4 ms·
"landlords now own the suburbs" might be a more accurate description.
by hex4def6 5y ago
"landlords now own the suburbs" might be a more accurate description.
- bilbo0s 5y agoThat's always the case to be fair.
- klyrs 5y agoIt's a relatively new phenomenon, which is why this is news. In years (decades?) past, suburbs were popular in large part because the middle class could afford to buy homes and there was little reason to rent. Today, the situation is different; wages haven't scaled with housing costs and folks can't afford to buy even in the suburbs.
- heavyset_go 5y agoProperty ownership among wage and salary earners is a relatively new phenomenon.
- klyrs 5y agoOn what timescale?
- heavyset_go 5y agoLess than half of the US owned their own homes before the 1940's, after which more than 65% of people owned their own homes. If we go back past the 1900's, the only workers that consistently owned their own property were farmers. Mortgages didn't become a thing until after the 1860's, and it wasn't until the 1890's that they became common. Before mortgages, workers did not have the lump sum of money required to purchase a home.
- jmugan 5y agoI've heard that houses in Paris have been impossible to buy for decades now, maybe US cities are becoming old and "grand" in the same sense.
- bilbo0s 5y agoI hope not. I lived in Paris a few times in my formative years. It's so bad there that, believe it or not, there were homeless who had jobs. Literally. homeless who had to go to work. It was insane from the perspective of a young American. EDIT: Changed some slang words to American english.
- etaioinshrdlu 5y agoIs SDF a French acronym for homeless? Kind of confusing for this site.
- cratermoon 5y agoSDF = sans domicile fixe. French for homeless. People living on the street or out of their vehicles in the US work, too. Exact numbers are hard to get, though. https://www.npr.org/2018/09/30/652572292/working-while-homeless-a-tough-job-for-thousands-of-californians https://www.npr.org/2018/09/30/652572292/working-while-homel... https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/28/nomadland-amazon-rv-workforce-what-its-really-like.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/28/nomadland-amazon-rv-workforc...
- throwaway6734 5y agoI was just there visiting and there appeared to be plenty of units available that looked much more affordable than NYC
- Finnucane 5y agoAnd in addition, after the collapse of the Great Bubble, REITs bought up large swaths of foreclosures. Now the landlord is less likely to be A small investor than a large holding company with a portfolio of many thousands of units.
- pengaru 5y ago"Renters rule" is more apt if we're talking about elections/influence of local policy; residents can vote regardless of ownership.
- panopticon 5y agoWhen considering the outsized influence of money in shaping policy and that landlords are more likely to have money to spend shaping policy, I'm not sure that's exactly apt. Also I feel like renters are much less likely to get involved in local politics, but that's just anecdotal.