Spring-Fall 2020 my town (Coeur d'Alene, ID) had a bunch of real estate investors going door to door offering to buy houses. My parents had to shoo them away a couple times...same people.
Through this year we have this incredible shortage of houses (not to mention a surge of newcoming residents).
The part I find interesting though is that the average house price in my area went up 25-50%...which pretty much lines up with what it seems these companies were paying.
It isn't the only issue here though...a significant number of people who move here are purchasing a second home as well in order to have a "vacation rental" which is further driving the housing crisis.
Average rate of pay in my area is $20/hr but in order to purchase the average house you are required to make 3x that amount to be eligible. (Minimum wage here is $7.25/hr)
Landlords see the rising prices and say "I'm losing money by not raising rents" and now a 1bd apartment is going for $1k/month (so you need to make $25-30k/year to be eligible).
The "solution" they have is to build more apartments to house people...but those apartments are controlled heavily by large corporate interests who own multiple buildings and are controlling the prices.
I have talked personally with more than one of the investment realtors who came through (candidly) and one of them specifically said she "buys houses but does not sell them..." and she used that as justification to the argument that realtors raise the cost of houses by "flipping them".
It is a mess. Coeur d'Alene,ID was listed as the hottest real estate market in the US. Ketchum and Boise are having similar issues.
Why Idaho you might ask? Well...we have non disclosure laws which make it so you are not required to disclose the last selling price. We also have a 2017 law preventing any type of limitation on vacation rentals. The list goes on and on.
Not sure where everyone is going to live...or who is going to do the work...but the locals are being phased out. Homelessness/Rough living are becoming more common and Ketchum was even discussing tent cities. [1]
I have nothing but hope for the world. Someday people may realize that profiting from housing is profiting from another person's pain and poverty. It sucks that a 40% increase on property values are not enough for the investors...they need to raise rents too.
The lack of empathy is certainly sad, but seems to be a constant of the human condition. Not all of us are like that, of course, but many are, and those that are unempathetic tend to want to rule over those of us that are.
Spring-Fall 2020 my town (Coeur d'Alene, ID) had a bunch of real estate investors going door to door offering to buy houses. My parents had to shoo them away a couple times...same people. Through this year we have this incredible shortage of houses (not to mention a surge of newcoming residents).
The part I find interesting though is that the average house price in my area went up 25-50%...which pretty much lines up with what it seems these companies were paying.
It isn't the only issue here though...a significant number of people who move here are purchasing a second home as well in order to have a "vacation rental" which is further driving the housing crisis.
Average rate of pay in my area is $20/hr but in order to purchase the average house you are required to make 3x that amount to be eligible. (Minimum wage here is $7.25/hr)
Landlords see the rising prices and say "I'm losing money by not raising rents" and now a 1bd apartment is going for $1k/month (so you need to make $25-30k/year to be eligible). The "solution" they have is to build more apartments to house people...but those apartments are controlled heavily by large corporate interests who own multiple buildings and are controlling the prices.
I have talked personally with more than one of the investment realtors who came through (candidly) and one of them specifically said she "buys houses but does not sell them..." and she used that as justification to the argument that realtors raise the cost of houses by "flipping them".
It is a mess. Coeur d'Alene,ID was listed as the hottest real estate market in the US. Ketchum and Boise are having similar issues.
Why Idaho you might ask? Well...we have non disclosure laws which make it so you are not required to disclose the last selling price. We also have a 2017 law preventing any type of limitation on vacation rentals. The list goes on and on.
Not sure where everyone is going to live...or who is going to do the work...but the locals are being phased out. Homelessness/Rough living are becoming more common and Ketchum was even discussing tent cities. [1]
I have nothing but hope for the world. Someday people may realize that profiting from housing is profiting from another person's pain and poverty. It sucks that a 40% increase on property values are not enough for the investors...they need to raise rents too.
[1] https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-superrich-bought-up-ketchu... (google brings a few more results that may be more recent)