This is what squatting was invented for, isn't it?
this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2024
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Housing Bubble 2: Return of the Ugly
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This shit is going to turn me into a maoist
I don't understand. How much higher can rents go?
rent_target = your_income - beans - tent
There are 16 million vacant houses--28 for every homeless person.
First: there are roughly 700,000 homeless people at any one time in the US, according to HUD. If there are 16M vacant homes, that's more like 23 per homeless person. So the math is a bit off.
Second: I see a lot of vacant homes in my area. Most of the should be condemned and bulldozed. There's one I drive by every day on my way to work that's covered with kudzu. I remember seeing the coroner there about two and a half years ago, and the house has just sat there since. My guess is that it's locked in probate, there were no heirs that could be located, or something like that, and so there's nothing that can be done with it until it's seized by the county and auctioned off to pay the tax debt on the property (that's usually about ten years or so in my area). I would lay a sizeable wager on many of the 16M vacant homes being claimed being properties like that; places that are houses in name, but not suitable to live in.
I bet someone who has no where to live would still happily live there over nowhere
Okay, and someone that's starving would rather dumpster dive. But we shouldn't be feeding starving people out of a dumpster, just because they'll take it over nothing.
Also, FWIW, I'm pretty far away from a large metro area, and about 20 miles outside of a two traffic light town. Living in any of these abandoned homes would make it very challenging for an unhoused person to find a job, or even get to a grocery store.
A couple percent of the housing market is also going to always be vacant due to turnover as well. That accounts for a large portion, if not the majority of that 16M.
Spread the joyful message that squatting is an option!
What is this doing to the housing market?
I am 40 and single. I make 90k a year, have 130k from total proceeds from the sale of my previous house owned for 17 years towards down payment initial repairs/upgrades with hopefully 10k to savings, and very good credit.
I cannot find a house I can afford. If it's less than 350k, it's either a complete disaster on the inside requiring 50k or more to make decent, it's under 1500 sq feet and very claustrophobic inside, it's a cheaply built house in a cookie cutter neighborhood that's already showing it's quality, or it has less than 2 full baths and a 1 car garage. Or the taxes in the area are over 7k a year.
And a LOT of the houses have the same gray vinyl flooring that's as ugly as it is cheap.
I work in the development department of a city that's and enclave for the ultra-rich. Literally every household in the city is millionaires or better.
Every house in the city is unique. Every build site requires civil and structural engineering. Every home has an architect designing it to be a unique structure. The average new build here is 8-10 million dollars, with the big ones being 50 million+.
We're talking tennis pavilions on the roof, indoor arboretums and galleries, the works.
And they're all built cheaply and fall apart within a decade.
They're shitty houses, but when people are dropping 8-figures on them, they can afford to drop a couple million more on a remodel every 5-10 years.
You can't buy a quality house anymore.
I'm starting to think the play is to buy undeveloped land and just bite the bullet on the cost of building a house/a road to the nearest govt maintained road.
Unless you're physically building it yourself, it's still gonna get corners cut at every stage.
Also, don't underestimate the drainage and erosion control engineering required for a home and a road. Those cookie cutter neighborhoods have regional drainage and detention. Your undeveloped land won't.
I'm sure with some research you could find a company willing to follow your specifications and instructions, but obviously that comes with cost.
To your second point, thanks for the heads up. There's plenty more research that I need to do before I worry about drainage, but I'll keep the thought in mind.
Septic and Drainage should come before any kind of detailed architecture. It'll save you 30 grand in Engineering revisions if you don't have to re-do the drainage plans.
Also, never let an architect be in charge of a project. It's like having the font designer be in charge of office software.
Where are you looking?
NW ohio, no more than an hour from work.
Your comment shows American relationship with space of their homes. I live in <1500 sq feet home with my girlfriend and I wouldn't call it claustrophobic.
How often do you host dinner parties? How often do more than 4 guests attend? Do you want to have family over for the holidays? Do you ever plan to have kids? These are pretty common reasons to need at least 2 baths and 3 bdrms.
It's really dependant on how the layout is. Generally 1500sqft isn't a problem however if it has 5 rooms squeezed into the house it begins feeling cramped especially if you have a large family. I have 1800sqft and the first floor has plenty of space but upstairs has a low ceiling (6.5ft) and about a 2ft wide hallway leading to 2 full bedrooms, a full sized bath, and a small guest room that's only slightly bigger than a broom closet. There isn't a way to have rooms downstairs so I consider my upstairs cramped but my overall living conditions fine. Now imagine a single floor utilizing that space needing just as many bedrooms and it begins getting cramped with the kitchen, living room, dining room.
How many baths can you be in at once?
I'm trying to think of resale value, especially since 1.5 baths around here stay on the market for a very long time.
So you want house with a high value but don't want to pay for one. That's your complaint.
I think it means he can't reasonably rent a room if the tenant doesn't have their own bathroom.
Bro makes 90k a year, he's barely scraping by and is living paycheck to paycheck. Having 2 bathrooms is like the minimum that you need in a house. Anything less is like third world country living.
Bro makes 90k a year, he’s barely scraping by and is living paycheck to paycheck. Having 2 bathrooms is like the minimum that you need in a house. Anything less is like third world country living.
I sometimes wonder if I'm living in an entirely different America than other people
Have you checked? Sometimes I don't know what the fuck species I am.
Mass market single family housing is a disease that the developers have perfected. Using the cheapest materials, in the cheapest way, with the laziest inspectors.
It's even worse when you get outside of the cities into the county. At least here in Texas, that means there are no building inspections. You just have to trust that the builder made it right.
And don't depend on the warranty to save you. The common 10-year warranty is a lie. It's 1-year cosmetic (there are no visible cracks in the wall), 2-year functional (there are cracks, but everything still works), and 10-year structural (the doors no longer close, the wiring is failing, and the foundation is more like gravel now, but the building hasn't actually been condemned - which it won't be because there are no inspectors).
There is one very important aspect that shouldn't be ignored about the fact at the end. Although it may be technically correct, it is almost certainly not geographically correct. If filling those homes requires a mass movement of people requiring even something as little a a couple of hour drive, is it really relevant?
Don't get me wrong, I hate corporate ownership of residential property, and I also think empty homes, especially if it's a second, third, fourth, etc., should result in some kind of tax penalty. I don't think using easily discounted facts is ultimately in our best interest when pushing for change to address these issues.
I'm no anarchist, but....
Just a ~~couple~~ 3000,000 pipe bombs...
Just sayin'... Social problem solved.
Edit: I just ruined my chances of holidaying in the US.
you're talking to a large collection of cowards here unfortunately.
Edit: I just ruined my chances of holidaying in the US.
Not missing much. Just an expensive country that thinks we are more important than we really are.
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