#housing market crisis

[somerandomg33k]

Everyone deserves a home. The Democrats will probably say something like that, because it sounds good. But the most they will offer is like a tax credit. They won't touch the housing market at all. Just simply give people houses. Especially there are six times as many people less homes as there are unhoused folks.

[animentality]

[alwaysbewoke]

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Those looking for a mortgage to buy a home got a bit of a break earlier this week when the Bank of Canada cut its key interest rate down by a slight margin. But no such luck for renters as a new report from Rentals.ca and Urbanation shows that the average asking price on rents have hit an all-time high in the month of May and Nova Scotia is seeing higher than average price increases.  According to the study, data gathered show the average rental asking price in Nova Scotia jumped by 17.1 per cent, year over year, nearly doubling the national average that increased by 9.3 percent In Halifax, one bedroom apartments are seeing an average asking price sit around $1,925, that’s up 3.8 per cent while two bedrooms saw the biggest jump at 16.3 percent to $2,489. [...]

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Tagging: @newsfromstolenland

[queenbeaver69]

THIS NEEDS TO CHANGE OTHERWISE MY SON RICHARD IS FUUUUUUUUUCKED

[that-punk-adam]

This is not at all a new take on life here in the US of A however I feel as though I will peel my skin off if I don’t say it;

People are seeing death as a valid option to the current state of the world + the future and now I am fully understanding why.

There is no more ‘village’. There are no reliable social safety nets installed that are realistic or easy to access. You H A V E to drive EVERYWHERE if you’re even able to drive. If your area has a bus it has to fight on the road with every other driver. To get 9 miles away from point A to B takes 2 hour out of your day. No one is hiring or they are paying minimum wages for you to run their whole circus operation damn near by yourself. Average 1 bedroom apartments are $1.1k a month for 500 sqf and if you SOMEHOW get a roommate and get them to agree to split rent and utilities then y’all are going to battle for personal space. A 2 bed is out of the question bc there is no way in hell that you can save anything if you are spending more then half of your wages on rent. You want to go out and have a sense of what it means to be fulfilled as a human? Don’t even dream about it, you have your bills coming up.

Get a second or 3rd job? Wait… you were able to find one? They didn’t ghost? Lucky you; now you are better off & you can now sleep knowing that the 2nd job will be able to pay for the gas ($3+/gal), insurance (3X what it used to be but still making you open up ur wallet before they step in), and your car note! (Wayyy too much for a used).

What is fun? What are get togethers? What is a ‘cheap meal’? What’s a bucket list? What’s a vacation? What’s a hobby? Wait, you can afford to replace items and not get anxiety over it? You can afford more then an arm full of groceries?? Will you be able to retire by the time you’re 60 with enough money in the bank to not just exist, but to do the things you’ve always wanted to do during those working decades? What will elder and death care look like? Will your children be able to not live in poverty?

We as young people are seeing death as a valid option because we know we will NEVER see an adult life like those before us prior to the 90’s. Starting a family or adding on to your family will put you in poverty. Buying a house if you’re fortunate enough will put you in poverty. Renting will put you in poverty. Working more jobs will put you in poverty. Having a car will put you into poverty, not having one will keep you from ever getting one. We will just work and work to never ever have anything to show for it. This is not the lifestyle that I’d doom more life to do for the rest of their lives. Something’s gotta change sooner rather then later and it’s gotta be grass roots. We have to be willing to break some rules to get to where we need to be.

Things. Must. Change.

[ratisangy]

Realities Of RV Living

I feel this needs to be discussed as sadly it may become more of an option for many people as the cost of living increases. I want to provide a realistic look into this life. Unless you are well off with a luxury RV, what you typically see on social media is not even close to reality.

Traveling and Long Term RV Parks

Ask about rates monthly and compare multiple parks. Make sure to ask if the rate is the same all year long. Also, ask if utilities are included. You can save a lot of money by not having to pay electricity. Some parks don't have one of the main hookups, so make sure eletricity, water and septic are all available.

This is only good when you have a new properly functioning RV. When you live in something older and in bad shape, it means a broken part, packing up your entire life, and finding a new park friendly to long-term stay. I've moved 3 times in 2 and a half years.

The first RV park was $750 a month plus electricity ($100 in summer $200 in winter) and had multiple times were we were without power or had no use of our septic. Many of the times without power it was single digits or in the negatives. We got 120 inches of snow and had to make a homemade rv skirt of a tarp and pack the snow like an igloo around the rv to stay warm.

The second RV park was $350 plus electricity ($150 summer). This park was more affordable but had a lot more issues. Our neighbor had frequent septic issues and we often had it leak onto our rv space. We also were next to the septic for the whole park. So basically the smell of shit was ever present. It got to 110 F here and we basically ran the AC until it broke as heat exhaustion always felt right around the corner.

Third park arguably the nicest park is $550 utilities included only catch is $1200 a month in summer months. (No I don't live in a high value area either most of the town and houses are literally abandoned). It's a franchise park and the owner isn't even supposed to offer long term but deals with it for the insane price he gets in summer. I haven't had issues with electricity or other people's sewage here. Basically one good employment place here and my fiancé gets retirement, so that made it worth the move.

Extreme cold

Frozen septic and frozen water lines are a huge and common issue, especially in older, less insulated models. You can put insulation around the pipes and drip water all you want its going to happen if it's cold enough. So get comfortable with the idea of taking warm buckets of water and a rag to your septic pipe and pouring warm water down into your septic. A smell you will never forget ❤️.

Insulating the rv is very important from being almost 3 years in. Here's the best way to avoid hypothermia. Get R-tech insulation board and stuff it into your windows then cover it up with a blanket. Put this behind your pillows as well so heat can stay in the bed area. Find pre-owned carpets and cut them to fit in your rv so the floor remains warmer. Get socks or cozy slippers to wear most of winter. Your floor will most likely never be a comfortable warm and you may be at risk of hypothermia depending on tempature. Dress in layers put on two pants a shirt and a sweater and socks and slippers. If you need to gloves and a hat as well. Put a blanket over your door. Making a rv skirt out of a tarp and super gluing velcro to the tarp and rv can be useful. Use concrete blocks to hold down the ends. Depending on wind speed this can be hard to keep in place though.

As much as this may sound like a joke it's currently saving me. Xbox 360 consoles make ALOT of heat if you run a DVD that replays itself in the background all night it will warm your sleeping area. If I die I will fade out to the Do The Mario theme song I guess 🥲.

Extreme Heat

Just pump up your AC and have alot of ice packs and cold water. This is going to suck and may kill your AC. The smell oh god the smell will make you want to die. Your septic will boil in the heat and make BAD soup. Less things will break on your RV than extreme cold.

Mail

If your RV park doesn't allow you to get mail at the park its going to suck ass. PO Boxes are the most annoying things on earth. UPS and certain FedEx mail will not deliver to them. Most companies will not ship to them. Even if they say they do. You will often get packages shipped all the way to your post office only for them to be rejected and sent back to the seller. The crapiness is exemplified if you live in a very rural area like I do. Just ship to a family member and pay them to ship it to you in a USPS box only!

RV Common Issues

Too high of water pressure

Get a pressure gage/regulator a park with to high of pressure can cause your lines to burst

Electricity Surges

Get a surge protector a bad surge with no protector can permanently fry your eletricial system. The protector saved me on a bad surge that literally set my plug on fire 🔥.

Eletricity Constriants

Older 30 amps don't have much power. Depending on the appliances you may have to choose to use one at a time. Want to use the heater and your Ninja to cook? Well, enjoy tripping your breaker. In fact just get comfortable with your breaker you'll be spending alot of time with it as you figure out what appliances aren't friends.

Septic

You will spend way to much time with your septic. Whether it be unfreezing, unclogging, general emptying or trying to find a product that doesn't harm it but keeps the smell down during hot summers. Get Scott thousand ply tiolet paper or just cheap thin tiolet paper. It's very similar to the rv specific tiolet paper and way less money.

Water

Pex pipes are cool and easy to repair replace your lines with them. With cold your water lines of course have the chance to freeze or burst. Keep them insulated and use the warm water wash cloth method to unfreeze. Just make sure not to leave wash cloths on the pipes for to long or they will also freeze.

Propane

Please please please check your models history with propane if you plan on using it. Some were built with manufacturing issues that cause them to blow up. There's not many left of my model due to this. It also means I have no central heating or use of the oven.

Laundry

If your park has a laundry mat awesome but this not usually the case. Locate your nearest laundry mat and take that into consideration when looking for a park.

[frogeyedape]

I am so unbelievably pissed off. FUCK HOAs

Oh, my trash/recycling bin can't be visible except on pickup day? Ok whatever fine I hate you but I can deal with this

Weekly inspections?????? FU FU FU FU FU

SECOND NOTICE ALSO WE'RE CHARGING YOU MONEY TO SEND YOU CERTIFIED MAIL OF THIS TOTALLY LEGIT TOTALLY SECOND NOTICE OF WHAT IS ACTUALLY A VIOLATION cue me: checks notes. Hmm. My recycling bin was. on the curb. on recycling pickup day. You know. The day it has to be out. The day it is motherfucking ALLOWED TO BE FUCKING OUT AND VISIBLE.

so. 1) not a violation

I have sent them the trash AND recycling pickup schedules, which are DIFFERENT, btw

I have disputed the fact of the violation

I have disputed the linking of this "violation" to a previous violation MONTHS AGO--their "first notice" in this case was a "Courtesy Notice" LITERALLY 5 MONTHS AGO and they've done so many inspections since then and my bin CLEARLY WASN'T OUT IN THOSE INTERVENING MONTHS so WTMFH

So I am posting like a crazy person here instead of sending the absolutely deranged email I almost sent (I did send a slightly less deranged version with the disputes, and requesting a hearing)

OMG. It has been. Less than one hour since I learned this fun fun news. My bin was out YESTERDAY, y'all. YESTERDAY. I am going to blow a gasket

[mbrainspaz]

I’ve been looking for a non-moldy non-pest infested affordable rental that will allow my pets for almost a year now in Houston and I’m watching the market actively get worse. Just talked to a guy renting out a shabby trailer home in a farm town an hour away from my job (which is already 30 minutes outside the city) for $1250. No utilities included. No appliances except a fridge. Honestly I was surprised about the fridge. Last month I went to look at a $900 ‘apartment’ and like most listings in the $1k range it turned out to be the musty back room of an old farmhouse that had been subdivided into 2+ rentals. There were also a bunch of rental trailers in the back yard, so at least 5 people living on an unkempt 1 acre lot. Oh yeah, and the ‘kitchen’ (1 mini fridge) was IN the bathroom.

Anyone offering to rent an actual house within 2 hours of the city for less than $1500 is a scammer, and right now I’m seeing that bar shift to $1700. To keep my rent at the 30% mark, which most require, I would have to be making $80k. I still struggle to imagine ever being paid more than $60k, it is so unrealistic and unattainable. I don’t even want more money, I just want all the house-flipping landlords and slumlord corporations exploiting the housing crisis to be stopped.

My current place might be a backyard shed that’s leaky and moldy and has broken appliances and zero ventilation, but at $1k with utilities included, no pet fees, and a car port it’s only getting harder to beat. Unfortunately my landlord might decide to sell as soon as the old farmland that sold out across the street starts construction on 50 new $600,000 matchbox houses.

At this rate I’ll have to leave my ‘good paying’ city job with a pension and move to a nowhere town to work at a grocery store before the year is out.

[benjaminallhope-fulltimemind]

Here's a reminder that just moving won't fix or aid the housing crisis America suffers from, as this article points out people live at and move to places for a myriad of reasons. The only way to save ourselves is through radical wealth redistribution and redevelopment to ensure everyone can live and work wherever they want.

(kinda a short post, pretty tired and I'm gonna sleep soon.)

[hyperlexichypatia]

I’ve been seeing a few viral posts like “You don’t have to move out of your parents’ house when you turn 18; multi-generational homes are good.” And I agree – multi-generational homes ARE good, and cultural stigma on living with one’s parents as an adult IS wrong! Personally, I’ve lived with my parents for most of my adult life, first by financial necessity, and later by choice. If you’re fortunate enough to have a good relationship with your parents, spending time with them can be great.  BUT.  While you don’t necessarily need to move out of your parents’ home when you’re 18, you DO need to start thinking of yourself as an adult and making your own choices, and your parents will need to respect that. If you and your parents can seamlessly make the transition to viewing you as an adult housemate rather than a child under their care, that’s great. Sometimes, though, even the most respectful parents will have a tendency to Meddle, and even the most self-assured young people will have a tendency to Revert to old roles and habits. If this is a problem, you may in fact need to get some physical distance to reinforce the psychological distance. And even more importantly, every young adult deserves the living wage and affordable housing to live on their own, whether or not they ever choose to use it. I’ve been shouting into the wind for years that the “young adults are still children” narrative is an excuse to normalize the low wages and high costs of living faced by Millennials and Gen Z, and “Multi-generational homes are good” seems hardly better in this respect. At best, it’s tonally mismatched to the cultural and economic moment. At worst, it’s normalizing the conditions of abusive control of young people. Somewhere in between, it’s propaganda reframing being unable to afford housing as a wholesome family lifestyle. In fact, I think the demographic this demographic is nominally targeted to – 18 year olds who are freely choosing between two options, having both the financial resources to live on their own, and supportive parents who would willingly share a safe and respectful multi-generational home – are a relatively small segment of the population.  “Multi-generational homes are good” does nothing for the 18 year old living with their controlling parents because they can’t afford to move out, let alone the 18 year old moving in with an abusive partner because it’s the only way xe can escape xyr even more abusive parents, or the 18 year old living on the streets because her parents kicked her out and she’s ineligible for any benefits because she’s assumed to be supported by her parents (who have no legal obligation towards her). And as always, young people most likely to be controlled, abused, rejected, or involuntarily “helped” (which is also abuse) by parents and family – queer young people, disabled young people, young people who’ve made different reproductive or philosophical or religious or life-path choices than their family approves of – are most harmed by having no economic options to live on their own. So can we get universal housing, universal living wages, and universal healthcare and student aid for young people which doesn’t require the involvement of their families FIRST, and THEN, once everyone has the option of living on their own, remind them that multi-generational homes are also good as one option among many?

[brainpukeblog]

[naneki-maid]

I met my wife on Match.com. My profile said, “I am a medical student with only one eye, an awkward social manner, and $145,000 in student loans.” She wrote back, “You’re just what I’ve been looking for.” She meant honest.

The Big Short (2015)

[blue-cat-shitposts]

The most 80s thing about Electric Dreams (1984) is that a guy was convinced that having a computer at home will make him more productive

[alwaysbewoke]

[allthecanadianpolitics]

As housing affordability and skyrocketing rent prices remain top of mind for many renters, a map reveals that there are millions of empty bedrooms throughout Ontario — a figure some say is high enough to relieve the province's housing crisis.  According to the Canadian Census Mapper, the number of empty bedrooms throughout Ontario has only increased over the past several years, with the current number sitting at roughly five million.  The map, which uses 2021 census data, assumes an idealized view that couples share a bedroom and single folks sleep in separate rooms. It was created as a complement to the map of overcrowded dwellings to help identify underused housing throughout the province.  Based on the map of overcrowded dwellings, it's clear that there are households with more than one person per bedroom, not counting couples. [...]

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Tagging: @newsfromstolenland, @vague-humanoid