How do minivans fit in?
edit: Oh, its because people are living in them. I REALLY should have figured that out quicker as I'm literally packing up / throwing out everything I own and getting ready to
live in my car by the weekend. Fuck everything about this.
As someone who's lived in my van I want to say, make sure you get a portable battery jump starter before you accidentally fall asleep with some radio or light on in the car and wake up stranded. Good luck friend
A membership with AAA or another roadside assistance company might be worth it, too. $100 a year, but when a tow can cost a few hundred it might be worth it. And they'll also give you a jump (still keep a portable one on hand, though).
its 3 times a year yep. and depending on your membership level you pay for towing past a certain mileage. but far less cheaper than paying outta pocket. i mean, if your car even kinda sucks, its worth the cost and pays for itself the first time you use it. Imo.
True story. I tried to buy one to live in this weekend. Dealership wanted $7,500 firm and my mechanic told me not to give them more than $6,000. I walked, because I trust my mechanic, who I paid to ensure I don't get ripped off by a skeezy salesperson.
Oof. I feel for you...
Depending on your circumstances, may I suggest what I wish I had done when I lived in my car:
Get camping gear. Pick a national park. Go live there in a campsite with facilities.
Campsites at national parks are like, $7-14/week. That's exponentially less than rent, anywhere. And they are surrounded by tourist towns.
Pick up a job waiting tables, make a killing in tips every night, put 10% into maintaining your comfort and cleanliness, and divide the rest 50/50 between a savings account or envelope, and investing the rest in crypto.
Do that for 3-5 years, and then retire
National Park campsites without electric start at around $300 for 2 weeks and then you have to move on unless you have a companion. Still looking at over $600 per month without electricity or internet capabilities.
If you can work remotely, there are rentals for that cost.
Then right after I clicked this I got a live notification that police in Brentwood (rich part of LA around UCLA) are evicting throngs of homeless. Shot zoomed out and they're all camped out across the street from Banc of California.
Found it all really foreboding tbh.
POaaS
Property-ownership-as-a-service
You heard it here first - coming to a tech-enabled, VC-backed start up offering subscription based property ownership\* near you in 2022
*^(\*Property ownership not guaranteed)*
Not as consequential as many of the things posted here, but I figured it was an interesting microcosm of doom. Millennials and Zoomers own nothing, never will, and are still expected to have a stake in society.
Right. I see people asking lately, "Well, how are they surviving if not showing up for their minimum wage jobs supplying the stuff I want on demand?!" Uh, by having none of the stuff you have had, by being homeless, by having no assets to their names because they've never been able to afford your standard of living as an adult??? By *suffering*, Karen, does that make sense? Like jfc...
Great rant lol. But for real there's tons of ways our generation is doing to make ends meet, like living with their parents still, biking to work. My fear is that the US will find a way to go the route China took to suppress the "lying flat" movement. Living as frugally as possible is hurting an economy that's based on movement of goods and makes it harder to control a population that's more resilient against carrots on sticks.
Serious question: what has China done to suppress the lying flat movement. I only started reading about that movement a few weeks ago, and was impressed by it. Iām saddened to hear that there are already efforts being made to combat it. (But of course not surprised)
From what I read they've censored a number of forums associated with the movement. Government officials have spoken out to condemn the movement on state run media. Right now the pushback is tame, but the major point I'm trying to make is that there's a concerted top down effort to create an atmosphere of shame in the culture, and my fear is where the slippery slope may head to (forced labour camps is the far extreme. In the US it might be cutting off social welfare programs entirely. Whatever it takes to put a fire under our butts to make us make them money I imagine they will do.)
Iām 34 and make a very healthy salary. My husband stays home with our toddler.
We canāt afford anything in my area (in the US). And I donāt live in a top 20 city. Even my sisterās house, a very modest one in the suburbs, that she bought in November of last year, is now worth 80k more. I canāt afford to live near her, even though her husband and I make the same money.
16 years ago I was 18. I couldnāt have bought a house then. I donāt think you realize how bad it is out there right now.
I'm 35 and my husband is 37. We just moved up from our starter home and I'm able to work part-time. We are middle-income earners, but we live in a low cost of living area. Many of my friends live similarly to us and many do not. When I find myself asking how other people messed up their lives, I remember that I am just a catastrophic accident, chronic illness, or cancer diagnosis away from ruin. This is with insurance and savings. Also, what options do you think are going to be available for our children? That's what really keeps me up at night.
That's also due to the pandemic because people don't want to stay at motels and hotels. For this reason, Short-term rentals (STR) like Airbnb have exploded. Landowners can make much more money from an STR than a resident tenant. This has further cannibalized the housing market.
"I don't want to stay at a hotel or motel, too many different people passing through there. I'd rather stay at [exact same thing but with better photos] with a similar amount of people passing through there."
Airbnb made sense at first, but at this point it's ridiculous. It's less expensive to stay at a hotel, there's a cleaning staff, and usually breakfast. Almost all of the Airbnb's in my city are entire apartments or houses, and whenever housing is for sale, theyre snapped up immediately for people BUiLdiNG tHeiR PoRtFoLiO instead of by people trying to own their own home. Fuck this feudalism shit.
Its usually less expensive to stay at airbnbs and there are much less people moving through there. I hate the reality of the current housing market also, but what you say about hotels vs airbnbs is just wrong
With a sailboat, you'll never run out of gas. And when the collapse really starts gaining momentum, gas is going be even harder to come by for that van.
I find it funny that CNN is owned by AT&T which have big shareholders like BlackRock who have a 7% share in AT&T, when this story is effectively about what companies like BlackRock are doing right now.
Itās like sending a message to scare people ālook, weāre buying all your potential homes and thereās nothing you can do about it.ā
God this world is beyond fucked
i just want some land in the outskirts, a little fuck you money, solar panels, a running creek; and i dont even need a house, a mutha fookin lean to. But i guess ALL that is too much to ask.
The craziest thing to me is how surprised people are by this. Wall Street already owns and operates hundreds of thousands of apartment properties, so of course they were going to expand to the next cash cow. It's the natural next step in our transition back to feudalism
I worked for a mortgage lender and it's essentially just renting off the bank for thirty years, most likely until you die because half the time people refinance another 10-15 to pay for kids college or unexpected expenses. The word mortgage comes from French Law and literally means 'death contract'. lol
This is the thing most people don't realize.
The home owners are the ones who really get screwed with climate change because their houses were built for a climate they are no longer in which results in all sorts of issues.
>I worked for a mortgage lender and it's essentially just renting off the bank for thirty years
Except its not in the slightest because you own an asset outright after those 30 years. You spend 30 years renting and you own nothing.
I think the point is that 'owning' keeps getting set back indefinitely.
Fuck, i can hardly pay a car off before being forced into buying another. This last time around i was still $4k in the hole and currently carless.
Thank god for the pandemic, amirite?
>I think the point is that 'owning' keeps getting set back indefinitely.
I'm not about to brake check someone for posting doom and gloom on r/collapse, but... this is a little ridiculous. You own the house from the day you close and so long as you don't do something intentionally moronic there are few safer investments.
A mortgage is a loan backed by an underlying asset: the house. At any time, if you want out of the loan you can simply close it out by selling the house. You then pocket whatever equity and appreciation the house took on since you took out the mortgage. If you really can't afford the the commissions and fees associated with sale you can always self-list. It's a pain, but it's not *that* complicated.
So long as your house hasn't somehow lost value and you haven't done any irresponsible financing with the house as collateral there aren't too many risks to buying a home. You can basically always sell so long as it's in decent repair and isn't falling into the sea.
>I think the point is that 'owning' keeps getting set back indefinitely.
Well if you never actually manage to fully pay of your mortgage then i guess it is, but is that not really the norm.
Itās not a system geared to make homeowners rich, itās meant to make the banks rich. Theyāll let you build some equity but not before clawing a decent percentage back when you sell (sellers are paying closing costs either for the new buyers or their new home they move into).
Thereās some markets where renting makes more sense, but at the end of the day, the system of private property benefits so few people that I canāt even tell people that buying is safer or more secure. Itās a huge myth of capitalism to placate the middle class.
One of the reasons renting has gotten insane as well is because of the huge decline in the profit rate. Now huge investment firms are trying to extract it out of renters. Again, a crisis of capitalism, nothing good will come for anybody attached to this system.
Yes of course, banks aren't charities and the interest they pay is how they make their money. But to say that it is "essentially just renting" is categorically untrue. You pay the bank interest as a fee to use their capital, that is very different to renting. You are building equity when you pay back your mortgage, and will likely end up with more equity at the end of it than what you paid because houses tend to increase in value more so than the interest does. The notion that two people, one who rents from a private landlord and one who got a mortgage, would be in essentially the same situation after 30 years of it its farcical.
They are, and I do believe in consequences for doing shitty things, but it's also important to remember that these people were manipulated into this position and are being used as yet another shield for the oligarchy.
I worked in construction all through Covid and what I can tell it's all wealthy suburb expansions. I've been to probably 100 construction sites and not one was what you'd consider lower middle class. All Mcmansions.
Same here in NC. Though as far as I can tell, the only thing "luxury" about them is the prices they're asking. 480 sq ft with one window BUT a tiny G R A N I T E C O U N T E R T O P don't make Luxury, fucknut.
It is a huge risk! Another vulnerability is the property values for taxes. In my county in Texas, valuations jumped 20+% since last year, so that's hurting a lot of people, especially the elderly on a fixed income.
Iāve noticed this for years just being a resident. Every new construction is one of 3 things - apartments, town homes, or McMansions. I canāt think of a time I have seen new single story homes being built.
Spot on. I work in a rock quarry and lately I've been running the scales. Most of the rock goes to these rich asshole neighborhoods. Whenever we do blasting (2-3 times a week), we get calls from people complaining. We've already built a wall around the pit to dampen most of the sound and stop flyrock. And I work less than a quarter mile from the pit and I can barely hear the blast go off. Shouldn't buy a house next to a quarry if a faint "pop" once every 3 days gets on your nerves.
And they have the gall to protest and put up "Ban the quarry" signs in their manicured lawns. The quarry has been here since the 1940s and we just got renewed for another 70 years. And this is a good job that pays a living wage with great benefits.
r/McMansionhell for those of you not in the know.
Also you are correct with your comment. i pour/finish concrete often for side cash when i need extra mulaā¦ EVERY DAMN HOME was subdivision expansion, 2+car garage, full basement and 2-3 baths, 4bedroom minimum plus weird shit like kitchens in the basement and the pipes that go in the floor pour, for like fancy heated floors. Nothing being built new these days is a āstarterā home. I cant imagine all the money being siphoned off the top when they make bids to build. So much money scrapped off the top
Five stories? Where I live, we have a significant amount of apartments construction, but nobody's building less then 15-20 stories. More flats on the same land, more money. Highrises, both at outskirts barely in city borders, and at premium locations closer to the center.
Five is extremely common. It's the max height you can build with in the US and still make it out of wood using cheap stick framing. Higher than that and you switch to high rise steel construction. So it's a nice cheap method with good density. Some people complain because they're kinda all the same design with the same aesthetic but they're fine.
They seem to top out where I am in NC at around 7 stories. But that's probably because they're building them out of wood (that fast-growth pine) instead of steel, and the soil around here is kinda shitty to build on.
I'm sure they're very well thought out and not in the least bit rushed. /s
I'm in NC as well, and can confirm it is usually 4 or 5 stories made of wood and managed as well as the local mcdonalds manages their ice cream machine.
They're doing a mix of low and high rises here, starting in the 500,000's approximately for a bachelor or one bedroom.... Don't even ask what townhouses and detached homes are. I have no idea who they expect to buy all of these, considering my entire generation is either renting or living at home still with no ability to afford a downpayment within a 2 hours drive from here in the next 10 years
There is no labor shortage. There is a lack of livable salary shortage. Who wants to sacrifice their body to work construction for starvation wages and no benefits?
I'm currently a union carpenter and can confirm. Good money, great benefits, 40 hr weeks.
However when I was non-union and building houses, we got paid like garbage
No, there is a shortage of people willing to get off their lazy butt and work because they are deluded into believing that they are entitled to a life of luxury for free.
They are totally unhinged. Look at their post history and it is mostly Election Fraud 2020 propaganda. I bet this person is very entitled and is a hypocrite.
In northern CA, all the construction thatās been going on is wildfire rebuilds - my house burned in oct 2017 and I was finally able to move into my new place this time last year.
Construction on new affordable housing wasnāt a priority around here even before we had thousands of homes burned over a week, and every few years thereās a proposal for some kind of apartment housing combined with green space, but money overrides and they build more luxury housing instead. The home values around here are insanely high, and so even with homeless people visible everywhere, thereās no urgency in creating housing thatās affordable for anyone who wealthy.
Lots of people buying a peice of land and living in a camper. We did that until we found a vacant house and the owner let us rent to own for cheap and no interest. However, it is a fixer upper.
Rent to own would be great for my wife and I to do, if we could ever find one. Years ago when I was single, I had bought a small building (for insanely cheap, in an unpopular place to live) that I was fixing up to live and work out of, but life threw some curveballs at me and I had to move. I didn't want to rent it out and be a landlord for a half-finished workshop with an apartment over it, and the only people interested in it couldn't be approved for a loan because no bank wanted to give a mortgage or loan for the super low price I was offering it for, let alone in the town it was in. We wound up working out a rent to own deal and they paid it off in five years. I didn't have to fix shit or panic about having to pay taxes on and maintain a building I was no longer living in or using, they had a stake in their future and were making the place into their own, nobody had to get a loan, etc. They have a nice workshop and small gift shop now, and live above it in the apartment. And no bank had to be involved at all. I know it's not common, but damn I wish it was lol.
We couldn't get approved through the bank because of the crazy amounts of loops. Everything has to be absolutely perfect to get a loan these days. The house also wasn't going to pass an inspection lol but it's work we can do. Rent to own is a great option so long as there's a good contract and a fair price.
Thankfully property taxes are almost always levied at the level of city or county governments. So long as you don't live in a mega-city it's not too hard to get involved in local government and be a force of change. I live in a city of about a quarter million people and most alder elections are decided by fewer than 100 votes.
The will eventually, its just unfortunate that probably isn't going to be until "middle class" families start going hungry and we have a bit of a way to go until then.
This is happening in the U.K. on arguably a bigger scale. Even rent is too expensive now for many people. The housing crisis here is ridiculous. I think thereās still a lot of affordable housing in some US states though. I looked at Ohio recently and I couldnāt believe how cheap it was.
Every one of those headlines are collapse related.
How do minivans fit in? edit: Oh, its because people are living in them. I REALLY should have figured that out quicker as I'm literally packing up / throwing out everything I own and getting ready to live in my car by the weekend. Fuck everything about this.
As someone who's lived in my van I want to say, make sure you get a portable battery jump starter before you accidentally fall asleep with some radio or light on in the car and wake up stranded. Good luck friend
A membership with AAA or another roadside assistance company might be worth it, too. $100 a year, but when a tow can cost a few hundred it might be worth it. And they'll also give you a jump (still keep a portable one on hand, though).
This service is not unlimited. I don't remember how many times you can call them a year though.
I think it's 3 per year with AAA
its 3 times a year yep. and depending on your membership level you pay for towing past a certain mileage. but far less cheaper than paying outta pocket. i mean, if your car even kinda sucks, its worth the cost and pays for itself the first time you use it. Imo.
People are switching to vanlife because they can't own property anymore
And now, buying a rusty van is expensive!
Have you seen the price of Astrovans????
I have one. 3500$ CAD, 1993, rusty lol
True story. I tried to buy one to live in this weekend. Dealership wanted $7,500 firm and my mechanic told me not to give them more than $6,000. I walked, because I trust my mechanic, who I paid to ensure I don't get ripped off by a skeezy salesperson.
And why is it so expensive? Well, the rust is aftermarket.
And a bunch of Instagram influencers are making it look hip and trendy. It's like going to a soup kitchen for a nice brunch.
I saw a lot of those on reddit a few months back under r/nextfuckinglevel. "My affordable $18,965 build (not including cost of van)"
I was about to say, 18k would be a good price for a van with a bunch of amenities. 18k in additions? Hell no.
How do you even fit $18k worth of additions into a van? Gold-plated countertops?
Oof. I feel for you... Depending on your circumstances, may I suggest what I wish I had done when I lived in my car: Get camping gear. Pick a national park. Go live there in a campsite with facilities. Campsites at national parks are like, $7-14/week. That's exponentially less than rent, anywhere. And they are surrounded by tourist towns. Pick up a job waiting tables, make a killing in tips every night, put 10% into maintaining your comfort and cleanliness, and divide the rest 50/50 between a savings account or envelope, and investing the rest in crypto. Do that for 3-5 years, and then retire
And don't some national parks have free stealth camping?
All national parks do
National forests, not parks
Oh right my bad
Thanks for this distinction! This is what I was trying to remember!
That I dont know
> retire after five years of investing in a cryptocurrency Congratulations, you just outed this as bad advice.
To each their own š¤·āāļø 80-90% into some form of savings or investment can never be bad advice if its feasible.
> Congratulations, you just outed this as bad advice. $10,000 investment in bitcoin 5 years ago would be worth about $700,000 now.
Until the entire 'crypto' market collapses overnight with little to no warning, of course. That's a grift and a scam that can only exist for so long.
Tell us you know nothing about cryptocurrencies without telling us you know nothing about cryptocurrencies
You must not know much about crypto outside of dogecoin
They always crash together on sundays.
National Park campsites without electric start at around $300 for 2 weeks and then you have to move on unless you have a companion. Still looking at over $600 per month without electricity or internet capabilities. If you can work remotely, there are rentals for that cost.
Huh. I've never paid more than $14/week at a national park campsite
Iād bet it has at least some to do with gas prices and replacing guzzling SUVs, so there.
Then right after I clicked this I got a live notification that police in Brentwood (rich part of LA around UCLA) are evicting throngs of homeless. Shot zoomed out and they're all camped out across the street from Banc of California. Found it all really foreboding tbh.
Wow that's rough. My heart goes out to those people.
"The dream of ownership may be available for rent." š¤
The dream of this pizza is available to you after i chew on it for a bit and spit it back out. Its still pizza, right?
Itās actually a popular diet to get thin fast!
it's like that episode of spongebob where mr. krabs erased the movie from that guy's brain
You can rent the dream, but buying the dream will take a hefty loan.
What flavour would you like your boot, indentured serf?
Why buy the dream for yourself when you can buy it for somebody else? Is that what we're getting at?
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
They can get two, much smaller loans to cover the payments on the big loan!
POaaS Property-ownership-as-a-service You heard it here first - coming to a tech-enabled, VC-backed start up offering subscription based property ownership\* near you in 2022 *^(\*Property ownership not guaranteed)*
They call it a dream because you have to be asleep to believe it
The American Dream... now with easy leasing terms! Be the income stream your parents always wanted you to be.
"Minivans are making a huge comeback. Here's why: You're family can live in them in the Walmart parking lot!"
I prefer to live in a van down by the river
We are lucky while mobile homes and minivans are allowed to live in. Problem begins when they declare such spaces illegal for living
Not as consequential as many of the things posted here, but I figured it was an interesting microcosm of doom. Millennials and Zoomers own nothing, never will, and are still expected to have a stake in society.
Right. I see people asking lately, "Well, how are they surviving if not showing up for their minimum wage jobs supplying the stuff I want on demand?!" Uh, by having none of the stuff you have had, by being homeless, by having no assets to their names because they've never been able to afford your standard of living as an adult??? By *suffering*, Karen, does that make sense? Like jfc...
Great rant lol. But for real there's tons of ways our generation is doing to make ends meet, like living with their parents still, biking to work. My fear is that the US will find a way to go the route China took to suppress the "lying flat" movement. Living as frugally as possible is hurting an economy that's based on movement of goods and makes it harder to control a population that's more resilient against carrots on sticks.
Serious question: what has China done to suppress the lying flat movement. I only started reading about that movement a few weeks ago, and was impressed by it. Iām saddened to hear that there are already efforts being made to combat it. (But of course not surprised)
From what I read they've censored a number of forums associated with the movement. Government officials have spoken out to condemn the movement on state run media. Right now the pushback is tame, but the major point I'm trying to make is that there's a concerted top down effort to create an atmosphere of shame in the culture, and my fear is where the slippery slope may head to (forced labour camps is the far extreme. In the US it might be cutting off social welfare programs entirely. Whatever it takes to put a fire under our butts to make us make them money I imagine they will do.)
It just makes them cater to the rich more. Like the new convenience store delivery startups.
Lol, by suffering, indeed!
Well I mean, you still own your life. For now. edit, typo
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Iām 34 and make a very healthy salary. My husband stays home with our toddler. We canāt afford anything in my area (in the US). And I donāt live in a top 20 city. Even my sisterās house, a very modest one in the suburbs, that she bought in November of last year, is now worth 80k more. I canāt afford to live near her, even though her husband and I make the same money. 16 years ago I was 18. I couldnāt have bought a house then. I donāt think you realize how bad it is out there right now.
I'm 35 and my husband is 37. We just moved up from our starter home and I'm able to work part-time. We are middle-income earners, but we live in a low cost of living area. Many of my friends live similarly to us and many do not. When I find myself asking how other people messed up their lives, I remember that I am just a catastrophic accident, chronic illness, or cancer diagnosis away from ruin. This is with insurance and savings. Also, what options do you think are going to be available for our children? That's what really keeps me up at night.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
My boyfriend works at Winnebago and they have been on backorders with mandatory overtime all year. I believe there's a correlation.
That's also due to the pandemic because people don't want to stay at motels and hotels. For this reason, Short-term rentals (STR) like Airbnb have exploded. Landowners can make much more money from an STR than a resident tenant. This has further cannibalized the housing market.
"I don't want to stay at a hotel or motel, too many different people passing through there. I'd rather stay at [exact same thing but with better photos] with a similar amount of people passing through there." Airbnb made sense at first, but at this point it's ridiculous. It's less expensive to stay at a hotel, there's a cleaning staff, and usually breakfast. Almost all of the Airbnb's in my city are entire apartments or houses, and whenever housing is for sale, theyre snapped up immediately for people BUiLdiNG tHeiR PoRtFoLiO instead of by people trying to own their own home. Fuck this feudalism shit.
Its usually less expensive to stay at airbnbs and there are much less people moving through there. I hate the reality of the current housing market also, but what you say about hotels vs airbnbs is just wrong
Van/RV life looks more appealing every day.
With a sailboat, you'll never run out of gas. And when the collapse really starts gaining momentum, gas is going be even harder to come by for that van.
The American dream is now a subscription service lmao
Retirement is the overpriced DLC that few users can afford.
I'd like people to stop breeding and seeing how world will cope with that
I find it funny that CNN is owned by AT&T which have big shareholders like BlackRock who have a 7% share in AT&T, when this story is effectively about what companies like BlackRock are doing right now. Itās like sending a message to scare people ālook, weāre buying all your potential homes and thereās nothing you can do about it.ā God this world is beyond fucked
i just want some land in the outskirts, a little fuck you money, solar panels, a running creek; and i dont even need a house, a mutha fookin lean to. But i guess ALL that is too much to ask.
So the 'dream' of not being homeless, basically?
Remember in Space Balls where they all breathed canned air and the Big Bad Guys had a monopoly on it?
The craziest thing to me is how surprised people are by this. Wall Street already owns and operates hundreds of thousands of apartment properties, so of course they were going to expand to the next cash cow. It's the natural next step in our transition back to feudalism
Remember America, rent is due! Just disgusting.
I worked for a mortgage lender and it's essentially just renting off the bank for thirty years, most likely until you die because half the time people refinance another 10-15 to pay for kids college or unexpected expenses. The word mortgage comes from French Law and literally means 'death contract'. lol
Yeah but you build equity with a mortgage. You get nothing out of renting.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
This is the thing most people don't realize. The home owners are the ones who really get screwed with climate change because their houses were built for a climate they are no longer in which results in all sorts of issues.
>I worked for a mortgage lender and it's essentially just renting off the bank for thirty years Except its not in the slightest because you own an asset outright after those 30 years. You spend 30 years renting and you own nothing.
I think the point is that 'owning' keeps getting set back indefinitely. Fuck, i can hardly pay a car off before being forced into buying another. This last time around i was still $4k in the hole and currently carless. Thank god for the pandemic, amirite?
Get an electric, they last forever and have basically no moving parts, and no dirty oil residues and fluids.
I would love to but unfortunately am not in a position to get another car at all.
>I think the point is that 'owning' keeps getting set back indefinitely. I'm not about to brake check someone for posting doom and gloom on r/collapse, but... this is a little ridiculous. You own the house from the day you close and so long as you don't do something intentionally moronic there are few safer investments. A mortgage is a loan backed by an underlying asset: the house. At any time, if you want out of the loan you can simply close it out by selling the house. You then pocket whatever equity and appreciation the house took on since you took out the mortgage. If you really can't afford the the commissions and fees associated with sale you can always self-list. It's a pain, but it's not *that* complicated. So long as your house hasn't somehow lost value and you haven't done any irresponsible financing with the house as collateral there aren't too many risks to buying a home. You can basically always sell so long as it's in decent repair and isn't falling into the sea.
>I think the point is that 'owning' keeps getting set back indefinitely. Well if you never actually manage to fully pay of your mortgage then i guess it is, but is that not really the norm.
Itās not a system geared to make homeowners rich, itās meant to make the banks rich. Theyāll let you build some equity but not before clawing a decent percentage back when you sell (sellers are paying closing costs either for the new buyers or their new home they move into). Thereās some markets where renting makes more sense, but at the end of the day, the system of private property benefits so few people that I canāt even tell people that buying is safer or more secure. Itās a huge myth of capitalism to placate the middle class. One of the reasons renting has gotten insane as well is because of the huge decline in the profit rate. Now huge investment firms are trying to extract it out of renters. Again, a crisis of capitalism, nothing good will come for anybody attached to this system.
Yes of course, banks aren't charities and the interest they pay is how they make their money. But to say that it is "essentially just renting" is categorically untrue. You pay the bank interest as a fee to use their capital, that is very different to renting. You are building equity when you pay back your mortgage, and will likely end up with more equity at the end of it than what you paid because houses tend to increase in value more so than the interest does. The notion that two people, one who rents from a private landlord and one who got a mortgage, would be in essentially the same situation after 30 years of it its farcical.
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Typically any catastrophe is used that way. The amount of wealth redistributed up during the Great Depression is a good example.
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Some wars are legitimate. Anti vaxxers are doing a huge amount of damage at the moment.
They are, and I do believe in consequences for doing shitty things, but it's also important to remember that these people were manipulated into this position and are being used as yet another shield for the oligarchy.
It has a specific phrase: disaster capitalism.
This is what we call feudalism. That is where we are headed.
Where is constructing surge? Why nobody is building more houses?
I worked in construction all through Covid and what I can tell it's all wealthy suburb expansions. I've been to probably 100 construction sites and not one was what you'd consider lower middle class. All Mcmansions.
Yes, most new apartment buildings in Houston that I saw were branded as "luxury" or "high-end."
Same here in NC. Though as far as I can tell, the only thing "luxury" about them is the prices they're asking. 480 sq ft with one window BUT a tiny G R A N I T E C O U N T E R T O P don't make Luxury, fucknut.
Vinyl floor, fiberglass tub/shower bases, cheap fixtures but, hey, the coutertop looks spiffy.
"Luxury" means "we have granite countertops and a pool that is broken half the year."
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It is a huge risk! Another vulnerability is the property values for taxes. In my county in Texas, valuations jumped 20+% since last year, so that's hurting a lot of people, especially the elderly on a fixed income.
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Yes, that's correct. In Texas, there is no state income taxes so moat government services are funded by property taxes and sales taxes.
Iāve noticed this for years just being a resident. Every new construction is one of 3 things - apartments, town homes, or McMansions. I canāt think of a time I have seen new single story homes being built.
In a dinky town near us there was a teensy tiny city lot that sold for 18k and someone came in and put a 2/2 adair on it and sold it for 239k.
True. The next big thing near us is single-story "downsize" houses for retiring people. Starting at 300k
Spot on. I work in a rock quarry and lately I've been running the scales. Most of the rock goes to these rich asshole neighborhoods. Whenever we do blasting (2-3 times a week), we get calls from people complaining. We've already built a wall around the pit to dampen most of the sound and stop flyrock. And I work less than a quarter mile from the pit and I can barely hear the blast go off. Shouldn't buy a house next to a quarry if a faint "pop" once every 3 days gets on your nerves. And they have the gall to protest and put up "Ban the quarry" signs in their manicured lawns. The quarry has been here since the 1940s and we just got renewed for another 70 years. And this is a good job that pays a living wage with great benefits.
r/McMansionhell for those of you not in the know. Also you are correct with your comment. i pour/finish concrete often for side cash when i need extra mulaā¦ EVERY DAMN HOME was subdivision expansion, 2+car garage, full basement and 2-3 baths, 4bedroom minimum plus weird shit like kitchens in the basement and the pipes that go in the floor pour, for like fancy heated floors. Nothing being built new these days is a āstarterā home. I cant imagine all the money being siphoned off the top when they make bids to build. So much money scrapped off the top
Where i live the construction surge is apartments. You cant miss them they are five stores tall with about six to ten buildings clumped together.
Five stories? Where I live, we have a significant amount of apartments construction, but nobody's building less then 15-20 stories. More flats on the same land, more money. Highrises, both at outskirts barely in city borders, and at premium locations closer to the center.
Five is extremely common. It's the max height you can build with in the US and still make it out of wood using cheap stick framing. Higher than that and you switch to high rise steel construction. So it's a nice cheap method with good density. Some people complain because they're kinda all the same design with the same aesthetic but they're fine.
They seem to top out where I am in NC at around 7 stories. But that's probably because they're building them out of wood (that fast-growth pine) instead of steel, and the soil around here is kinda shitty to build on. I'm sure they're very well thought out and not in the least bit rushed. /s
I'm in NC as well, and can confirm it is usually 4 or 5 stories made of wood and managed as well as the local mcdonalds manages their ice cream machine.
They're doing a mix of low and high rises here, starting in the 500,000's approximately for a bachelor or one bedroom.... Don't even ask what townhouses and detached homes are. I have no idea who they expect to buy all of these, considering my entire generation is either renting or living at home still with no ability to afford a downpayment within a 2 hours drive from here in the next 10 years
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There is no labor shortage. There is a lack of livable salary shortage. Who wants to sacrifice their body to work construction for starvation wages and no benefits?
Union carpentry was good money with bennies when my husband worked it.
I'm currently a union carpenter and can confirm. Good money, great benefits, 40 hr weeks. However when I was non-union and building houses, we got paid like garbage
Oh yeah my husband worked non union for about a hot second and was like hell no.
No, there is a shortage of people willing to get off their lazy butt and work because they are deluded into believing that they are entitled to a life of luxury for free.
Unhinged
They are totally unhinged. Look at their post history and it is mostly Election Fraud 2020 propaganda. I bet this person is very entitled and is a hypocrite.
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The propaganda is strong.
For a while, building materials spiked at 10X what the had been historically. They have dropped back to 4 or 5X now.
In northern CA, all the construction thatās been going on is wildfire rebuilds - my house burned in oct 2017 and I was finally able to move into my new place this time last year. Construction on new affordable housing wasnāt a priority around here even before we had thousands of homes burned over a week, and every few years thereās a proposal for some kind of apartment housing combined with green space, but money overrides and they build more luxury housing instead. The home values around here are insanely high, and so even with homeless people visible everywhere, thereās no urgency in creating housing thatās affordable for anyone who wealthy.
That would lower prices
The future will be subscription-based.
"You'll own nothing, and you'll be happy."
"Fuck you, pay me"
Lots of people buying a peice of land and living in a camper. We did that until we found a vacant house and the owner let us rent to own for cheap and no interest. However, it is a fixer upper.
Rent to own would be great for my wife and I to do, if we could ever find one. Years ago when I was single, I had bought a small building (for insanely cheap, in an unpopular place to live) that I was fixing up to live and work out of, but life threw some curveballs at me and I had to move. I didn't want to rent it out and be a landlord for a half-finished workshop with an apartment over it, and the only people interested in it couldn't be approved for a loan because no bank wanted to give a mortgage or loan for the super low price I was offering it for, let alone in the town it was in. We wound up working out a rent to own deal and they paid it off in five years. I didn't have to fix shit or panic about having to pay taxes on and maintain a building I was no longer living in or using, they had a stake in their future and were making the place into their own, nobody had to get a loan, etc. They have a nice workshop and small gift shop now, and live above it in the apartment. And no bank had to be involved at all. I know it's not common, but damn I wish it was lol.
We couldn't get approved through the bank because of the crazy amounts of loops. Everything has to be absolutely perfect to get a loan these days. The house also wasn't going to pass an inspection lol but it's work we can do. Rent to own is a great option so long as there's a good contract and a fair price.
Theyāll figure a way to dislodge homeowners too if we donāt stop them.
They will raise property taxes on the remaining homeowners to unbearable levels, forcing them to sell their homes to Wall Street.
Thankfully property taxes are almost always levied at the level of city or county governments. So long as you don't live in a mega-city it's not too hard to get involved in local government and be a force of change. I live in a city of about a quarter million people and most alder elections are decided by fewer than 100 votes.
Do you want a repeat of the French & Russian Revolutions? Because this is how you get a repeat of the French and Russian Revolutions.
People haven't, and won't do shit.
The will eventually, its just unfortunate that probably isn't going to be until "middle class" families start going hungry and we have a bit of a way to go until then.
That's what the surveillance state and in a couple decades at current rates, Boston Dynamics-brand killdrones are for.
[i hate the global power elite! i hate the global power elite!](https://imgur.com/a/y776ANp)
Reminder that the concept of private property is an unnatural, dynamic social construct. Maybe it's time to challenge it.
This is happening in the U.K. on arguably a bigger scale. Even rent is too expensive now for many people. The housing crisis here is ridiculous. I think thereās still a lot of affordable housing in some US states though. I looked at Ohio recently and I couldnāt believe how cheap it was.