Housing Secretary: “the worst rental affordability crisis that this country has ever known"

[ashling]

Why is no one paying attention to this growing crisis?
For the same reason that no one paid attention to the 2002-2007 housing bubble: too many people are making money on it. A lot of people don't want to hear talk about a housing crisis when they are raking in the cash.

In fact the housing market has been disfunctional for over a decade, and it has only gotten more disfunctional since the crash.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/04/20/1293378/-Housing-Secretary-the-worst-rental-affordability-crisis-that-this-country-has-ever-known?detail=facebook

[Manifestor_of_Light]

1. And we have high property taxes in states without state income taxes.

You know, freedom and all that, low tax havens.

Except that they get you for licensing fees, high sales tax on all purchases and so forth.

So the landlord has to add to the cost of those high property taxes into the rent.

Yeah, one more factor in high rents. Besides the way too low minimum wage and general wage suppression.

[n2doc]

3. Hell in Georgia we have high taxes of all kinds

Property, sales, income, you name it we got it. All except the services one might expect from such a system. Instead our taxes go to pay off the Gov's friends. The GOP way.

[n2doc]

2. The inevitable outcome of a decade (or more) of stagnant wages n/t

[Dawgs]

4. One of Obama's biggest failures was not taking the housing crisis more seriously.

It has been one of the biggest drags on the economy, and there's still no clear end in sight.

[KurtNYC]

5. Homeowner seems an inaccurate term for people who spend 30+ years paying for something

before they own it. First you have to get the down payment together, so that is not included in the 30 year term. Then for 30 years you DON'T own the property -- miss 2 payment and you will find out who does. Perhaps "home mortgagers" would be more accurate.

You may not own it but you get to pay the property tax on it as part of the deal. If you are in an area where effective prop taxes are 5% (such as an area with 3.7% prop taxes but over assessed values), then you are paying out the full value of the house every 20 years. You will have paid the entire value of the home in taxes 10 years before you get the deed, and 150% of the value by the time you do.

The standard of living peaked in the USA in 1968 but we still apply the old financial models to the present. For example the old rule was 'your rent should be about 1 weeks income' and 1 weeks income per month should go toward retirement. Very few people can do that now.

[butterfly77]

6. Kick,kick,kicked&Recommended!