What to expect after the eviction moratorium
Wall of text, sorry.<p>.<p>As a whole, the USA is awash in cash.<p>If millions and millions of people lose their homes, it will be a boondoggle for large REITS (Real Estate Investment Trusts) and other companies investing in real estate.<p>In 2008, when the housing market crashed, huge companies bought up all the properties for cheap.<p>These companies want to make a nation of renters, and get rid of homeowners, except for the wealthy, of course.<p>Why do you think housing and rental prices are accelerating by an unprecedented amount? It&#x27;s because the large REITs are slowly gaining monopoly power and raising prices. There is not one single county in the USA that is affordable to rent, to someone making minimum wage. Affordable means that rent is less than 33% of income.<p>I don&#x27;t have a solution. What would happen if the large companies ended up owning 80% of the housing and apartment units? They could charge whatever they want. They would be in total control.<p>For example, Invitation Homes, a subsidiary of Blackstone Group, went on a $10 billion real estate buying spree, purchasing $150 million worth of houses per week. They easily outbid anyone else.<p>“He had a handful of cashier’s checks. These new guys had duffle bags full,&quot; said one buyer at a foreclosure auction.<p>Corporate homeownership can not only subject tenants to higher living costs, but often destroys their ability to buy these homes themselves, as companies pay top dollar, in instant cash, to take them off the market.<p>In 2011, Morgan Stanley issued a report called “A Rentership Society.” With over 1.6 million foreclosed homes in the United States and more on the way, the report forecast “a surge in the number of renters and a potentially massive opportunity for investors to convert the glut of repossessed homes into rental properties.”<p>Of course, the very wealth corporations, and their owners, continue to bribe the shit out of government officials (lobbying = bribery on that scale) to prevent any curtailment. There is a lobbying organization, the National Rental Home Council, to look after their interests in the government, such as defeating rent-control laws.<p>As investors realized the extent of their gold mine, they branched out beyond simply buying foreclosures and hit the open market, competing with everyday homebuyers.<p>Here is an example: a high bid of $208,000 came from a couple with a child looking for their first house. American Homes 4 Rent matched their offer, all cash. They got the house, the seventh it had purchased on that street.<p>As a result, rents have skyrocketed. When visited with the town’s vice mayor, Bruce Hull, in April 2017, he was told that, it hasn’t been that long since you could get a three-bedroom, two-bath for $1,000 a month. Those houses were now closer to $1,800 a month, and this was by design.<p>.<p>There is the saying: capitalism is the worst economic system, except for all the others. Well, the way in which capitalism is the worst is monopolies. The accumulation of wealth by the top percentage of a population. This is the reason there is trust-busting, as done by Theodore Roosevelt for example, is to stop the inherent unfairness built into the capitalist system. This is not a fairy tale, or made up. Monopolies are the main real drawback of capitalism. So that is really the main thing to watch out for in a capitalistic society. Government must to stop monopolies. Including Facebook, Google, etc.<p>Corporations are NOT entities to themselves. Government gives them rights and permissions to start corporations. It is government that allows corporations to exist as a legal person, and shield investors from being personally responsible for debts if a corporation goes bankrupt.<p>A corporation must apply to government and get permission before it opens. If you look at laws, governments can ban all kinds of corporations, regardless of what the owners want. It is the government which is in control, at the very base of it. For example, a governmental entity (town, city, etc) can ban all strip clubs from starting in their city. Or make heavy industrial companies, like auto repair shops, only open on certain streets in a city with zoning laws. They can prevent people from starting a company in  their city if the person is on record for being a cheater or bad person. A company does not have unrestricted rights and it is specifically under the control of governmental rules and regulations and permission.<p>Breaking up of monopolies is great. When AT&amp;T was a monopoly, there was zero innovation. Why did the have to innovate? They had a monopoly. There were basically dial phones with the rotating dial. I remember when push button dialing started, it was earth-shatteringly cool. Then they had a &quot;princess phone&quot; that they introduced. But that was it. You had a choice of 3 models.<p>When AT&amp;T was broken up, there was an explosion of innovation. Thousands of phone choices. Cell phones. Pagers. It was great.<p>.<p>For these REITS and corporations buying up homes, there should be a hard ceiling of how many homes and apartments that they are allowed to purchase, and this should include subsidiary companies - no trying to get around it by slimy business tactics.