Zammurkele
35537
918
15
This is actually not just usa problem- landlords and guillotine sound like a sweet picnic.
Dec 13, 2025 3:07 AM
Zammurkele
35537
918
15
This is actually not just usa problem- landlords and guillotine sound like a sweet picnic.
xenjamin
Topeka? Yuck.
euphoricopportunity
"to afford" - as if you didn't have other expenses, or interest.
RichardPenne
I will run for President in 2028 and my main promise is that I will make buying a home affordable again. How? I will give any entity that owns more than one single family home 6 moths to divest their holdings. After 6 months, any US entity may own no more than 2 single family dwellings (directly or indirectly) and be have them taxed at the normal rates. All SFDs over 2 will be taxed at 95%. SFDs include lots for SFDs as well.
FreeBaseBuzz
Thats not counting the interest on the house loan you have to take out. And there’s no way a bank will give you the loan in the first place, because you won’t be able to service the loan and eat as well
lb68600
The average increase in the value of this house over 29 years was only 5.66%/yr, which is quite modest in terms of asset appreciation. The real issue is the stagnant growth in wages...
CorvidPrime
BatmanAndCradleRobin
thats not what afford means
hwatL4bloopy
That's also assuming there's no other cost of living
zechor
This is a US tax law problem. If you're rich and buy a used house you can do a cost segregation study that allows you to take more of the typically 30 year depreciation up front. This means on a 1m house you take a loan against your stocks for the 200k downpayment and then take up front depreciation against the house at around 400k. Now if you make 500k/year your taxable income is only 100k. /1
zechor
Then, when you die, the cost basis of the house gets reset to the new value of the home so your kids don't even have to pay taxes on the appreciation of the house. Combine that with numerous ways to bypass the inheritance tax and that extra home you bought and are renting out becomes a tax free generational wealth haven. /f
MrImmaculate
Somehow, you scrape together a down payment, find a lender who will lend to you despite the couple of thousand you're spending on rent every month, and you buy the house. Then the insurance goes up several hundred percent in half a decade and you can't afford the mortgage anymore... Anyone wanna buy a house?
Madringo
Let's add variable rate mortgages to the mix, so your mortgage o e month is 2k the next it's 4k
pahapaavo
Not sure if this applies to USA too, but I can tell that being a landlord in my country isn't a good income. We have a maintenance fee that every apartment owner must pay and it's usually almost half of the rent and then the rent income gets taxed (30%) so if you have a apartment with 800€ rent, you'll probably make around 350€. So no it's not s business. Especially if you still own the bank in which case you have to pay them around 500€ a month. And no one rents houses, it's impossible.
Thefreeeezian
The minimum wage is $7 in the US??! What the fuck man! It’s €14,- here in the Netherlands (roughly $15,50 USD). How does anyone get by on such low wages?
Daealis
And go back to the 50s, the same house is paid off in just a few years.
onlymostofthetime
why do you think the criminal bill pulte has been trying to introduce 50 year mortgages?
vegangreen
Since time immemorial, land and housing monopolisation have been used by the wealthy to keep the poor working for them. Housing and land reform is a foundation of reversing inequality, and putting creativity and productivity rather than "rent-seeking" at the heart of an economy. Land taxes, good quality medium-density social housing, rent-to-buy schemes, anti-housing speculation legislation and so on need to be a priority to reverse oligarchy.
thatwoodguy
Let's Lynch the landlord, song by the Dead Kennedys
TheUrbanShaman
We sell 2080 hours of our life per year.
stonecoldstevebuschemi
I usually use 2000 hours per annum in these types of calculations (40 hr/week × 50). Not all people get 2 weeks paid time off per year, and many don't get paid for that "downtime" due to health or holiday stoppage. But unless you're on a set salary (not wage work), you'll usually not get paid for 52 Weeks full time in a year.
ConsesualSnuggler
You still wouldn't be able to qualify for the loan back then as you would need to make at least double that income.
commentsbadcomments
But does that time go down without avocado toast?
likerice
I get the point, but the data used here are so dumb.
In 1992, if you were making minimum wage you were broke as shit and could barely pay rent let alone buy a house.
It wasn't some magical time when minimum wage was a living wage.
cousteau
Same now except much more, since the cost of living has gone up much more than the minimum wage.
RetiredLaserMan
Minimum wage has never been enough to afford to buy a house, ever. To buy that $379,900 house in todays economy you would need to have a couple making between $95,000 and $120,000, about $22-$28/hour each.
UnlimitedTrickPony
in 1992 the intrest rate was 8.27% ... if someone would have given you a loan back then with $0 downpayment ... after 30 years with fixed rate in 2022 you would have payed off the house with a total cost of around $208k
StephenDaniels
I find it baffling that they won't fix this problem the easy way, by building more houses.
Calicoastin818
The fight for minimum wage has been going on for so long that it should be $30 + an hour now
normalizebeingalone
I'm living in a 900 sqft paying 1100 which feels insane to me but it's apparently better than most
BosunMark
Private Equity firms are a huge factor in housing costs today
SploogeMcDuck316
Dont let your "small" investors off the hook either. Collectively somewhere between 20ish% of single-family homes are owned by a "small investor".
toolzgalore2
Don't forget every jackass who owns 10 air bnbs
Comet260
BAN AIRBNB!
ViolentlyJaded
I had no problem with it when it was for short-term rental of a primary residence, but yes, it's a problem for sure.
BukkakeRider3000
Interesting to see what happens when boomers owning most of the houses die. Will the value crash at that point?
vwzzjxv6f9101
We are already there. Just around the corner. Thank your GOP neighbor and greedy politicians.
SecondHandDeathWish
Nope, private equity will buy them before the average consumer even knows it's on the market.
xj4low
Don't forget limited supply. Many communities don't want new developments because it will hurt their land values. And multifamily units like apartments are all "luxury" style so they can charge high-end. If an apartment is managed right, then the cost of construction should be paid off in 2-3 years.
ladylambi
True that plays a small part. But there are enough vacant houses to house the entire unhoused population... in my rural Canadian town, every 4th house is empty and owned by a company for temporary employees or Airbnb. Yet I had to move in with family cause the apartments are all full...
vizeroy42
Not sure how it is in the US. In Germany, the average building cost per 1m² (10.76 sq ft) is about €3,400.
An average apartment of 50 m² (538.2 sq ft) costs €170,000 to build. Depending on the city, the average rent is in a range of €7 to €20 / m². So, the rent is between €350 and €1000 per month w/o utilities etc..
I currently pay 10€/m².
The landlord should put 10% of the rent into savings for mandatory repairs. That leaves €900 in best case and €315 in worst case to pay off the €170,000.
Craizie
about 5 years ago my little 1 bedroom apt went from $810 to $1250 under new mgmt. No new anything. Fucking crooks.
Tesaphine
I think the same is true of new houses in general as well. The real estate alone is so indescribably expensive that it's not cost-effective for contractors to build affordable housing on. They make more of a profit if they build luxury homes which will then be sold as a rich person's third house, or to companies that will rent it to people at exorbitant prices.
xj4low
Lot sizes are also a lot smaller. Leading to new homes only appearing to have a front door, a window, and a 2 car garage that won't fit most modern cars. The driveways are only long enough so a truck doesn't block a sidewalk and that dictates the size of the front yard.
MrFancyPanzer
When my parents bought their house in the mid 90s, they bought it for 650,000 NOK, a couple of years wages. Adjusted for inflation it would be like 1,1 mill. today it is worth about 4,5 mill. i could buy their house with cash if the only factor was inflation, but now i dont even qualify for a loan on an appartment.
Skevoid
Pretty much identical to my situation. The gap between being able to get by and save a good amount of money and being able to buy a small house or apartment is goddamn ludicrous.
tinydog
You could buy a $4.5M house with cash? https://media4.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1ajk2NnVpZ3cycG41ZDY2aHp6djhwd3Y2MzcxMWM5OGVvdjF1dHlraSZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/eKNrUbDJuFuaQ1A37p/200w.webp
Zammurkele
MrFancyPanzer
I could buy their house for 1,1 million Norwegian kroner if only inflation had gone up
tinydog
I misunderstood. I thought you'd done a USD conversion.
MrFancyPanzer
No worries. i wouldn't mind 1 million dollars, then i could afford two houses.
Zammurkele
You have 98k dollars? https://media4.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1ajk2NnVpZ3cycG41ZDY2aHp6djhwd3Y2MzcxMWM5OGVvdjF1dHlraSZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/eKNrUbDJuFuaQ1A37p/200w.mp4
MrFancyPanzer
i have about 150k, i have been good at saving up since i was about 14.
psugab
And you have a living wage, and healthcare, and a lot of other things, but having that for savings is good on you
PresldentClef
inb4 the usual "Landlords aren't a problem!" crowd here.
SchlappaDaBass
MOOPSIE!
Leaveittojebus
I like the bs excuse from the big corporate landlord companies "Our research shows millennial, gen z, etc prefer renting to owning" for buying up every cheap/cheapish older starter homes (like ones built in say 1992) in town and renting them for 4 to 5 times what a mortgage would be. No they don't prefer it, you've given them no choice because they can't afford the brand new $400k+ houses and you and boomers own everything for less than that and you're actively making offers to those boomers.
Zammurkele
WholeWheatBunnyHugger
Moopsy!!
SploogeMcDuck316
Inb4 current homeowners blame it on netflix and avocados.
WooNeat
Landlords aren't the problem here, they are a symptom, missing regulation of the market and the lands are the problem
The701
NikkiManajOfficial
And there are no people exploiting the lack of regulations. These things are done by people not forces of nature. They have names and addresses and families, and then choose everyday to be parasites eating away at the hope of the rest of us.
PubMed12927120suckssobad
Not sure why you are being downvoted. Unpopular though the opinion is, it can certainly lead to some nuanced and revealing conversations about end-stage capitalism and how early stage capitalism could be fixed to prevent much of the problems that we have now. If you agree that the biggest problem here is the inevitable trouble with end stage capitalism, please go back and upvote his comment
fubizdaddie
It leads to brain damage. Genuinely. "X isn't the problem, we need regulation to prevent X" is blind, deaf, but unfortunately not dumb (as in mute) -- if regulation against X is The fix, X is the problem. If you need to regulate how landlords act, that's because landlords are acting badly. Otherwise there would be no need for regulation. It's actively and intentionally daft to claim that wet need to regulate something that isn't problematic. That BASIC LOGIC is why the down votes.
WooNeat
Lol I knew I'd get downvoted to hell here because it's a ragebait topic and Imgur hive is quite prone to reactionary irrational thinking ... But yes it's late stage capitalism, only regulation can fix things unless you want to go back to wild ages of kill someone you don't like but that's horrific ... And literally the other comments freaking out about how you shouldn't even be able to own land, well first that's stupid but second if it worked then regulation would literally be the solution 🫣
KR1570F
First time someone decided they owned some land we all got infinitely poorer
WooNeat
Infinitely no, disproportionately, yes ... If only there were some kind of mechanism to make things more equal ... Like I dunno I'm just spitballing here, laws and taxes?
fubizdaddie
Mother fucker, if someone needs regulation to prevent them from destroying things, THAT'S THE PROBLEM. Soak killers aren't the problem, laws to put them in jail are; were need more laws to prevent serial killers! Rapists aren't the problem, we need more regulation to own a penis. Capitalism isn't the problem, we need more regulation to prevent it from DOING CAPITALISM. So you listen to yourself or does that make the headaches come back? Holy fuck. Genuinely. WOW The blind naivety of some people.
WooNeat
Ok so once you calm down a bit, take your blind naivety and do some introspection: capitalism is the problem and yes we need to make it more regulated to make it less capitalism, so it works better ... It's bait but even rape yes if there were no laws out there and people could rape freely there'd be more rape than there is now ... Fuck even serial killers, afaik the regulations around lead in gasoline literally drastically reduced the incurrence of them ... Gtfo with your blind rage
fubizdaddie
*soak killers = serial killers
Swiggy1957
In 1994, the minimum wage had gone up three years earlier. Today, the minimum wage has not budged for close to 17 years. Damn good thing the Cost of living hasn't gone up.
SavageDrums
https://media4.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1cTc0ODl2bjk5ZmFvenh2Nm1ucDNudHFvdzd5eHIwYzA5aDV3NjExMyZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/2oFg1ACXPGO1MNSh7f/200w.webp
livingonagiantfireball
Wow that cheap, almost any house in british columbia is worth 1000000$
Vellax
Nathanyel
Beat me to it
SnailsAgainstTungstenSpheres
I'm over here wishing my 1700 sqft house was that 40k less. Shit is insane. Dual income science fields, one with a master's degree, can barely do this. Don't know how long we can. Fuckin nuts. Just trying. Figured we'd try. Hope it works out. 1 year down.,.. What a nightmare to achieve anything these days, it all feels temporary.
PUNKem733
EVERY entity is stealing from us the middle class, yet they do a good job having us police each other telling us don't steal or shoplift. Pretty good gig to get if you are one of the elite.
pancreas
but inflation. but covid. but tariffs.
Totallycasual
I find that mind boggling, min wage (and even unemployment benefits) go up regularly in order to try and keep up with inflation in my country.
Swiggy1957
Some states have overridden the federal minimum wage by setting a higher minimum wage. Still, there's about 20 states that don't have a minimum wage . . . Two states have theirs set below minimum wage.they lose a lot of talented people who seek a better living.
TungstenOrbital
Do they want everyone to be homeless?
ThatJerkOnTheInternet
If your renting you are easier to control as losing your job can mean losing your home. If you lose your home then you are more likely to turn to crime, or they make homelessness a crime. Now your a criminal which constitutionally means you can be legally enslaved (not a technical slave, full on chattel slavery). That's the goal. You are either a slave to your job or just a slave.
NotSinceTheAccidend
Yes. Then they can arrest us for being homeless and make us slaves. Seems crystal clear to me
akafluffy
There's a few employers who really want to bring back company towns. This is how they're convincing people that's a good idea.
dontrike
Worse, they want everyone to rent. When people are forced to rent it means continuous cash coming in, but if people can buy that means only one lump sum of cash rather than the years and decades of rent.
WienerBeener
Yes.
darbythemiddle
Just so desperate to survive, they'll do anything to produce wealth for the fortunate few
fubizdaddie
Do they literally want every cent we have? Yes. Do they literally want us paying them for our housing and no right to keep it or stay? YES. The absolute best outcome for them is when we own nothing but pay for it the same. Your new car every few years, your house, your credit card, now RAM is going insane because memory manufacturers are switching from consumer focused RAM to AI memory and the result is gonna be a hard push for cloud gaming and cloud computing. They want us to own NOTHING.
thetonestarr
They literally don't care what happens to anybody as long as they get paid
celestedrake
Oh no, they definitely care about making people suffer, desperate, uneducated, unable to vote in come way (including making something they do illegal and then making it so they can't vote due to that)... If they were getting paid but people weren't suffering and desperate they would not feel fulfilled.
Sen7ryGun
They literally actually want everyone to be homeless and they are actively working towards it. A population who at best rent and at worst live in a gutter are easily mobilised into a war culture where the only way to escape poverty and class violence is to join the military machine and inflict violence on everyone else.
LicensedAdHominem
Plus "hunger is an excellent motivator"
Lampmonster
Remember the billionaire telling people that hunger is a great way to teach dogs? We're animals in need of training to them. We should start treating them like animals would.
LicensedAdHominem
heerobya
Yeah home ownership is one of the few luxuries they haven’t yet taken away from us normies for the sake of their greed, but they’ve certainly been trying and making it hella difficult for 40 years
Timesarrows
i know americans who've worked their entire lives for minimum wage (many pre 1992 which this graph shows was $4.25). they retired at minimum wage, never getting a raise, many worked the same company, others 2-3 comp entire life. my neighbor at retirement comp gave him a replica wood carving of the logging truck he drove for 45 years. LOL cry! these comp don't give medical or pension.
PUNKem733
I have no clue how anyone could accept working for decades for no raises and always staying at min wage.
Timesarrows
my 2 doors down maga neighbor, his girlfriend online applied him for walmart, accepted. he worked minimum wage 4 years then walmart gave him a 20 cents hour raise. he was ecstatic. WTH? it shows low education humans r easily "conditioned". no medical/dental/eye, no pension, no stock options. he hasn't gotten another raise for 5 years. he has serious health problems now, i don't know what but he looks like he's aged 50 years, lost weight, skin is bright red, frail. and votes GOP.
Timesarrows
cont: he (and all maga i know in my county) have never owned a new vehicle. i've directly watched neighbors getting up to 6 (new) used vehicles in a year. in 10 years could have up to 15 vehicles. the breakdowns/fix end up costing more than purchasing a new vehicle but they don't have the cash, low credit scores for loans. never been on vacation in their lives. DNC Dems should be airing commercials directly addressing how they're change that. (this is long before today's "affordability" issue!
noescapes08
Raises are really to make sure you aren’t losing money the next year as the 3% fed targeted inflation rate. I mean until the 1970s and death of the gold standard inflation was near zero. Yes plenty of talk about benefits of economic levers at times. However a 3% target inflation means that if you have stocks and assets those inflate at 3% but if your a working stiff at minimum wage (which hasn’t changed to match the CPI) your just getting poorer.
Timesarrows
raises were annual only because of Unions, this forces all employers/corporations to pay raises. i haven't heard this word on corporate media "bonuses". literally every corporation paid bonuses to the better employees as a method/incentive for all employees. i'd guess 100% of employees under the age of 30 have never heard the word "bonus" LOL. but the CEO/Board/Top management still get bonuses and at least 5% raise per year. in the 60s 70s 80s all employees got annual 5-10% raise.
noescapes08
This means by simple math more assets and riches = 3% richer by default, even more when inflation is higher (case and point for 2025) less assets and reliance on stagnant wages = poorer by default.
Redbulloth
I mean, in the late 60s, inflation wasn't "near zero", it was at 5.4% in 1969, and 4% in '68. And that wasn't an isolated incident. In 1947 it was 18%, 1948 it was 9%. '50 & -51 it was about 6%. Has it average higher since? Yeah, absolutely. But the gold standard isn't some economic magic potion. We were on the gold standard in the late 1800s, which if someone said they ran the numbers, and the crises were worse and more numerous than these late couple decades, I'd believe them.
Timesarrows
it's clear incompetent Schumer and Jeffries r worthless, we need leaders like Mamdani, AOC, Bernie, Justice Democrats... we need to reach these maga low educated to show them voting Dem will raise their lives. most of my maga neighbors have never taken a vacation in their lives. never owned a new car. little to no savings (this is for the last 20 years, not just since covid/trump).
Swiggy1957
"The economy does better under the Democrats than the Republicans." Trump in a 2004 interview with Wolf Blitzer.
Timesarrows
what happened was: Corporate/BIllionaire capital created Republican Hate Radio starting 90s (limbaugh, savage...) 90% what they spoke were lies smearing the Dems/liberals but it gets picked up by low education listeners who parrot it. it's spoken so often the corporate media starts parroting the lies. example is they smeared the word "liberal" so much Dems gave up using, they were afraid to identify as liberal and decades later started calling themselves "progressives".
Swiggy1957
And have you noticed that in the last 20 years or so that politicians no longer put their party affiliation on their advertising. Especially at the local level. The Republicans stop party identifying, IIRC, in the Bush administration.
Timesarrows
i haven't noticed that on political signs but may be factual. but i have noticed "republican" missing in internet corporate media reports. i routinely notice this when it's a negative/criminal reporting what the politician did (and i always suspect it's a gop as we all know 90% time it's a gop rapist/pedophile). you most often have to dig to the bottom to find the text "republican" or it's not in the story and i have to internet search. but if it's as dem it's always top paragraphed.