blondiebell OP t1_j5v66b7 wrote on January 25, 2023 at 8:04 PM

Reply to comment by PGHENGR in New tenants are getting screwed by blondiebell

What if, hypothetically, you turn 85% of these rentals in to condos at a mortgage equal to their rent.... the housing wouldn't freaking disappear it would just mean that your rent now becomes equity and when you are ready to leave that unit for a home or another condo you get that equity back. This idea that the housing would just disappear is bonkers, it would just mean that how people own/rent/use property would need to change and that's to our benefit.

PGHENGR t1_j5v7kkq wrote on January 25, 2023 at 8:12 PM

Sorry it appears you’re a very literal person. You are correct, the buildings would not just physically poof and vanish. Without any profit, why would a landlord be a landlord? So the property would effectively be taken out of the rental market.

Please, explain how this would happen. The current landlords would just….donate….their property to a program for people to buy them at this rate? No landlord is going to be a part of this. The government would then have to greatly subsidize the purchase of 85% of all of the rentals in the US?? To then sell at a low price back to the public?

I understand there is an issue here, but it’s not a simple solution. You have the think about the economic impact of these “solutions” you’re proposing.

blondiebell OP t1_j5vc3yq wrote on January 25, 2023 at 8:40 PM

We are so close to agreement.

The point of the government to do exactly that, facilitate necessary exchanges for the greater good.

When most rentals were just single family homes owned by small landlords or other single families I would have agreed that the number of units available on the market would go down to a devastating degree if landlords left the game completely, but that is no longer the case. One of the biggest issues is the consolidation of available housing under single entities like companies and investment firms. If rentals were no longer profitable, those companies would sell off the units and if apartment buildings and broken up homes were sold as condos to the existing renters the companies wouldn't be donating anything. The risk/cost would fall on the creditor that funded the renters new mortgage. If that lender was the government then it would certainly be it's own issue to manage and collect of those mortgages, but that ask isnt impossible or even unreasonable given the current crisis.