Republican policies enacted over the last 35 years, and far too often supported by neoLiberal Democrats like Clinton (Bill and Hillary), has taken us from an ownership society, where most people owned a home, to one where the homes flowed back to the rich, and the poor can scarcely afford to buy them, as most of the good jobs were purposely shipped away.

So it's pretty clear Republican policy did this, and we need to reverse the tide of people losing homes to the rich.

without massive prosecution under a Democratic POTUS and AG---well, I am left clinging to small hope.

Problems with massive numbers of rental homes - they are usually not even kept in great condition, but that is just the start of the problem. People in rentals are not remodeling, not upgrading appliances, not buying a lot of new furniture, not supporting the businesses that depend on homeowners. They are not landscaping, they are probably not planting gardens. Not adding security systems or swimming pools. Everything is minimal, and done as cheaply as possible due to ROI considerations. When huge corporations like Blackstone can negotiate property taxes down, then less money goes to schools and infrastructure.

And I doubt it is any easier for someone with iffy credit to rent a nice apartment or house than it is to buy a house. Poorer housing, perhaps bigger deposits that may never get returned, the downward spiral is greased.

Another thing that this "economy" has given rise to, looks to me - is that when someone can't afford the rent, they are more easily thrown into the street. At least until the banks can buy some more laws, it takes quite a while longer to take someone's house away from them, giving them time to look for help, regroup, arrange different or modified financing, find a decent place to live. In addition, it seems easier for rents to be summarily increased, while mortgage payments hold steady unless they are variable. And all increases in taxes and insurance are passed on to renters, but renters cannot deduct taxes or shop around for cheaper insurance. The mobile home communities, at least here in Florida, can also impose special assessments.

"Moreover, housing advocates worry that investors’ long-term presence in recovering neighborhoods will speed gentrification and shift the balance of power away from communities, to faraway Wall Street landlords."

My experience here - the Blackstone Group tried to ram through a much more expensive outside HOA management firm. They can likely write off the HOA fees, but the rest of us would see our fees go from $30 a year to maybe $30 a month or more - just to pay the lawyers. This was voted on and turned down decisively, but as more homes are bought by outside investors, the chances are that eventually they will prevail.

After the implosion of 2007, many banks raised the amount required for a down payment to 20%. In the foreclosure market cash is king. Banks that own these foreclosed mortgages want to sell them "as is" for cash -- so for those, figure the buyer would need 100% down payment.

Property taxes locally are ridiculously high and still rising. 4% officially but most homeowners are over-assessed because the assessors boosted appraisal values when the market was up but will not lower them now. The county in live in loses 1% of it's population every year so by 2040 we will have 25% fewer people here but the city and county go right on spending (they just expanded the courthouse in a county that is steadily shrinking (?)). About 25% fewer families to share the outrageous tax burden.

A family paying for a home here is effectively paying about 5% of the market value of the house every year in property taxes. That means that in 20 years they have paid out the ENTIRE value of the house in taxes. A 30-year loan on a $100K house means the family will pay $150,000 in property taxes before they get the deed (and paying the loan will cost another $180K or so) -- $330,000 for a $100,000 house. And if they do no maintenance for 30 years the house will be in tear down condition by the time they own it. Meanwhile the assessor and property tax system does not allow for depreciation.

"Homeownership" is a lie.

A neighbor of mine has walked away from 3 different apartment owing each landlord back rent but she still finds new apartments. Her current rent is about 60% of her take home so she is likely headed for another eviction at some point. I think landlords just take their chances on whoever seems best able to pay for a while. Banks won't do that (anymore).

really crappy. That's what I meant by a downward spiral - harder to rent a nice place.
I don't mind my property taxes. We have decent roads and lots of widening projects, good schools, and so far the police are pretty nice.
Of course I pay county taxes. We all vote against expanding Tampa to include all of the county because we feel that in the city, tax money and projects flow to the rich and some really nice areas in the city pay less taxes than we do.
Maybe homeownership is a lie, per se, but i like having roads, streetlights, police, schools, etc. My house was appraised at a lower rate as values went down, so taxes went down, now they are rising a bit as things are improving.

.... that owning and managing rental property has largely been a "mom and pop" business. It is very hands-on and not easily farmed out to minions. The process of finding properties, paying the right amount for them, rehabilitating them and keeping them in great condition (essential for getting the rental occupancy and rates required to make this viable) and most importantly qualifying tenants (also essential, one bad tenant can send a year's profit down the drain) isn't done well by hired "property managers" who have no real vested interest in the outcome.

To summarize, I don't expect this to end as well for these hedge funds as they think it is going to,

I say the "same" in the sense that they will spend NOTHING on repairs, let alone maintenance or god forbid, upgrading. Renters have to go to a magistrate's court to get safety regulations followed. Meanwhile, owners get to write off depreciation. Back in the 80's, I clerked one summer for a real estate lawyer who owned a couple of apartment buildings. He bragged to me about the tax advantages, and that he got so many write offs that he paid NO federal income tax. I'm sure the banks will fine tune those tax loopholes as necessary to make sure they get similar preferences.

We have an increasing number of rental properties in my middle class, built-in-th-1950's subdivision. Down the street is once attractive little ranch house, lovingly landscaped and scrupulously maintained by a family who had lived there for 30 years. The father owned a small restaurant and struggled mightily to keep it open in a bad economy - even to the point of mortgaging his home to the max. The business failed and he went into bankruptcy. BNY/Mellon Bank foreclosed and the old couple moved out of state to live with an adult daughter. That was over 2 years ago, and the house has sat abandoned that whole time - never put on the market for either sale or rental. The ornamental pond and bench by it, has disappeared behind a wall of weeds and unmown grass. The whole yard, actually was never mowed. After many complaints by neighbors to the Township, and Mellon Bank ignoring the Township's official notice to mow the yard, the Township had its maintenance people do the work and bill the bank over $500 for the work - which the bank could have had done for $100, if it could have been bothered.

Bottom line, this and other rental properties in my neighborhood are neglected, often eyesores, and drag down the property value for neighboring homeowners. Big Money looked around to see where else it could bilk individuals out of $$ and saw the last bastions: the Social Security trust fund and the private homes we paid off over the years in hopes of retiring without having mortgage payments.

George Bailey has lost out to Mr. Potter (It's a Wonderful Life)

... (i.e. skimp on maintenance and repairs) will soon find themselves the owners of slum properties that command 1/2 the rent that the property should command and sell for way less than market.

I agree this is how they will manage it, and that is why they will fail.

And yes, foreclosures are routinely mismanaged also and it sucks to be in a neighborhood where they are.

Just like the mortgage backed securities. They are putting the risk on the unlucky(suckers) investors who buy them. They won't feel the pain when rental income and property values fall. The only real people hurt will be the community and the investors(can you say pension funds?)

... they are securitizing them just like they did the subprime mortgages. At this point, I have a hard time working up any sympathy for anyone or entity that "invests" in such instruments. If you haven't figured the game out by now you deserve to lose your money

Jimmy Stewart plays George Bailey to Lionel Barrymore’s Mr. Potter in Frank Capra’s movie It’s a Wonderful Life We used to call George Bailey’s belief in a fair chance for everyone the American spirit, but now it’s the liberal spirit because the conservatives are rooting for Mr. Potter (and Scrooge, apparently – no, really).

Here’s George Bailey’s famous speech from It’s A Wonderful Life (1946), in which he admonishes the greedy Mr. Potter, “You know how long it takes a workin’ man to save five thousand dollars? Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble you’re talking about, they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath? Anyway, my father didn’t think so. People were human beings to him, but to you, a warped, frustrated old man, they’re cattle.”

They simply do the minimum and wait for someone desperate. And there is always someone who will rent it. They don't upgrade to prevent loss from a bad tenant. Also they are just greedy. When the renters have nothing but poor choices financially, they will make do. The managers get to write off the depreciation. My landlord is a perfect example of this type of management. Which is why I am moving to a small house I bought, in a not so great area, but it's mine, has ample room for a garden, southern exposure, corner lot, and it's in town. And I am so glad I will not have to shell out 800 a month in rent. It was killing us.
I know the area will gentrify, but I see the effects of a rental market all the time. I know many tenants who rent and fix up the place beyond what the landlord will do.
My other works for a rental firm. They squeeze people for first, last and deposit, which they never give back, and often enough people stop paying rent the last three months to account for this. They let the building maintenance slide, and drive nice expensive cars and have a guard dog.
All the while talking about about a moocher society. And they are gay! Meanwhile they have multiple LLC's to cover their asses and assume no risk for loans. They milk the property till the bank takes it back. For all I know they have an account abroad and have the money stashed.

... operate that way, but they are not doing themselves any favors. If you want a good, stable tenant that will take care of your house you have to offer a house that is worth taking care of, i.e. close to new condition.

I know landlords that operate on the "never do anything" model, they are clueless and wonder why they aren't making money. Desperate tenants are not the people you want in your house.

And despite the current mindset of many, if there is any way you can BUY a house, you are going to do much better over the long term than a renter, so congratulations to you!

I have also known landlords who are good people. I have also seen tenants that neighbors had to band together to get rid of.
Desperate tenants do not necessarily equate to bad tenants, but landlords often don't care about the quality of life there in the neighborhood.

I totally agree with you, except to add that I think that the people who manage the hedge funds will be fine whether it ends well for them or not. Responsibility and consequences are for the renters.

and BOA start crying to the government what happens then? From the Alternet Article it seems they are selling these Rental Obligation Loans like they did the Collateralized Mortgage Obligations during the Housing Boom that busted in '08 and that didn't end well for any of us taxpayers who had to bail them out and suffer the "austerity," that was imposed on us. Savers getting screwed with close to zero interest forcing them into risky investments or to just sit tight in fear and the RW wanting to slash poverty programs and privatize everything they could get their hands on.

Amazing they would do this again so soon after the last bust. But, then, there's not been proper accountability or oversight....so it seems anything goes.

.... they are securitizing this mess just like they did with mortgages, so who knows what happens when there is default. I expect these rentals, over the longer term, to be about as financially sound as liar loans, interest only loans, and the other assorted "innovations" that led to the last collapse.

I'm merely pointing out that large institutions do not have a good track record for managing this sort of property, so yes you have a valid concern.

I am moving in this month. It is a fixer-upper,
and I still owe two brothers eleven grand, bless their hearts. The rental situation is only going to get worse. And I live in an area where rents are relatively affordable. Vs my home town of SF.
We were not going to do a cash deal on the house, but the guy who said he would loan us money, came up with some fishy loan documents that had terms no one should sign.
He is the manager of my landlord's properties.
We were able to scrape together the funds and bought the house through HUD. I know he sabotaged our loan on purpose. I do wonder if he put a bid on the house, as there was a lot of interest from investors. And he has several properties. What a douche.

...but everything is becoming rented. Transportation. Storage space for data. Entertainment. Communication. Just pay your monthly fee, OR ELSE.

is going to be much easier than foreclosure.

and make money on the mortgages instead.

Operating single-family rental housing is very difficult on a large scale.

and people with cash, always "win".


This is the way bust & boom works. The people with cash, hire contractors to
do quickie rehabs, rent the properties out (for big bucks) for a few years, and by the time the properties need another rehab, they will sell them off and make a profit, because the market always rebounds.. By then the sub-prime mess will be but a vaporous memory and the banksters will once again inflate a new bubble...

and so it goes

The same guy who gave so much money to see SS cuts in the 2014 budget.

They're called Real Estate Income (or Investment) Trusts and they have been around since the fifties. Naturally they would buy into a depressed housing market.

for keeping the eye on the ball. The middle class and poor continue to experience negative growth and are not benefitting while the banks continue their record bonuses.