• UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
    822·
    2 months ago

    Yimby: “We should build more houses to address the housing crisis.”

    Leftist: “So people can live in them at-cost, right?”

    Yimby: putting on his landlord hat

    Leftist: “… Right?”

    • Facebones@reddthat.com
      51·
      2 months ago

      Unfortunately I think its unrealistic to hope for something that doesn’t take profits into consideration as things stand now. Also, while I agree rents have gone FAAARRRRRR beyond any practical purposes, some people do forget “at cost” includes extra to cover maintenance and taxes.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
        8·
        2 months ago

        some people do forget “at cost” includes extra to cover maintenance and taxes.

        Taxes are a function of property value. One of the more ugly moral hazards of the last few decades has been municipal governments hungrily consuming the enormous tax windfalls of exploding property prices while residents are forced to pick up the tab for more and more privatized municipal services.

        The same house jumping from $150k to $600k doesn’t translate into roads that are 4x nicer or drainage 4x better managed or schools 4x more well-funded. It just floods into the pockets of municipal cronies and private contractors, for mayoral vanity projects. Selling property “at-cost” would keep the tax rates down. But high ranking city officials don’t want cheap land in their city. That cuts into their slush funds.

        So we see city officials tacitly encourage these exploding housing costs, while residents are priced out of homes they could have easily afforded even during the 2008 housing peak.

        • Facebones@reddthat.com
          21·
          2 months ago

          I dont disagree but that doesn’t change the fact that A- taxes are a thing and therefore a cost that has to be factored in, and B- Even if we fix the tax system it would still be a necessity.

          Fixing broken systems is important and WOULD help people find housing, but arguing for utopia or bust is only going to let things get worse as you bicker about the details of municipal spending (which again I do agree on but we ALSO need to work within the system we have now to help people for whom this isn’t theoretical internet banter…)

          • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
            3·
            2 months ago

            A- taxes are a thing and therefore a cost that has to be factored in

            I will spend less on Taxes + Mortgage for a house sold at-cost than on Mortgage alone on a house sold at a 4x markup.

            B- Even if we fix the tax system it would still be a necessity.

            The issue isn’t the tax system, its the incentives of public officials. When you can generate personal income off the professional tax base, via privatization, you are incentivized to behave as a corrupt bureaucrat. This leads to both higher housing prices (because you want more money with which to be corrupt) and more hostility towards those taxes (because you’re seeing the money go into the pockets of corrupt officials, rather than into the maintenance of community property).

            arguing for utopia or bust is only going to let things get worse

            I don’t think identifying moral hazard in a system is utopian. If anything, I think it is vital to reversing negative trends. If you can’t recognize why municipal officials would resist public housing and subsidize artificially high real estate costs, you’re never going to see the path towards getting those corrupt officials out and reversing the trends.

            If “the foxes have always guarded the hen house and asking for anything else is utopian” is your response… Idk, buddy. What do you think happens next?

  • Serinus@lemmy.world
    102·
    2 months ago

    Upvote because it’s a good meme or downvote because discussion on the instance will be heavily censored?

    • Facebones@reddthat.com
      1·
      2 months ago

      For all the whining about being censored and banned there sure always seems to be a while lot of you following ml instances just to cry about them being ml.

      • Serinus@lemmy.world
        2·
        2 months ago

        following ml instances

        All - Top Six Hours.

        You’re whining that people complain about censorship?

        • Facebones@reddthat.com
          1·
          2 months ago

          If you were being censored we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Y’all mistake “censorship” with “moderation” and I bet if i went to your favorite communities with the same energy y’all go to ml instances with I’d get moderated too (but you’d cheer when THEY do it of course.)

    • Disaster
      3·
      2 months ago

      Or in NYC, a mold-infested roach hotel where someone probably drowned during the flooding a few years back.

  • BombOmOm@lemmy.worldEnglish
    713·
    2 months ago

    Homes get dramatically cheaper as you move away from cities. Particularly if you have a remote work job, it is something to heavily consider.

    • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world
      331·
      2 months ago

      As the home prices go down, the probability that you’ll be able to find decent healthcare, education, and basically any businesses that consistently stay open outside of 9-5 weekdays goes with them

      • BombOmOm@lemmy.worldEnglish
        57·
        2 months ago

        • Good schools are kinda all over the place. There are good and bad ones in cities and good and bad ones outside of cities.

        • Certainly less businesses open super late, that moreso depends on what you want out of things. For example, most of my friends play video games at home and meet up to go hiking, canoeing, etc, none of which require stores to be open very late.

        • For healthcare, yeah, you might need to drive slightly further for a specialist, but it rarely is an issue; and is certainly something you can look for. Though, for me at least, having the extra money to afford the specialist easily outweighs the longer drive when I need one. Not so great healthcare access at my income level if all of it is going to rent and none leftover for healthcare.

        Anyway, point is, it’s going to depend on the person and what you most desire. It is important to not dismiss alternatives off-hand when they can solve the largest monetary issue in your life.

    • explodicleEnglish
      15·
      2 months ago

      Particularly if you have a remote work job entire rest of your career

      If you move out of the city to work remote, then you’ll have to keep working remotely for as long as you own the house.

      • BombOmOm@lemmy.worldEnglish
        29·
        2 months ago

        Rents also get dramatically cheaper as you move away from cities. Again, something to heavily consider.

        • Asafum@feddit.nl
          15·
          2 months ago

          Maybe that used to be the case but aside from absolute shitholes you’d never want to even drive through, prices are up everywhere. I gave up looking like 6 months ago. I don’t have the luxury of working remotely either unfortunately

        • LordKitsuna@lemmy.world
          3·
          2 months ago

          No, not anymore. I live 1.5Hr from the nearest actual city. About 10min away from a teeny tiny town with barely 200 population. Rent there is still 1.6k+ RV spots are 850/mo. Nothing is cheap

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
      41·
      2 months ago

      Not anymore. You have to go into the deep rural area where Internet access and such are a problem. NYT went to Kalamazoo to illustrate this.