alt Hacker NewsRents are high because landlords are greedy and are paying already inflated house prices.
Owning is expensive because banks are greedy, pumping out the created credit for mortgages, which is an imaginary number based on no actual value, because somehow banks are allowed to create money!
Here's the plot twist: you spend 30 years or even more (in Canada that has reached 70 years!) to pay the mortgage only to find out that you actually don't own the house and you're on a perpetual rent called property taxes.
And unless the root issue is resolved by banning banks' Ponzi fraudulent schemes, and implementing a policy to change housing into a depreciated asset just like Japan did, nothing will change substantially and will only change marginally to prevent people from going out rioting in the streets.
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> Rents are high because landlords are greedy
I understand the frustration, but it’s probably unfair to single out landlords specifically. Greed isn’t unique to landlords: it’s a universal human trait. We’re all greedy.
History reminds us of at least one person who famously preached against greed, and humanity’s reaction was to nail him to a cross.
Are you telling me that places with low rents don't have greedy landlords and banks?
I guarantee with 100% certainty that if you were in a landlord position, you would be asking the highest rent that would keep your units occupied. You call it greed now, but landlords it’s simply business. You negotiate the highest salary you can, right? And the lowest car purchase price? And go to the cheaper of the two gas stations? Why is okay for you to be discerning but not a landlord?
This article suggests rents are high because we make it difficult to build homes. Are Denver landlords less greedy than landlords in Seattle?
As someone that rents I have little sympathy for people paying property taxes annually that are less than what I have to pay in one month.
There should of course be sanity in the system. If you’re retired and can’t the afford property taxes on your home it’s not okay to squeeze you for that little bit of money.
70 years? That's just plain false.
This website from the government of Canada here says the max term is 25 years, or 30 if it is your first property: https://www.canada.ca/en/financial-consumer-agency/services/...
Edit: ah, I missed one part. You can have longer terms if you have more than 20% cash down. TIL.