The Biden administration announced new steps Friday to ensure access to affordable housing, launching a slew of resources to convert high-vacancy commercial buildings to residential use.
I’m in agreement. Also in Seattle. The median house price in Seattle is over $800,000. Down a whopping 2%. This means you’d have to make over 200k a year to afford your mortgage. How many more apartment units will trickle this down the other 50% or 75% to make it affordable to everyone? People need to be realistic. Bans on for-profit home ownership need to be part of the mix here, not just more supply.
I could see a private ownership of an actual person being allowed 2 homes in Seattle. Corporations and any lateral, upwards, or subsidiary companies attached to the same board can only own up to 5 units or something for airbnb type situations. Anything over that, they have to register as a hotel and follow hotel rules.
China seems to be having some of their own real estate issues and are maybe pulling out of the US, some of our rent decreases might be because of that too. A little of it might take care of itself? Just a guess, but I hope we continue to look at everything. No one can afford to live in Seattle doing the low level jobs, so stop complaining about the lack of workers you shitty person at the grocery checkout. We were becoming San Francisco and I don’t think anyone wants that.
One to four units can only be privately owned, 5 to 8 units can only be owned by a registered company, more than that must be run as a non profit (ideally a state corporation).
People are only allowed to own one property in a 50km radius (meaning that if you own a 4 unit you pretty much have to live in it unless you live in the next city over).
I’m not sure how you would do the non-profit since a lot of corporations already own high rises with “luxury” apartments. Are you saying they would be grandfathered in?
I don’t think I agree. All those real estate greeds are going to switch to non-profits then. There are ways to abuse that system and they surely would.
Well they can, it just means that the building management needs to show that all the money they get gets reinvested in the building or put aside for repairs. Non profits are much easier to investigate than private companies because they need to be able to justify everything they spend so they don’t overcharge. If it’s a state corporation? Even better, profits get sent to the government coffers to spend on services and you’re sure that the charges are lowered the next year. That’s how our health protection works for anything related to roads where I live and there’s a pretty good reason why it’s the province where it’s the cheapest to insure a vehicle!
they need to be able to justify everything they spend so they don’t overcharge.
I don’t think you’ve worked with non-profits before. Justify to the government or to the board? I’ve only worked with a couple and the salary of the people running it can be very high, look at Goodwill. Non-profits are just quiet enough and loose enough for them to take advantage. That’s a nope on my side.
Not everyone wants to own, even when housing was affordable there was still a bit more than 30% renting.
At the point we’re at there’s more competition to own because renting is so expensive that it’s way more logical to purchase, flood the rental market to crash prices there and people won’t buy at a ridiculous price, they’ll simply rent instead, lowering pressure in the whole market.
I’m in agreement. Also in Seattle. The median house price in Seattle is over $800,000. Down a whopping 2%. This means you’d have to make over 200k a year to afford your mortgage. How many more apartment units will trickle this down the other 50% or 75% to make it affordable to everyone? People need to be realistic. Bans on for-profit home ownership need to be part of the mix here, not just more supply.
I could see a private ownership of an actual person being allowed 2 homes in Seattle. Corporations and any lateral, upwards, or subsidiary companies attached to the same board can only own up to 5 units or something for airbnb type situations. Anything over that, they have to register as a hotel and follow hotel rules.
China seems to be having some of their own real estate issues and are maybe pulling out of the US, some of our rent decreases might be because of that too. A little of it might take care of itself? Just a guess, but I hope we continue to look at everything. No one can afford to live in Seattle doing the low level jobs, so stop complaining about the lack of workers you shitty person at the grocery checkout. We were becoming San Francisco and I don’t think anyone wants that.
I’ve got similar ideas!
One to four units can only be privately owned, 5 to 8 units can only be owned by a registered company, more than that must be run as a non profit (ideally a state corporation).
People are only allowed to own one property in a 50km radius (meaning that if you own a 4 unit you pretty much have to live in it unless you live in the next city over).
I’m not sure how you would do the non-profit since a lot of corporations already own high rises with “luxury” apartments. Are you saying they would be grandfathered in?
If it’s rental then it’s non profit, they can convert them to condos if they don’t agree.
I don’t think I agree. All those real estate greeds are going to switch to non-profits then. There are ways to abuse that system and they surely would.
Well they can, it just means that the building management needs to show that all the money they get gets reinvested in the building or put aside for repairs. Non profits are much easier to investigate than private companies because they need to be able to justify everything they spend so they don’t overcharge. If it’s a state corporation? Even better, profits get sent to the government coffers to spend on services and you’re sure that the charges are lowered the next year. That’s how our health protection works for anything related to roads where I live and there’s a pretty good reason why it’s the province where it’s the cheapest to insure a vehicle!
I don’t think you’ve worked with non-profits before. Justify to the government or to the board? I’ve only worked with a couple and the salary of the people running it can be very high, look at Goodwill. Non-profits are just quiet enough and loose enough for them to take advantage. That’s a nope on my side.
Implying that the salary of the people currently owning rental units isn’t very high…
Not everyone wants to own, even when housing was affordable there was still a bit more than 30% renting.
At the point we’re at there’s more competition to own because renting is so expensive that it’s way more logical to purchase, flood the rental market to crash prices there and people won’t buy at a ridiculous price, they’ll simply rent instead, lowering pressure in the whole market.
It’s one of the many ways to lower prices!