this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2024
660 points (99.1% liked)

News

23684 readers
3920 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
  • A group of lawsuits accuse large landlords of price-fixing the market rate of rent in the United States
  • A complaint filed by Washington D.C.’s Attorney General alleges 14 landlords in the district are sharing competitively sensitive data through RealPage, a real estate software provider
  • RealPage recommends prices for roughly 4.5 million housing units in the United States
  • RealPage told CNBC that its landlord customers are under no obligation to take their price suggestions

A group of renters in the U.S. say their landlords are using software to deliver inflated rent hikes.

“We’ve been told as tenants by employees of Equity that the software takes empathy out of the equation. So they can charge whatever the software tells them to charge,” said Kevin Weller, a tenant at Portside Towers since 2021.

Tenants say the management started to increase prices substantially after giving renters concessions during the Covid-19 pandemic.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] NatakuNox@lemmy.world 52 points 10 months ago (2 children)

We need a national renters bill of rights! Rent control is badly needed because no one can afford to live anymore. If America becomes a nation of renters our economy will collapse.

[–] hglman@lemmy.ml 22 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Everyone should have ownership of their home. I do not know the mechanism for how to transition from rent to ownership, but its the only ethical, economical way.

[–] KevonLooney@lemm.ee 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The answer is probably a combination of things. We need to be able to build more houses / duplexes / apartment buildings / etc. That's a fact. There could be ways to help people build their own house (up to code) and cut out the middleman.

If people could easily build their own, do you know how fast property values would drop? Homes in the middle of nowhere should cost nothing.

[–] guacupado@lemmy.world -1 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Homes in the middle of nowhere are already cheap. Making more housing isn't a solution if billion dollar corporations can just buy all of them up for more than asking.

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

We need housing where people work. Living in the middle of nowhere isn't helpful for 75% of the country.

[–] Pipoca@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Corporations buy housing because they beleive its a good investment.

Right now, they're right. But a lot of that is because it's legally hard to build enough new housing to keep up with demand in many cities because most of their area is zoned exclusively for mcmansions.

Housing in the middle of nowhere being cheap if you can't get a good job in the middle of nowhere.

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 1 points 10 months ago

Charge 50% tax on rental properties.

Put the money into a fund that builds more properties in that area.

You can argue that the tax will be passed on to renters, but they're already charging all the market can bear because there's a shortage of property.

[–] KevonLooney@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

You think if people build their own houses, then mysterious billion dollar corporations will buy them up? That's... weird. I don't know how that would be bad. You could just build another one.

[–] Adalast@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

My answer, cap the number of single-family rental homes in a given jurisdiction. Give 5-year chits that authorize a property owner to rent the property, then every 5 years have some sort of event that allows someone else to take the chit. That way you don't have 80% of the single-family homes being bought up for rentals and it doesn't bar the market from having new people enter.

As for the event, my preference is for a landleech Thunderdome. Two blood suckers enter, one leaves, and they are allowed to profit off someone else's hard work. Corporations are allowed to participate by champion proxy, but the champion must be a C-level executive and they must participate in every match for every property they rent.

Apartments and multi-family homes (duplex, triplex, etc.) can be rentals as far as I am concerned because there is room for it in society, but housing needs to be put in the constitution as a right (as does food) and rent has to be more regulated.

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

Or we could just ban single family house renting. Hell, the a few cities where they should be banning any new single family housing at all.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works -4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

If America becomes a nation of renters our economy will collapse.

That seems like a weird assertion.

[–] Adalast@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It is honestly not. Property ownership is currently the primary method for being able to collateralize small business loans. Without the general populace having access to that, that initial step for starting a new business or pursuing a venture before it is viable for investment becomes VERY difficult to achieve. Especially if it is something that requires a lot of involvement or time to get moving. Once you take out the ability to make a startup or small business, you are left with an ever-dwindling pool of options and end up in a persistent state of monopoly it oligopoly for most goods and services, which in turn leads to an utter stagnation of economic conveyance and growth.

Another way it stagnates economic growth is in the increased expense associated with housing. The actual economy, not the BS we are told is the economy, grows when money moves. Individuals and companies buying goods and services from each other. That only happens with disposable income. If everyone is paying 2x what they would in rent that they would in ownership, that comes out of their disposable income. This leads to less luxury (in an economic sense) purchasing and, in many cases, restricted necessity purchasing. So less money is available to move, which causes the economy to shrink.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

becomes VERY difficult to achieve

Unless there's another way, like they've achieved in European countries where renting is the norm. Their economies didn't collapse.

[–] Adalast@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Afaik those countries also have rather extensive tenant rights laws, rent control/caps, and a robust entrepreneur support system, like universal health care and generous PTO laws so people can take time to pursue things while minimizing the risks.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yes, and none of them have had their economies collapse.

[–] Adalast@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Very true, but let's see that happen in the US, Australia, or New Zealand. Or any of the other dystopian nightmares that capitalists have manipulated into their own private wonderlands.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I think you're overestimating how different those countries are.

[–] Adalast@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

Ummm, I was comparing them as similar, not different. They are all facing identical housing issues and are faced with similar social programs and safety nets.