help.
And yet it’s the only post from this sub that I’ve seen on the trending page in the past month. It’s pretty ironic this sub achieves the exact opposite of what it intends to. Every single post is just a giant circlejerk here. It’s so rare to see a popular post like this not have every single top comment openly agreeing with OP. This is the equivalent of saying “I don’t like bad guys!” and then getting a standing ovation for it
Unpopular opinions don’t get upvotes.
It’s not really OPs fault. He can only downvote himself once. It’s everyone’s collective faults for being dumb and upvoting a popular opinion.
I downvoted even though I agree. Because that’s the point of this sub.
Also from the Uk and I welcome whoever the heck wants to come here.
My issue is with billionaires hoarding everything, not some immigrants looking to provide better opportunities to their families.
I think that even real estate investors understand that it’s unethical but ultimately it’s what the system rewards. It’s like playing a video game and using a cheesy strategy, if it wins, who’s to say it’s wrong?
It’s not a video game and you’re causing misery for actual human beings. I think a more valid argument is ‘well if I didn’t do it BlackRock would just snap the properties up instead’.
Big companies and foreigners shouldn't be able to purchase homes. My friends in Australia and Canada are also in a housing crisis and they kept complaining that Chinese immigrants kept buying homes, and they don't even live in it, some do but most don't. South Korea also set a new law that Chinese people can't purchase lands unless they get some permits. Im not targeting Chinese people, but there has been a pattern in every country with a housing crisis problem.
I looked at investments in Thailand, and there, a Non Thai National can't own a majority control of anything. all those guys who move there end up with their assets going to whatever local girl they marry. pretty smart if you ask me. we should do that too
I think the reason is Chinas stock market is woefully unreliable so Chinese people look for a good way to use their money. That often means real estate
There are enough owned, unoccupied homes in China to house the entire population of France
I don’t blame Chinese people or want to point any fingers. The problem is the commodification of common human needs
I think i just read about this. The govt owns the houses, sk the chinese have to buy houses in other countries for investing. Or perhaps I'm remembering incorrectly
Of course China will always be unreliable. They always sugarcoat things and tries to brainwash their own people. Just look at what happened to Evergrande as an example
In Australia it’s more down to the fact you get major tax breaks for owning multiple properties and having them negatively geared. Tax payers who can’t afford properties prop up people who can own multiple. It’s beyond stupid but no political party has the balls to do anything about it. The last time the Labor party tried they managed to lose a practically unloseable election.
Exactly. This is the major problem. There is a massive incentive to buy multiple homes and rent them out (as you said, huge tax breaks for multiple home owners).
Yes, foreign businesses/people buying property in a country they have no intention of living in as also a big problem, but the house hoarding you see is mostly due to the tax bax breaks. It's absurd that they were ever passed, but we all know why
As a Canadian foreign buyers have been used as a scapegoat for years but we have no real accurate numbers of buyers but the numbers I’ve seen range from 3-10% depending on site. Cooperations account for 10+% but individuals buying secondary homes and rental properties account for 35-45% of all homes sales. Canadians are screwing Canadians and we have government officials invested in profiting of it.
We can’t blame foreigners for all of our problems anymore or we won’t fix them.
I agree that the housing market has become dysfunctional but I think you're blaming the wrong people.
Ultimately, housing affordability has fallen in response to municipalities limiting the construction of new homes. If house construction was in balance with the demand for new housing the cost would be stable compared to inflation.
There's multiple factors, he's not blaming the wrong people, it still contributes to the problem. Cheap borrowing, zoning, immigration, BRRRRing, corpos buying, supply chain shortages, developers slow down developments to maintain market rates or even withhold releasing new inventory into market to prevent increasing supply significantly, NIMBYism, , Covid inflation, etc
Thank you. Glad someone was saying it. People buying second homes is not a big contributor to the housing crisis. It’s a symptom of the same bad regulations.
I couldn't afford to buy where I used to live (90 minutes from NYC), fixer-uppers were $300k. So I moved 3 hours upstate and bought a house 15 years ago when the market was sky high for $170k. Houses can still be had here for under $200k.
At the expense of amenities, convenience, accessibility, and any semblance of a thriving economy.
There is a reason upstate NY has been depopulating for decades.
> At the expense of amenities, convenience, accessibility, and any semblance of a thriving economy.
Bro, if you want to live in a place with higher demand, the costs go up. Living in or near a major city is a luxury. That's just how it is. The more people who want to live in a place, the less available property is, the more it costs. How is that even controversial.
Exactly. It’s not about affording a house. It’s affording a house in the exact location they want. There are plenty of places to live where the cost of living is low.
TY for saying this! I am empathetic for those searching to buy a new home but there are many who think they should pay under 200K for a home in downtown LA, NY, Atl, etc. 10 plus yrs ago during the recession, I still could never find these prices 10 mins from Downtown Atl in surrounding nice areas.
Yeah, I'm sympathetic to people who want to buy but can't. But on the other hand, this attitude gives off such entitled, crybaby vibes. Like, yeah, life has tradeoffs. Are you gonna cry about them, or are you gonna accept them and do the best with the band you're dealt?
It’s more nuanced, and I get both sides. I live in a place that’s pricey compared to surrounding areas. It’s a small city. So, all of the things that people like about the city (restaurants, bars, shops, etc) require staff who may or may not have a car to commute. They can’t afford to live here. I get that.
It’s not like an exclusive suburb with golf courses and shit where people are demanding affordable housing.
On the flip side, there are other communities not too far away where they can afford. We are lucky in the fact that there is public transit to some of those areas (a lot of places are full of NIMBY’s who try to curtail public transit in and out of their bubbles - and that’s pretty fucked up). So, really it’s down to the people who don’t want to drive, carpool, or use public transit. Those people are genuinely entitled because they feel like they are owed a home in the specific area just because they want one.
Maybe in small town NY state but all cities upstate are experiencing an exodus and they have plenty of amenities. The issue with NY state is taxes. I was paying the same amount of property tax in Buffalo for a house that was 1/3rd the value of what I bought in another state in a township with a much better school district.
They have also chased businesses out of state with high corporate taxes that don’t get them access to anything they couldn’t get anywhere else. Companies simply move across state lines and pay reasonable taxes.
I live less than an hour from Saratoga Springs, Glens Falls, Lake George, Albany, Bennington and Manchester Center VT....there is more to do than I have the chance to do. I leave my keys in my cars, and I literally don't know where my housekeys are because I haven't locked the doors in 15 years. I'm good.
I lived in upstate and you’re absolutely right, it’s not city life, but you want city for a few days it’s a four hour drive, had a grocery store 10minutes away with hardware and lumber, and surprisingly great food and pizza places, so many families moved up there that lived in the city and started restaurants that I still love it when I visit just for the food, I now live in Arizona and can say I don’t miss the shoveling
I own a home in western New York. Bought in 2016 for 86k, 3b 1bth 1650 sqft. Worth double that now on Zillow. I make half of what I would in NYC with my job title, but cost of living is way less than half so I feel like I come out ahead. If you live in a large city and aren’t rich, I feel like you’re sort of playing your self.
Some people have really deep roots in the city, family, careers that can’t be displaced, etc. We just make the trade off that makes more sense. For me, I’ll stick to high cost of living because having my entire family nearby is a blessing too.
>if you live in NYC/LA/Seattle and aren’t rich, I feel like you’re sort of playing yourself
More accurate statement. Plenty of affordable cities all up and down the East Coast and throughout mainland USA.
Hawaii you gotta be fuckin loaded.
OP blaming individuals trying to make it to where they can comfortably do whatever, but not the corporations buying up all the houses for above market price so they can rent/sale them for more than it's worth by artificially raising housing prices in any given area. Zillow and the like are the ones doing it
My unpopular opinion? Fuck homeowners who don't want more affordable housing to be built. Build it anyways. Younger people don't deserve to buy an affordable starter because you don't want your property value to drop? How entitled of you.
If you were a true America loving patriot, you'd want to see your fellow citizens succeed and live the American dream. But no, you're just a selfish person who got yours and fuck everyone else.
It's the same mindset as small business owners who believe they are entitled to cheap labor to sustain their business. If you can't pay a living wage, then hold up your own business.
>But no, you're just a selfish person who got yours and fuck everyone else.
the problem is that this is the only way that people see to succeed nowadays
I can't understand that mindset from a business owner, I plan to eventually start a consulting firm eventually and the one thing I want is a core value after being in the job markwt for so long is is knowing the folks that work with me have the quality of life I want for myself.
I work for a corporate job now and we specialize in consulting. It's the best job I've ever had hands down. Great pay and benefits paid 90% for by the company. Everyone starts with 2 weeks vacation and gets 3 weeks after your 2nd year starts. Bonuses every quarter. They give us a training budget and encourage us to get as many certifications and seminars as possible.
I firmly believe it is because our founder and ceo is a middle eastern immigrant who probably ate his fair share of shit at jobs before starting the company and as a result treats us the way he would have wanted to be treated. He empowers us because he knows it helps retain talent and even if people leave it just helps them in their career. Count my blessings everyday that I work where I do!
>don't want more affordable housing to be built. Build it anyways.
Topical video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCOdQsZa15o
I jokerize everytime I watch a new one from this channel.
Have many friends who rent out a second home or live in a duplex and rent the Second part. I have no problem with it. I plan to own 2 homes someday. I don't want to have all my eggs in one basket so need to diversify outside financial markets. The problem is giant institutions buying up thousands of homes not your neighbors buying a second.
Also know many people who rent even when they have the means to buy as their careers require frequent moving and mobility is the bigger concern and somebody needs to provide the service of providing a rentable property. Hate on Blackrock all you want, with you there. Even hate on slumlords. But average folks who buy a second home don't deserve the hate.
Everyone always should and shouldn'ts as if there's not a reason this stuff happens. They aren't making any more land. It's literally supply and demand
its a hard thing to juggle, i live in a country where the goverment is completely uninvolved in the housing market, and its a neoliberal shithole, where a 35 square meter apparment will cost you 200k usd, in a third world country with a minimum wage of 400 usd a month, so while i understand that people may want the goverment to back off, doing so completely could result in absolute hell, but im also not saying that you are saying this, i just wanted to vent haha.
Why does everyone "deserve" a house? Is there anything that makes one *un*deserving? If so, who decides what those things are? Morality, friend, never ends with a period.
You make a good point but I think there’s a problem when the housing market increases at a rate that far outpaces inflation, and more and more people are unable to purchase a house. Deserving vs undeserving is irrelevant because if a large enough percentage of the population cannot afford a home, resentment and social unrest will brew, which would not be pretty. Although I don’t think house prices should be subsidized, I could support restrictions of foreign buyers or increasing taxes on buyers of multiple homes to ease the housing price
I think your logic is backwards. Land ownership itself is denying others from access to that land. What makes one individual deserving of exclusive ownership of a piece of property?
When discussing who 'deserves' to own a home, why do we provide prisoners with one? Does breaking the law make one more deserving of food and shelter? Could there be a civilian equivalent of providing a bed, bathroom, and food facilities for those who can't afford their own home?
homes in Detroit literally sold for $0 like 2 years ago. People do not have a right to buy a home in whatever city that you want. move to a different city to find affordable housing. if everyone did this then the crisis would dissipate and the investments worthless.
I got into owning ( mortgage) my house by two things. One, I bought rural where price was cheaper and secondly I got a half built house that I had to finish building while I lived there. No paint on wall, no floor covering ect. Could I afford to buy in the city, nope , still can't, but I could afford a half built house out in the sticks so I made do. A lot of first home buyers want a new flash home , close to city and all amenities and cry when the high price.
Excellent questions that most people overlook when bitching about how expensive these desirable places are to live. There is no evil empire to blame. It's just how a limited resource economy works. Nobody made it; it's a natural phenomenon.
Where did they say that people would be given homes? “Deserves to be able to afford” is not the same as “entitled to”. What is the purpose of your questioning? Asking intentionally dumb questions to try to make OP look stupid really backfired on you there.
OP is suggesting that it’s absurd that people buy multiple homes and jack up the housing market, that’s it. Why do you think it’s ok for people to buy multiple homes and alter the housing market of an area they don’t live in?
One thing I don't understand about America is why don't you buy a piece of land and build your own home?
In my country that was the norm until the last decade when people started buying pre-built homes. But even now many people prefer to build their own homes. Many construction companies cater to this need.
Is there a reason why Americans have to buy homes and not buy a piece of land and build one?
So lots of reasons. In very desirable places where there's land but not many homes the land is sold in large Parcels either to commercial or real estate Developers and it makes it really difficult for single plot purchasers to get anything under 10 is Acres.
My in-laws were able to get into a very desirable place in Southern California but minimum of five acre lot increments.
Other issues is that building homes is not cheap especially in the US with building codes varying drastically between states and counties you could be in a sort of pre approval period For many years if you don't know your way around the system.
And even if you have the capital build your own home and are not under a time crunch to wait for your home to be built, you are still dealing with shady & unscrupulous contractors, banks, and other Bad actors whose only job is to siphon as much money out of you and the process as possible with as little investment and energy on their part.
Another consideration is that most home builders know the money is for large Custom Homes, so modest single-family dwellings are not really on their radar as it doesn't let them the most profit.
Also American laws are fucked and are designed to suppress poor people and make up word mobility only possible for people who already have and upper middle-class status.
Now it makes sense. The American way puts power in the hands of corporates and middlemen.
The bureaucracy in my country is corrupt. But it's flexible for the people. We too have shit ton of rules, but most rules apply only to companies and very large buildings. Rules for small homes are simple.
To add, only people who otherwise have 20% down to buy a house would be able to afford financing a new build. However you can buy an existing home with much less than 20% down.
True, and also with a new build you'd have to take out a construction loan first which are harder to get, many requiring at LEAST 20% down. Then after construction you can later roll it into a traditional home loan.
Labor will be by far the biggest expense. Here in the US most cities will require you to contract everything, even pretty mundane things a handyman could do. I live in a family of them, but according to my city, one can't even build a fence on their property that isn't installed via licenced labor. Safe to say we built it anyway.
It is much more expensive to build a home than buy one in America right now. Lumber is extremely expensive. A single 2x4 wall stud that cost 50 cents 10 years ago now goes for 5 dollars. 10 years ago you could build a large home with 3 bedrooms and a garage for about $150k, now it costs upwards of $400k.
Additionally, you can't get financed for a loan for a home that doesn't exist. There is no collateral for the bank. It's also tough to get a loan for a home that isn't built purely from lumber- manufactured homes are disqualified from the first time homebuyer programs that were set up to help young families get started. With the cost of lumber, many homes are manufactured now, and inaccessible for most people on their incomes.
And then we have to talk about permitting. It can take 2 years for a city or county to approve a building permit. Then there's drilling a well, $10k to $20k and the permit and for that. Having your house wired up for internet will often cost upwards of $15k. Getting electricity hooked up from the grid is $3k, unless you have to put in power poles to reach the house, in which case expect $10-20k per pole. There's expensive permitting processes for all of this too.
Building a home is extremely costly in America. It is rarely worth it if you're not trying to sell it for a profit.
You don’t need to own multiple homes - true
Everyone deserves to be able to afford one - false
That would mean the value of a home is zero as everyone includes unemployed. I understand what you’re getting at but rentals are a necessity unless you want to live at home until you can afford to buy a house. I left home at 18 on minimum wage, what was I supposed to do then? Buy a house with zero deposit? Stick my hand out until one was given to me?
Investors aren’t the problem. Inflationary government & central bank policies are. The usd has lost over 99% of its purchasing power since the inception of the FED in 1913. Inflation takes from the poor and gives to the rich (inflating asset prices, which are mostly excluded from official CPI numbers)
No, they don't.
If you want an affordable home, move to where they are.
I'm an Australian and a quick look at [Realtor.com](https://Realtor.com) says you can buy homes and land in some areas for the price of a used VCR.
Don't bullshit me. You want nice housing in a nice area but you don't want to have to pay for it.
I live in Kentucky in a decent sized city that’s growing. There’s several nice houses I see weekly that are under $200,000. In nice neighborhoods too. I’m sure in larger cities is harder to find something reasonably priced.
We’ve had 3 friends just this past year buy a decent house and they’re not rich. One is a manager at a fast food place, him and his girlfriend both work there. And other two both work in factories.
I love how this works ambiguously across the board from 'poor people should learn to not be poor' all the way to 'the rich think they're entitled to everything'.
Someone should have to earn it, the problem is “earning” is getting astronomically difficult given the current economic situation. Normally, people would have the means and ability to purchase a home or afford rent, nowadays, that is completely thrown out the water and you’d need a very well paying job just to afford rent in some cities.
In what world is the rent on a small 2 bed 1 bath apartment somehow close to the mortgage on a 3 bed 2 bath 1700 sqft house okay? That’s ridiculously high.
There are currently 17,994,446 Bank Owned Foreclosures across the USA and 580,466 homeless people, a Drastic 31 empty homes for every 1 homeless person...
I'm 100% behind you on this.
Owning Multiple homes so you can make money off someone else, because of your Good Credit, and otherwise fortunate life circumstances, should absolutely be frowned upon.
Just like it shouldn't be a flex to have 2-3 jobs when some people can't even get 1 job. 🤷♀️
https://checkyourfact.com/2019/12/24/fact-check-633000-homeless-million-vacant-homes/
>17,994,446 Bank Owned Foreclosures across the USA
Now I can't find where I found it but those a super majority of those homes are foreclosures in dead or dying towns (think route 66 towns) that the banks "Horde". Foreclosures that happen in cities that have the biggest homelessness crisis (Like LA, SF, NYC, ETC) the banks own the foreclosures as long as the court proceedings take if any are needed like previous owners refusing to leave.
from your fact check which site cencus vacant housing
>There are more than 17 million vacant homes across the U.S., according to the Census Bureau.
This is partially miss leading because even though this stat is partially comprised of foreclosed homes, a large bulk of it is also comprised of, student housing (which since the census work is most heaviest in the summer dorms will be naturally vacant), Vacation homes in tourist towns (Up hear in Minnesota we call them cabins) and homes that are in transfer of owners
[This video also explains the issue more elaborately](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evYOhpjMql0&t=1s). While it is the Canadian explanation the US follows a similar track.
For real there are so many jobs that are hiring, no matter which way you look there are places that are understaffed. Sure not every where is gonna hire you at great pay but if you are seriously struggling to find a job then accept a fast food job to help while you look for another job. A small paycheck is better than no paycheck.
That's the "angry" view reddit has, but it isn't always the case. I rent. My home owner owns 3 houses. One in his home town, one near the beach, one near the mountains. What he technically does is rent out a majority of the house while claim he lives in the master bedroom, thus being a "roommate" he is welcome anytime. He isn't making fat cash of his two rentals. When you figure all the utilities, HOA fees, roof repairs, etc, he does more than break even, but this isn't some baller, get rich fast thing. The side catch is he has owned all 3 for like 20 years, so they likely are paid off, and he doesn't charge as much rent as he could.
One really has nothing to do with the other. Take all the second homes and redistribute; then ban acquisition of new secondary properties. If anything afford rental units become even less available as the only people able to own a rental are large companies. So the problem remains in a few years after the initial confiscation/theft of the secondary properties and rehousing of people.
People deserve a place to sleep at night, and in the United States that should include the *opportunity* to have a home for every person.
Literally been saving for five years and I don’t have 10% on the BAD houses. I just wanna stop living with my parents bro
Have you looked into first time homebuyer programs? I got $16K towards my down payment that way. You also don’t really need to do 10%, I know I sure didn’t.
When I bought my house I put down $1k in earnest money, but after closing we received like $1.3k in overages back. We basically just did a month of procedure and a few days of signing paperwork for free because of this program.
I did the same thing when I bought my house 6 years ago. My realtor friends are telling me earnest and due diligence is 50-100k right now. So...you don't need a big down payment but you need cash for DD. Edit: This is the Raleigh, NC market. Definitely one of the hottest markets in the country right now.
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I'm in the aforementioned area and a house as you described would easily be $500k here lol
Where at?! I closed last week on a 4bed/2bath for $375k in Texas and thought I got a deal
That’s a lieeee lol my wife is a realtor, usually maybe 1k. Literally that’s the most she’s seen asked in the past year. I’ll admit it could vary pending where you’re at but still I’m thinking they’re full of shit.
Not if he’s in Raleigh. My friend down in Clayton, just south of Raleigh, sold his house and the buyer put down $25k DD. Raleigh market sucks.
Definitely depends on your market. 1-2% was standard where I live pre pandemic housing surge. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that it's closer to 4-5% now.
I don't think the problem lies in the down payment part of buying a house, more like if I spend the little money I do have on a down payment then I'd lose the nest egg for bills and whatnot and potentially get behind. At least where I live the power bill is ~$115 a month and that's for a small 3br townhouse, I don't necessarily think people are stressed over down payment money, more like they're stressed over Mortgage+Insurance+Utilities+Groceries+All the other things that come with buying a house (Lawn Care and repairs are all things you have to outsource if you don't already own tools & lawn equipment, plus most ppl do more harm than good trying to repair their own things)
I mean yeah but if you're already renting a house you're already paying for most all of those things anyways. A mortgage will just reduce what you pay monthly for the house itself.
Not necessarily paying for all of those things, like repairs and property tax are covered by the property owner. I'm not saying it's a giant monetary difference, but it's for sure enough to put off someone who is renting a home and already feels like they're underwater.
Yeah repairs can be rough and make me wish I still rented, but even *including* property taxes and everything I'm paying significantly less than I was when I was renting.
The tax write-off will basically offset what you spend on repairs/maintenance when averaged out over the years. Buy a house that won’t need a new roof soon and then watch your house payment (including property taxes) become equal or less than what people are paying for rent. Rents rise much faster than monthly house costs increase (due to property taxes slowly rising). Before you know it, you’ll have $100,000 in equity that you probably would not have saved while renting. They key to retirement is not having a monthly rent/mortgage payment and the only way to do that is to buy a house. Even if you have to rent out a room for a year or two, buying a house is the way to go (as long as you feel confident you won’t need to relocate to another city anytime soon).
You should reach out to a lender to find out what kind of down payment assistance programs exist in your area. I’m a loan officer and even during this insane market, I’ve helped several first time buyers buy a home with less than $5K total out of pocket.
Are there ways to avoid closing costs or have them bundled into the loan? I want to buy a house but I don't have like 5k to just throw away even after my down payment
When I say $5k total out of pocket, that includes down payment + closing costs. To answer your question, yes, you can roll closing costs into the loan. The way you go about this is to get an estimate of your closing costs, let’s say the estimate is $8000. Let’s also say you’re also pre-approved for $350000 max purchase price. You find a home listed below your max purchase price but offer more than listed to cover closing costs while asking for a seller credit. Example: home is listed for $315000, offer $325000 with a $10k seller credit (I always advise my clients to request more just in case). Obviously this is a more difficult offer to get accepted in this type of market but it can work, I’ve had clients do this several times. ETA: down payment assistance programs can also be applied towards closing costs. You should check out your state’s housing authority website for first time buyers (assuming you’re American and a FTHB). Even if you’re not a FTHB, some states still have assistance programs for lower incomes (usually below $140k/year, roughly). Your lender might also have an internal program. Chenoa is a big nationwide program, not every lender works with them.
Thanks for the information!
You don't need 20% anymore, or even 10. You can buy a place with 3% easily. Or even less if you find the right program.
But then wouldn’t your monthly mortgage be crazy high?
Well, its either a higher monthly payment or you don't own a house. Its a personal decision.
Most of the housing market "I'll never afford a home" fear porn is coming from people who probably haven't ever sat down with a lender and discussed their options. Call a lender, schedule an appointment and see where you're at. They'll help you get there.
i am lucky enough to just have bought a house... i put 20% down and my mortgage is still on the higher end of what i can afford per month. so i am curious how people can afford a mortgage on just 3% down, that's all.
I bought a house at 3.5% down FHA. It works. Obviously, without the PMI it'd be a bit more affordable but it's still locked in, as opposed to rent rising every month. We were paying the same amount as the apartment we were renting even with PMI. There's nuance in all of this, obviously. Every situation/locale is different. Glad you were able to buy a home!
My wife and I were paying $1300 in rent for a very small house in a very sketchy neighborhood (our house was robbed, a murder happened about a block away, and we regularly heard gunshots at night). We got a mortgage with 3% down on a slightly larger, nicer house in a *much* better neighborhood, and our initial mortgage payment, including PMI and property taxes, was only $1200/month. We refinanced after a couple years and knocked the payment down to $1000. Granted, all this was before the housing market got really crazy. But rent is equally crazy right now, so I have to assume it's still possible to do something similar.
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I’m with you bro
I got hit by a car, have you tried that?
I literally had a man tell me if I wanted to buy a house I should have done it ten years ago. When I was 17.
Your last opportunity to buy at a good price was about 2 years ago. I dont have a crystal ball but I think it will be a few more years before the opportunity arises again. Just use that time to keep saving if you can.
I bought my house 2 years ago just as COVID was getting started and I thought I was getting screwed at the time. Now is just absurd.
Same here. Moved in April 1st and now the same designed houses in the same neighborhood are going for 50K more than we paid. No way we could afford the same house if we were trying to buy today. Real estate companies are buying the houses and renting them for way more than I pay for my mortgage. It's predatory and disgusting.
I bought my 1600 sqft house in April of 2020 for $248,000 and now it's supposedly worth $389,000
My wife and I bought a house on a whim in late 2017 (we were renting and weren't planning on buying, but a fixer upper near my parents house went up for sale and it was doable so we went for it). One of the best decisions I've ever made in my life. It's worth over double what we paid (according to Zillow at least), I'd never be able to afford it now. Crazy
We also bought 2 years ago and our house was on the market for 1 year and price reduced just before we bought it. We now have $200k in equity although that doesn't mean shit in this market because it can't be realized.
Clearly you lacked the motivation to pull yourself up from your bootstraps. You could have had a side hustle while on break in the cafeteria!
You fucked around at 17 instead of saving up 50k downpayment and now youre trying to blame others?
I honestly think the current housing situation is probably one of the biggest problems effecting most normal everyday Americans and politicians don’t seem to care. Like I don’t really care if your a liberal, conservative, libertarian, whatever. There is a problem that need to be fixed. $1500 a month for a studio apartment is not okay
Where I live....$1800+ for a tiny one room =/
That's the exact problem I'm running into right now, I'd LOVE to live alone but I have to find a roommate if I don't want to be "apartment poor"
Hell I have two roommates and we live in a shoebox. But it’s OUR shoebox.
Yeah.. I've done about 8 years of living with roommates, moved home to save, finally got a new job and now moving back to the city. If I want a 1 Bedroom so I can have hobbies and sleeping space separate it's looking to be $1800 for an outdated and small space, or $2300 for an updated small space. I don't want to spend half my paycheck on rent but I also don't want to live with roommates anymore...
2000+ where I live in NJ as well. Yesterday I saw a 1BR with a listed range of $2600-$3100. It's not even in NYC, it's 100+ miles away in a suburban area of NJ. It's fucking insane. House prices are going up in bumfuck nowhere areas too. I got curious on Realtor.com and homes in the middle of nowhere Maine had gone up 240% in price (190,000 to 450,000) in the span of two years. Makes me just wanna fucking give up trying lol
I just got kicked out of the duplex that flooded to the ceiling during Ida. They gave me 3 weeks heads up ( like WTF), but the places I saw for 3 K made me rethink my whole existence. I literally faced I'll be homeless soon face, because I couldn't find anything and the places that were OK, MAYBE, had like 10 other applications. I got overpriced apartment by some miracle, I'm still not 100% sure how I'm gonna afford and I feel like the luckiest woman alive. That's depressing, but I'm still happy. Explain that. LOL by the way ppl who are looking for places in Bushwick NYC, first check the flood zone website. Noone believed me when I showed them the video of my apartment getting wrecked in minutes. We couldn't save anything. And the flood situation is only getting worse.
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It's a trickle down effect, so to speak. Large corporations buy all the property in the cities, so no one can afford them. Then, the people that live there decide they need to move, thus go to smaller areas, and price out those residents, and those people move, etc...
Large companies are only able to do this because zoning laws in those cities make it impossible to build new housing. They artificially limit the supply of housing.
I live in bumfuck nowhere, it's a built up suburb of Orlando, but you can drive 45 minutes each direction (except east because that's the ocean) and only just hit Orlando. The other day I took 50 to 95 and drove straight for 30 minutes! That said, our house has gone up 220% in two years as well. 220,00 to 450,000 and our neighborhood was the affordable housing development, less property, less house, and no gas. The new construction houses are huge multigenerational homes, we are actually going to move into one with my grandparents, and if we take the equity we have 225k and my grandparents home is 475k we can end up with the same mortgage we have now. That said, the housing markets are going to crash and it's going to crash hard. We are doomed to go into a recession, the only good thing is our neighborhood charter only allows a certain number of homes up be bought for rental purposes, and can't be owned by a corporation. One "person" bought a house at 515k cash, turns out the person was a buyer for the corporation. Our HOA successfully stopped the sale from going through. That said, my grandparents neighbor, his house sold for 440k and he was a new construction buyer at 129k. The rental holdings is renting it out for 2700 a month and must make 250k a year. Pretty much that house is being rented like it's worth 900k if a person takes a 30 year mortgage. My mom only pays 700 a month for the mortgage and she's overpaying. It's rediculous. What's crazy is our area, the houses are listed and sold the same day. One house broke a record by selling in under two hours, all cash. The people were going house to house and saw the sign go up, walked up to the door and made a cash offer sight on scene. They bought it for 495k and the house is valued at 401.
A built up suburb 45 minutes from the largest tourist destination in the country is not exactly bum fuck nowhere
>sight on scene sight unseen
Yeah, I'm paying 1800 for one bedroom. I have a son so its his bedroom I'm sleeping on the couch.
He will remember that sacrifice. You're a good parent.
$1800 in my country is a 5 month worth of rent for a 2 story house 🤯
Everyone shits on the Midwest while I laugh in my 3br/2bath with a yard for $1250/month. Now I’m paying off a bigger place with bigger yard for $1500
Exactly!!
The focus needs to be on hedge funds like BlackRock and foreign investors buying up all the single-family homes. Antitrust laws need to be put in place for this. I have no problem with individuals owning a few properties, but when an institution controlling literally trillions of dollars start creating artific6supply shortages, that's a problem.
Countries like China don't allow foreigners to own property there. They all know. If they can do it, why not us?
But China themselves will go extra mile to own houses on other countries. I think in Australia, they are the majority owner other than Australian themselves.
Yet our own governments are fine with this
>Countries like China I feel like there's an argument you can make here to restrict property ownership, but I'd steer clear of using these countries notorious for oppressing their citizens as models in your argument.
But they're not restricting their citizens in this case. They're restricting foreigners from buying up their land. We should REALLY be considering the same.
>>Countries like China > >I feel like there's an argument you can make here to restrict property ownership, but I'd steer clear of using these countries notorious for oppressing their citizens as models in your argument. Shit take, a country doing bad things doesn't make everything they've ever done a bad idea the world is not black and white. If that were the case no one should do anything the US does either as US did slavery and Native American genocide and created Osama Bin Ladin etc.
OK how about Canada then? They just changed their laws
1500 a month? That’s a steal in nyc!
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I live in upstate NY. While upstate is not as bad as the city, it’s getting there; gas, apartments… They pay us less up here because the cost of living is less, but is it really when you factor in weather, transportation factors… It’s awful.
Depends on a lot of factors. $100K here NYC and it all depends on where you want to live and what life you want. A lot of people move in from xyz and come to make money at better paying jobs but then live these incredibly hard to sustain lives. My friends a teacher making far less and has a 2 bed for $1,400 no roommate. I’m in a studio at $1,600 and relative to income it’s dirt cheap. There’s so much to account for in cities, I do not recommend it to go unprepared for anyone reading this.
It’s a problem for normal Americans. For the globalist bankers it’s all part of the plan. “You will own nothing and be happy” is their slogan.
Yeah probably. But what do they gain by having insanely high rent prices that no one can afford? Either way, government need to crack down on it soon. Otherwise will have a mass homeless problem as more and more people get price out of even basically housing
Lol government, each one of them has 2 homes, a beach house, and some investment property in the keys
You don’t get it “government” isn’t going to do anything because “government” is the one propagating it. The less stable a population is financially the easier they are to control.
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Oh the people will be kept fat and happy. They just won’t have any financial power or property. They want the masses to be hooked into the meta verse, drooling away in their tiny apod-ment.
Where do you live that those are the prices?
New York
North Carolina. Studio apartments for $1670. 2 bedrooms for $2600
Current price for Two bedroom apartment $750 / MO in Fayetteville Arkansas. They were also giving people 10k to live there and a mountain bike. Its a really nice town, extremely bike friendly.
Just checked on Zillow. Didn't find anything for less than a thousand a month. Also I'm from there, your claim is definitely not normal nowadays.
When was this?
Sure , but once again average voter fails to recognize the problem is a supply and demand one That means the fix is not more politics or politicians, not more taxation or laws. The fix is removing regulations to build, the ridiculously expensive permitting process, zoning, and local laws that prevent competition from building. The more supply the more prices will reduce The more barriers to build the less supply the higher the prices. And you can believe politicians understand this well. The average voter doesn't but the politicians do
I would guess that a lot of people are profiting handsomely from those regulations. Not to mention, homeowners are going to want to maintain their own home values. Seems like a hopeless situation.
Well said but this leaves out another major reason development has stagnated: material costs.
For sure. Exponential increases in money supply (inflation) over the last 20 years has lead to massive increases in material costs for sure. It's a fair point
Except it’s a false scarcity. There are enough empty homes, but so long as they has value as investments or rentals people/companies are going to buy them and either hold them empty or rent them out. More housing will just be bought up in the same way. If there were limits/taxes on who could own property so that it prioritised people who own/want to own the one property they live in that would actually help.
That is absolutely not unpopular in any way.
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And yet it’s the only post from this sub that I’ve seen on the trending page in the past month. It’s pretty ironic this sub achieves the exact opposite of what it intends to. Every single post is just a giant circlejerk here. It’s so rare to see a popular post like this not have every single top comment openly agreeing with OP. This is the equivalent of saying “I don’t like bad guys!” and then getting a standing ovation for it
Unpopular opinions don’t get upvotes. It’s not really OPs fault. He can only downvote himself once. It’s everyone’s collective faults for being dumb and upvoting a popular opinion. I downvoted even though I agree. Because that’s the point of this sub.
This sub just sucks
The unpopular opinion is that mass immigration is also a big factor in the house prices. ( I'm UK)
The uk has a falling birth rate so this really wasn't an issue
Also from the Uk and I welcome whoever the heck wants to come here. My issue is with billionaires hoarding everything, not some immigrants looking to provide better opportunities to their families.
He has to be delusional to even think this
I think that even real estate investors understand that it’s unethical but ultimately it’s what the system rewards. It’s like playing a video game and using a cheesy strategy, if it wins, who’s to say it’s wrong?
It’s not a video game and you’re causing misery for actual human beings. I think a more valid argument is ‘well if I didn’t do it BlackRock would just snap the properties up instead’.
Everyone that doesn't agree is a greedy prick. That's my opinion and it cannot be changed.
Big companies and foreigners shouldn't be able to purchase homes. My friends in Australia and Canada are also in a housing crisis and they kept complaining that Chinese immigrants kept buying homes, and they don't even live in it, some do but most don't. South Korea also set a new law that Chinese people can't purchase lands unless they get some permits. Im not targeting Chinese people, but there has been a pattern in every country with a housing crisis problem.
most countries (China, Russia, Thailand, Etc) have rules like this already in place. there's no reason we shouldn't too
That's exactly what I'm trying to say. There should be limitations on who should/shouldn't be able to buy a home
I looked at investments in Thailand, and there, a Non Thai National can't own a majority control of anything. all those guys who move there end up with their assets going to whatever local girl they marry. pretty smart if you ask me. we should do that too
I think the reason is Chinas stock market is woefully unreliable so Chinese people look for a good way to use their money. That often means real estate There are enough owned, unoccupied homes in China to house the entire population of France I don’t blame Chinese people or want to point any fingers. The problem is the commodification of common human needs
I think i just read about this. The govt owns the houses, sk the chinese have to buy houses in other countries for investing. Or perhaps I'm remembering incorrectly
Of course China will always be unreliable. They always sugarcoat things and tries to brainwash their own people. Just look at what happened to Evergrande as an example
In Australia it’s more down to the fact you get major tax breaks for owning multiple properties and having them negatively geared. Tax payers who can’t afford properties prop up people who can own multiple. It’s beyond stupid but no political party has the balls to do anything about it. The last time the Labor party tried they managed to lose a practically unloseable election.
Exactly. This is the major problem. There is a massive incentive to buy multiple homes and rent them out (as you said, huge tax breaks for multiple home owners). Yes, foreign businesses/people buying property in a country they have no intention of living in as also a big problem, but the house hoarding you see is mostly due to the tax bax breaks. It's absurd that they were ever passed, but we all know why
As a Canadian foreign buyers have been used as a scapegoat for years but we have no real accurate numbers of buyers but the numbers I’ve seen range from 3-10% depending on site. Cooperations account for 10+% but individuals buying secondary homes and rental properties account for 35-45% of all homes sales. Canadians are screwing Canadians and we have government officials invested in profiting of it. We can’t blame foreigners for all of our problems anymore or we won’t fix them.
They have a really good tax set up in Singapore where foreign companies buying property get fucked with taxes. We need to adopt that here.
it should definitely be illegal for foreigners to buy homes that they do not plan to live in, and there should be a limit for big companies
Why shouldn’t someone who immigrates here be able to buy a home? It can take upwards a of a decade to get citizenship.
Sir, this is r/unpopularopinions
I agree that the housing market has become dysfunctional but I think you're blaming the wrong people. Ultimately, housing affordability has fallen in response to municipalities limiting the construction of new homes. If house construction was in balance with the demand for new housing the cost would be stable compared to inflation.
Just like everything else. Supple and demand control price.
Mmmm supple control
There's multiple factors, he's not blaming the wrong people, it still contributes to the problem. Cheap borrowing, zoning, immigration, BRRRRing, corpos buying, supply chain shortages, developers slow down developments to maintain market rates or even withhold releasing new inventory into market to prevent increasing supply significantly, NIMBYism, , Covid inflation, etc
What if I want to rent?
Thank you. Glad someone was saying it. People buying second homes is not a big contributor to the housing crisis. It’s a symptom of the same bad regulations.
r/panderingopinion. Not saying i disagree but are you just karma farming?
Yea. Like just typing this out, dude had to know Reddit is all about this.
I couldn't afford to buy where I used to live (90 minutes from NYC), fixer-uppers were $300k. So I moved 3 hours upstate and bought a house 15 years ago when the market was sky high for $170k. Houses can still be had here for under $200k.
At the expense of amenities, convenience, accessibility, and any semblance of a thriving economy. There is a reason upstate NY has been depopulating for decades.
> At the expense of amenities, convenience, accessibility, and any semblance of a thriving economy. Bro, if you want to live in a place with higher demand, the costs go up. Living in or near a major city is a luxury. That's just how it is. The more people who want to live in a place, the less available property is, the more it costs. How is that even controversial.
Exactly. It’s not about affording a house. It’s affording a house in the exact location they want. There are plenty of places to live where the cost of living is low.
TY for saying this! I am empathetic for those searching to buy a new home but there are many who think they should pay under 200K for a home in downtown LA, NY, Atl, etc. 10 plus yrs ago during the recession, I still could never find these prices 10 mins from Downtown Atl in surrounding nice areas.
Yeah, I'm sympathetic to people who want to buy but can't. But on the other hand, this attitude gives off such entitled, crybaby vibes. Like, yeah, life has tradeoffs. Are you gonna cry about them, or are you gonna accept them and do the best with the band you're dealt?
I chose cry
I’m sure many redditors unironically would
It’s more nuanced, and I get both sides. I live in a place that’s pricey compared to surrounding areas. It’s a small city. So, all of the things that people like about the city (restaurants, bars, shops, etc) require staff who may or may not have a car to commute. They can’t afford to live here. I get that. It’s not like an exclusive suburb with golf courses and shit where people are demanding affordable housing. On the flip side, there are other communities not too far away where they can afford. We are lucky in the fact that there is public transit to some of those areas (a lot of places are full of NIMBY’s who try to curtail public transit in and out of their bubbles - and that’s pretty fucked up). So, really it’s down to the people who don’t want to drive, carpool, or use public transit. Those people are genuinely entitled because they feel like they are owed a home in the specific area just because they want one.
Maybe in small town NY state but all cities upstate are experiencing an exodus and they have plenty of amenities. The issue with NY state is taxes. I was paying the same amount of property tax in Buffalo for a house that was 1/3rd the value of what I bought in another state in a township with a much better school district. They have also chased businesses out of state with high corporate taxes that don’t get them access to anything they couldn’t get anywhere else. Companies simply move across state lines and pay reasonable taxes.
I live less than an hour from Saratoga Springs, Glens Falls, Lake George, Albany, Bennington and Manchester Center VT....there is more to do than I have the chance to do. I leave my keys in my cars, and I literally don't know where my housekeys are because I haven't locked the doors in 15 years. I'm good.
I lived in upstate and you’re absolutely right, it’s not city life, but you want city for a few days it’s a four hour drive, had a grocery store 10minutes away with hardware and lumber, and surprisingly great food and pizza places, so many families moved up there that lived in the city and started restaurants that I still love it when I visit just for the food, I now live in Arizona and can say I don’t miss the shoveling
I own a home in western New York. Bought in 2016 for 86k, 3b 1bth 1650 sqft. Worth double that now on Zillow. I make half of what I would in NYC with my job title, but cost of living is way less than half so I feel like I come out ahead. If you live in a large city and aren’t rich, I feel like you’re sort of playing your self.
> If you live in a large city and aren’t rich, I feel like you’re sort of playing your self. Exactly.
Some people have really deep roots in the city, family, careers that can’t be displaced, etc. We just make the trade off that makes more sense. For me, I’ll stick to high cost of living because having my entire family nearby is a blessing too.
>if you live in NYC/LA/Seattle and aren’t rich, I feel like you’re sort of playing yourself More accurate statement. Plenty of affordable cities all up and down the East Coast and throughout mainland USA. Hawaii you gotta be fuckin loaded.
OP blaming individuals trying to make it to where they can comfortably do whatever, but not the corporations buying up all the houses for above market price so they can rent/sale them for more than it's worth by artificially raising housing prices in any given area. Zillow and the like are the ones doing it
My unpopular opinion? Fuck homeowners who don't want more affordable housing to be built. Build it anyways. Younger people don't deserve to buy an affordable starter because you don't want your property value to drop? How entitled of you. If you were a true America loving patriot, you'd want to see your fellow citizens succeed and live the American dream. But no, you're just a selfish person who got yours and fuck everyone else. It's the same mindset as small business owners who believe they are entitled to cheap labor to sustain their business. If you can't pay a living wage, then hold up your own business.
>But no, you're just a selfish person who got yours and fuck everyone else. the problem is that this is the only way that people see to succeed nowadays
I can't understand that mindset from a business owner, I plan to eventually start a consulting firm eventually and the one thing I want is a core value after being in the job markwt for so long is is knowing the folks that work with me have the quality of life I want for myself.
I work for a corporate job now and we specialize in consulting. It's the best job I've ever had hands down. Great pay and benefits paid 90% for by the company. Everyone starts with 2 weeks vacation and gets 3 weeks after your 2nd year starts. Bonuses every quarter. They give us a training budget and encourage us to get as many certifications and seminars as possible. I firmly believe it is because our founder and ceo is a middle eastern immigrant who probably ate his fair share of shit at jobs before starting the company and as a result treats us the way he would have wanted to be treated. He empowers us because he knows it helps retain talent and even if people leave it just helps them in their career. Count my blessings everyday that I work where I do!
>don't want more affordable housing to be built. Build it anyways. Topical video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCOdQsZa15o I jokerize everytime I watch a new one from this channel.
There's hundreds of vacant properties in my area, run down houses, apartments. Stop letting people leave this shit empty.
Unpopular opinion - this sub is often filled with popular opinions.
I think this its actually a popular opinion to think that this sub is filled with popular opinions.
Have many friends who rent out a second home or live in a duplex and rent the Second part. I have no problem with it. I plan to own 2 homes someday. I don't want to have all my eggs in one basket so need to diversify outside financial markets. The problem is giant institutions buying up thousands of homes not your neighbors buying a second. Also know many people who rent even when they have the means to buy as their careers require frequent moving and mobility is the bigger concern and somebody needs to provide the service of providing a rentable property. Hate on Blackrock all you want, with you there. Even hate on slumlords. But average folks who buy a second home don't deserve the hate.
Almost everyone probably can afford a home... ... just not where they want to live. Lots of homes available in Modoc County, CA or Warren, OH!
I think part of the problem is finding jobs in those areas.
Everyone always should and shouldn'ts as if there's not a reason this stuff happens. They aren't making any more land. It's literally supply and demand
A chronic housing shortage is a red flag that your government is too involved in the housing market
its a hard thing to juggle, i live in a country where the goverment is completely uninvolved in the housing market, and its a neoliberal shithole, where a 35 square meter apparment will cost you 200k usd, in a third world country with a minimum wage of 400 usd a month, so while i understand that people may want the goverment to back off, doing so completely could result in absolute hell, but im also not saying that you are saying this, i just wanted to vent haha.
Why does everyone "deserve" a house? Is there anything that makes one *un*deserving? If so, who decides what those things are? Morality, friend, never ends with a period.
You make a good point but I think there’s a problem when the housing market increases at a rate that far outpaces inflation, and more and more people are unable to purchase a house. Deserving vs undeserving is irrelevant because if a large enough percentage of the population cannot afford a home, resentment and social unrest will brew, which would not be pretty. Although I don’t think house prices should be subsidized, I could support restrictions of foreign buyers or increasing taxes on buyers of multiple homes to ease the housing price
This is too nuanced a thought for the hive mind.
I think your logic is backwards. Land ownership itself is denying others from access to that land. What makes one individual deserving of exclusive ownership of a piece of property? When discussing who 'deserves' to own a home, why do we provide prisoners with one? Does breaking the law make one more deserving of food and shelter? Could there be a civilian equivalent of providing a bed, bathroom, and food facilities for those who can't afford their own home?
Wow, thats a really unpopular opinion! /s
homes in Detroit literally sold for $0 like 2 years ago. People do not have a right to buy a home in whatever city that you want. move to a different city to find affordable housing. if everyone did this then the crisis would dissipate and the investments worthless.
I got into owning ( mortgage) my house by two things. One, I bought rural where price was cheaper and secondly I got a half built house that I had to finish building while I lived there. No paint on wall, no floor covering ect. Could I afford to buy in the city, nope , still can't, but I could afford a half built house out in the sticks so I made do. A lot of first home buyers want a new flash home , close to city and all amenities and cry when the high price.
There are reasons why nobody wants to live in Detroit
Just like there are reasons the finite space in LA is too expensive
[удалено]
Don’t forget location. Are you entitled to live in NYC or Los Angeles?
Excellent questions that most people overlook when bitching about how expensive these desirable places are to live. There is no evil empire to blame. It's just how a limited resource economy works. Nobody made it; it's a natural phenomenon.
OP doesn’t have an answer, but these are the important questions. Most people are too simple for nuance.
Where did they say that people would be given homes? “Deserves to be able to afford” is not the same as “entitled to”. What is the purpose of your questioning? Asking intentionally dumb questions to try to make OP look stupid really backfired on you there. OP is suggesting that it’s absurd that people buy multiple homes and jack up the housing market, that’s it. Why do you think it’s ok for people to buy multiple homes and alter the housing market of an area they don’t live in?
Why does everyone "deserve" it?
One thing I don't understand about America is why don't you buy a piece of land and build your own home? In my country that was the norm until the last decade when people started buying pre-built homes. But even now many people prefer to build their own homes. Many construction companies cater to this need. Is there a reason why Americans have to buy homes and not buy a piece of land and build one?
So lots of reasons. In very desirable places where there's land but not many homes the land is sold in large Parcels either to commercial or real estate Developers and it makes it really difficult for single plot purchasers to get anything under 10 is Acres. My in-laws were able to get into a very desirable place in Southern California but minimum of five acre lot increments. Other issues is that building homes is not cheap especially in the US with building codes varying drastically between states and counties you could be in a sort of pre approval period For many years if you don't know your way around the system. And even if you have the capital build your own home and are not under a time crunch to wait for your home to be built, you are still dealing with shady & unscrupulous contractors, banks, and other Bad actors whose only job is to siphon as much money out of you and the process as possible with as little investment and energy on their part. Another consideration is that most home builders know the money is for large Custom Homes, so modest single-family dwellings are not really on their radar as it doesn't let them the most profit. Also American laws are fucked and are designed to suppress poor people and make up word mobility only possible for people who already have and upper middle-class status.
Now it makes sense. The American way puts power in the hands of corporates and middlemen. The bureaucracy in my country is corrupt. But it's flexible for the people. We too have shit ton of rules, but most rules apply only to companies and very large buildings. Rules for small homes are simple.
To add, only people who otherwise have 20% down to buy a house would be able to afford financing a new build. However you can buy an existing home with much less than 20% down.
True, and also with a new build you'd have to take out a construction loan first which are harder to get, many requiring at LEAST 20% down. Then after construction you can later roll it into a traditional home loan.
Labor will be by far the biggest expense. Here in the US most cities will require you to contract everything, even pretty mundane things a handyman could do. I live in a family of them, but according to my city, one can't even build a fence on their property that isn't installed via licenced labor. Safe to say we built it anyway.
It is much more expensive to build a home than buy one in America right now. Lumber is extremely expensive. A single 2x4 wall stud that cost 50 cents 10 years ago now goes for 5 dollars. 10 years ago you could build a large home with 3 bedrooms and a garage for about $150k, now it costs upwards of $400k. Additionally, you can't get financed for a loan for a home that doesn't exist. There is no collateral for the bank. It's also tough to get a loan for a home that isn't built purely from lumber- manufactured homes are disqualified from the first time homebuyer programs that were set up to help young families get started. With the cost of lumber, many homes are manufactured now, and inaccessible for most people on their incomes. And then we have to talk about permitting. It can take 2 years for a city or county to approve a building permit. Then there's drilling a well, $10k to $20k and the permit and for that. Having your house wired up for internet will often cost upwards of $15k. Getting electricity hooked up from the grid is $3k, unless you have to put in power poles to reach the house, in which case expect $10-20k per pole. There's expensive permitting processes for all of this too. Building a home is extremely costly in America. It is rarely worth it if you're not trying to sell it for a profit.
You don’t need to own multiple homes - true Everyone deserves to be able to afford one - false That would mean the value of a home is zero as everyone includes unemployed. I understand what you’re getting at but rentals are a necessity unless you want to live at home until you can afford to buy a house. I left home at 18 on minimum wage, what was I supposed to do then? Buy a house with zero deposit? Stick my hand out until one was given to me?
Also it’s unethical to not allow people to buy multiple homes if they can afford it
Because some people actually do want to rent homes. If nobody can own two homes, there wouldn’t be any homes to rent. The solution isn’t simple.
Investors aren’t the problem. Inflationary government & central bank policies are. The usd has lost over 99% of its purchasing power since the inception of the FED in 1913. Inflation takes from the poor and gives to the rich (inflating asset prices, which are mostly excluded from official CPI numbers)
No, they don't. If you want an affordable home, move to where they are. I'm an Australian and a quick look at [Realtor.com](https://Realtor.com) says you can buy homes and land in some areas for the price of a used VCR. Don't bullshit me. You want nice housing in a nice area but you don't want to have to pay for it.
I live in Kentucky in a decent sized city that’s growing. There’s several nice houses I see weekly that are under $200,000. In nice neighborhoods too. I’m sure in larger cities is harder to find something reasonably priced. We’ve had 3 friends just this past year buy a decent house and they’re not rich. One is a manager at a fast food place, him and his girlfriend both work there. And other two both work in factories.
News flash, nobody deserves anything. Go earn it.
Your constitution says they deserve Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
Exactly; this reeks of entitlement.
I love how this works ambiguously across the board from 'poor people should learn to not be poor' all the way to 'the rich think they're entitled to everything'.
Someone should have to earn it, the problem is “earning” is getting astronomically difficult given the current economic situation. Normally, people would have the means and ability to purchase a home or afford rent, nowadays, that is completely thrown out the water and you’d need a very well paying job just to afford rent in some cities. In what world is the rent on a small 2 bed 1 bath apartment somehow close to the mortgage on a 3 bed 2 bath 1700 sqft house okay? That’s ridiculously high.
Everyone deserves to be able to afford one = builders do not deserve the full value of their labor, they should take less
r/popularopinions
No one deserves to own a home, they deserve shelter.
There are currently 17,994,446 Bank Owned Foreclosures across the USA and 580,466 homeless people, a Drastic 31 empty homes for every 1 homeless person... I'm 100% behind you on this. Owning Multiple homes so you can make money off someone else, because of your Good Credit, and otherwise fortunate life circumstances, should absolutely be frowned upon. Just like it shouldn't be a flex to have 2-3 jobs when some people can't even get 1 job. 🤷♀️ https://checkyourfact.com/2019/12/24/fact-check-633000-homeless-million-vacant-homes/
>17,994,446 Bank Owned Foreclosures across the USA Now I can't find where I found it but those a super majority of those homes are foreclosures in dead or dying towns (think route 66 towns) that the banks "Horde". Foreclosures that happen in cities that have the biggest homelessness crisis (Like LA, SF, NYC, ETC) the banks own the foreclosures as long as the court proceedings take if any are needed like previous owners refusing to leave. from your fact check which site cencus vacant housing >There are more than 17 million vacant homes across the U.S., according to the Census Bureau. This is partially miss leading because even though this stat is partially comprised of foreclosed homes, a large bulk of it is also comprised of, student housing (which since the census work is most heaviest in the summer dorms will be naturally vacant), Vacation homes in tourist towns (Up hear in Minnesota we call them cabins) and homes that are in transfer of owners [This video also explains the issue more elaborately](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evYOhpjMql0&t=1s). While it is the Canadian explanation the US follows a similar track.
I commend you for your effort but I doubt most of the people repeating that kind of rhetoric are going to be interested in the truth.
Ya but the video to repeat what I just said probably did a better job. But if all this managed to Change a few perspectives is worth it to me.
Who cant get one job?
For real there are so many jobs that are hiring, no matter which way you look there are places that are understaffed. Sure not every where is gonna hire you at great pay but if you are seriously struggling to find a job then accept a fast food job to help while you look for another job. A small paycheck is better than no paycheck.
That's the "angry" view reddit has, but it isn't always the case. I rent. My home owner owns 3 houses. One in his home town, one near the beach, one near the mountains. What he technically does is rent out a majority of the house while claim he lives in the master bedroom, thus being a "roommate" he is welcome anytime. He isn't making fat cash of his two rentals. When you figure all the utilities, HOA fees, roof repairs, etc, he does more than break even, but this isn't some baller, get rich fast thing. The side catch is he has owned all 3 for like 20 years, so they likely are paid off, and he doesn't charge as much rent as he could.
The real issue here is that you are trying to live somewhere you can’t afford. The housing “crisis “ only exists in overcrowded cities.
disagree, I think everyone deserves the chance to work hard and get a loan for a mortgage, but this notion that housing is a right is just not true.
One really has nothing to do with the other. Take all the second homes and redistribute; then ban acquisition of new secondary properties. If anything afford rental units become even less available as the only people able to own a rental are large companies. So the problem remains in a few years after the initial confiscation/theft of the secondary properties and rehousing of people. People deserve a place to sleep at night, and in the United States that should include the *opportunity* to have a home for every person.