No one really understands our struggle - eviltoast
      • Comment105@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        38
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        That’s an option that is actively being removed by massive firms. Empty houses are common, but available houses are few and affordable available houses are very rare.

      • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        30
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        Can’t. Rich assholes and massive firms are buying them at insane prices so they can rent them out at double what a mortgage would cost. And that drives more people to apartments which drives their prices up.

        There’s a housing shortage in my area, and 30 percent of houses are empty. But if you jack up the rent enough, you make more money off those that can pay the ransom than you would by lowering the rent to get all units rented. It’s an artificial scarcity created by landlords.

        I work in municipal development and literally every single-family project that’s approached the city in the last 18 months is for rental only, because they figured out that mortgages don’t go up and eventually end, so why sell the houses at all?

      • gmtom@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        You’re a troll right? Because I refuse to belive anyone could genuinely be this clueless.

        • Skelectrician@lemmynsfw.com
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          15
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          You make use of someone’s services, you pay for it. If you hate landlords, don’t indebt yourself to landlords. I started off with nothing, now I’m a homeowner.

          If I’m so fucking clueless, how come I have a mortgage and you don’t?

          • elephantium@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            6
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            Where did you live before you bought your house?

            Is that approach available to 40-something single parents working at McDonald’s?

            • Skelectrician@lemmynsfw.com
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              1 year ago

              I lived in a basement suite, followed by a dump of an old house, before I found a slightly less dumpy old house to purchase in a rural area that most city folk would absolutely hate. This was all before the age of 20. Sold my old house about 7 or 8 years later to a younger man who had a very similar starting plan.

              Now I have a 5 bedroom house on two acres. It’s not in some heavily populated area, it’s out in the country and it’s affordable.

              Anyway, if you’re a single parent over 40 working at McDonald’s, you’ve made far too many bad decisions in life for me to be of any help.

              • elephantium@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                1 year ago

                How did you buy the basement suite? Or did you rent it? Almost nobody graduates high school with enough cash to buy a house, so…

                far too many bad decisions

                Hard disagree. I work as a programmer which pays well enough to be comfortable. The work doesn’t suit everyone, and even if it did, we need people doing other things than programming for the world to work! That includes fast food, retail, etc. The cliche is teenagers and college kids, but in fact over half of people making minimum wage are older.

                That includes a lot of single parents – spouse left, now they have to scramble for income even before child support kicks in. They’re not all just jackasses you can dismiss with “bah, they made their bed”.

                My problem with your advice to “just buy a house” is that it’s not actionable for at least half the population.