>

I bought a house that sits empty about half the year and rent it out. It pays the mortgage and when I retire it will be more than paid for. I am part of the problem but a home is only what someone is willing to pay for it. Rent is the same, if you live in a $2k a month apartment and can live in a much more shitty $1k a month apartment that is your call and if enough people make that choice high end apartments will lower their prices or go empty
We need more supply of housing AND we need to address housing being seen as speculation, particularly low-occupancy/single family. Don't get me wrong, there will always be a need for a rental market, but we shouldn't have corporations/LLCs buying up single-family/duplex/3-level units en masse and basically setting the market. 
My way too simple idea is a 1+1 - every tax filing individual or household gets a their primary and one additional (vacation, rental, etc) at a favorable tax rate. Beyond that, make it not worth it to just hold properties. >

I would agree but allow for 2 homes mostly due to issues of inheritance, or a specific carveout for inherited primary residencies. My aunt and uncle had major issues when her parents died selling their homes due to identity theft and probably fraud debts. Btw her parents were single and 20 years divorced ie homes. >

Uhh his plan did allow for two homes? >

I think I get what he means - you have your 1+1 then inherit a home you intend to not keep personally.
Maybe have a waiver period of a year or two where you can hold it tax-free if there's no income? >

I feel like if you’re allowed to hold an extra home for a year tax free they’ll find some loophole where they can kick it around between people or LLCs and wait for the value to appreciate or something >

All things that could be coded for. Like the waiver is only valid until a sale/transfer, any income on the property during the waiver period (not equity gain) voids the waiver and requires back taxes, waiver may only be taken by individuals, 1-2 year cooldown on another waiver being taken on the physical address post-sale (would also require tax disclosure that the waiver was used prior to sale), etc >


A group of 50 Democrats has urged President Joe Biden to take aggressive action to ensure that renters are able to stay housed as rent and house prices have soared across the U.S. with little to no mitigation in recent years, creating a major housing crisis with no end in sight.
In a letter sent Monday, spearheaded by Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-New York) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts), the lawmakers asked Biden to mobilize his administration in order to address rent costs and what they say is “price gouging” at the expense of the working class. Without robust action to combat skyrocketing rents, they warned, more and more people will be pushed into experiencing homelessness.

....

The lawmakers listed a variety of actions that Biden can take, spanning across several agencies. They suggested that he direct the Federal Trade Commission to define excessive rent increases as an unfair economic practice and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to create anti-rent gouging guidelines to ensure equitable housing access.
They also encouraged Biden to try to free up government funding to directly help renters and people experiencing homelessness; this could be done by encouraging states to use leftover stimulus funds to aid low-income renters and by using Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) resources to provide housing. Biden could also establish a tenants’ rights council tasked with identifying other actions that could protect renters, they wrote.
The letter has been endorsed by over 80 housing, climate, progressive, and other organizations.

Article continues... >


They also encouraged Biden to try to free up government funding to directly help renters...

I have a problem with this.  Not because I don't want to help people but because just paying (or partially paying) someone's rent only feeds into the problem of rent being to high as landlords will just raise rents to match.  You can see this in action around every military installation.  When their housing allowance goes up, rent goes up because everyone knows the military members just got a pay increase they are supposed to use to offset housing costs. >

Reminds me of the ACA. Rather than the fix the root of the problem, we just started throwing tax payer money at private businesses. >

The ACA actually did quite a bit to decrease price increases in insurance. People just focus on the public facing part. >

And which insurance company do you or a family member work for?
Premiums went up from the 1 year health insurance was mandatory. Deductibles and total out-of-pocket have gotten so high the insurance companies don’t always bother to negotiate prices. 
I caught my insurance company paying more than was billed for home covid tests. That’s not the only funny business I’ve caught. 
The only people who get a good deal with the ACA are those who earn little enough to qualify for a significant amount of assistance. Everyone else gets bent over. >


And which insurance company do you or a family member work for?

Bad way to start any good faith discussion with someone.

The only people who get a good deal with the ACA are those who earn little enough to qualify for a significant amount of assistance. Everyone else gets bent over.

If the people that benefitted the most are the ones that needed the most help, then, I'm ok with that.

Premiums went up from the 1 year health insurance was mandatory.

Prices always go up, except during economic downturns. (2008-2011, 2020-2021, 2H 2022). One of the major points of the ACA was to decrease the rate at  which things would increase, as well as cut how much the government was spending on waste and redirect those funds elsewhere. However, as we all know, a major part of this was the mandate which has basically been thrown away at this point.
Your personal anecdotes about what you dislike about your insurer, don't change the goals and effects of the bill. However, we can always do more and should. >

Jimmy McMillan has beensaying this for YEARS, but people just laughed at him and called him crazy. 
Now look where we are. >


Jimmy McMillan

I mean other people may have thought he was crazy, he looks crazy but literally every time I think of how expensive rent is I remember him saying it first. >

We need to end hedge-fund ownership of rental properties, end foreign speculative purchasing of rental properties, and end single-family zoning as well as go after price-fixing. >

Property management groups are disgusting the place I'm in own 50,000 units like what the fuck. And they're in cahoots with other management groups to fix prices so they don't actually have to compete, they're ok with having 20% vacancy as long as they can bump the rent 30% for them that can afford it. The whole renting market has become a rat race and I feel nothing but shame for our system for having no retort. >

Then they blame their neighbor raising prices for them having to raise prices. >

Build more housing. >

That is not even close to the answer >

Crazy that was 12 years ago. Shit was cheap AF compared to these days. >

But it was still too damn high >

AirB&B's, corporations buying housing as an investment, money-launderers and tax dodgers, podcasts and social media experts selling their get rich schemes.... >

But.. but what about blackstone!? How will these private equity companies scrape by if they can’t fuck over Americans!? >

Corporations buying up housing and AirB&Bs have created this crisis. Too many existing rentals and homes have been turned into short-term money grabbers. I know a 5 unit place where 3 were evicted to quickly renovate and the other 2 told they were next. One person lived in her unit 18 years, and the current rents are way beyond affordable so she is facing homelessness.  RAMPANT GREED fed by all these podcast and video experts selling their ideas and products. No, there is nothing wrong with the rental business per se, but greed ruins all. There is enough for everyone's need, not anyone's greed. >

Watch the impending crash on rental property valuations be blamed on this (when it is really caused by speculation). >

So much of the crisis is made by companies buying up all of the houses on the market in an attempt to flip them or AirBnB them for a profit. >

The Federal government should incentive states and local communities to: 

streamline and simplify zoning approvals (e.g. form-based zoning)
restrict the ability and right of individuals to block otherwise approved developments
Revise environmental laws to de-claw them as a weapon against housing developments. 

The US desperately needs more supply of housing. >

Those are certainly elements of a potential compromise but those in and of themselves are problematic in several different ways. 
Perhaps most importantly they will run afoul of the notion that all politics are local. 
Federal incentives and or withholding funding if states don't adopt certain housing friendly policies can certainly help but is not a Panacea because you still have to work your way through local government to get those enacted. 
Perhaps more importantly they can't drive local investment either.  
New housing construction collapsed during the 2008 financial crisis and has never recovered.  They were records of new construction during the pandemic but it is still never quite risen to the level where it needs to be. This is independent of zoning.  
There are meaningful things to say about foreign ownership of rental property,  institutional investor ownership of single family housing and other issues as well. 
Of course this all assumes that Congress is willing and able to function and hash out difficult policy compromises.  That remains to be seen. >

Local city councils should have very little power to tighten zoning laws. All of that should be handled at the state level imo. Mini fiefdoms are dumpster fire politics. >

If you're talking about something like building codes that makes a degree of sense. 
On the other hand if you're talking about something like individual decisions about whether something is zoned residential or commercial or mixed use, those have always been inherently local decisions and changing that would be a huge uphill battle. >

It'll be a huge uphill battle, but i disagree that things have always been this way. That is untrue. Over the years we've passed laws at the state and federal level that have empowered localities further and has given more levers to pull for people who want to block projects. >

And until we eliminate zoning/density restrictions the housing problems will only continue to get worse. Focusing on any other solution is a distraction >

I don't think that's true in a general sense.
Zoning is an important tool to protect the safety of folks. For example, an area zoned industrial might have to be so many miles from a zone that's residential to prevent health implications from the industrial environment.
Density restrictions and single family home zoning, however, are bullshit. >

For sure there’s some value in keeping Industrial away from residential, but we’ve gone far beyond that to where apartments can’t be built in the middle of the city because it’s zoned for suburbs or agricultural land….. in the middle of the city >

Yeah I totally agree. We need to build more dense housing or the homelessness problem cannot be addressed. >

No shit. >

Keeping people the exact right amount of poor is a tough job. Hopefully joe gets it right. >

Biden is an establishment Democrat (DINO) & corporate shill, and wall St is even more heavily invested in the housing rental market than ownership.    
He won't do Jack shit. >

Most people aren't homeless because they can't afford a house.  Most people are homeless because they can't afford much of anything.  Idiots. >

Honest question though, can Biden do anything? This seems like it’s coming down from greed and state/local levels vs. federal levels, which would take congress and senate to do something. >

Damn, the rents too damn high. Jimmy mc millian turns out to be less crazy that Rudy Giuliani