Houseboats are a thing, but the amount of living space you get is tiny, you don’t have enough electricity to live the same way and some people let their boats become derelict.
looks like 5% is the number i’m going to get.
This report is a complete mess.
Investor-owned != vacant
Also housing investors mostly don’t buy up houses and wait for them to appreciate. They rent them out or Airbnb them.
Interviewing a random real estate agent is just peak local news lol
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Yea I’m already hearing horror stories in my area of rents getting jacked up by $500+/month. There goes that sweet 3% raise.
It’s the type of thing that should eventually lead to change, and I could see some potential ways, but it’ll be a long drawn out struggle and regular people will be fucked by it for a long time.
I just signed a lease for a 2-BR, 980sq. unit on the 14th floor of a nice building in N. VA for $2400/mo.
Since I’ll be new to the area I have no idea what the rents were like a couple of years ago…although I saw on the tenants’ FB page people are grumbling about their recent increase notices.
Anyone know the technical difference between a houseboat and yacht? I’m too lazy to look into it at the moment.
Joe Manchin and owns Joe Manchin
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This is a pretty good summary
Cliffs: houseboats are designed mostly to stay close to shore and often in one place. So, they tend to have flat bottoms. This design is good for maximizing living space and hanging out in/navigating shallower bodies of water but gets wrecked if you were to take it out into open ocean.
You CAN live aboard a yacht (especially the really big nice ones), but, because it is designed like what you think of when you picture a yacht, they can seem kinda cramped relative to the outside appearance. Also, from a sailing perspective, they often require deeper water ports (and sometimes they have to anchor offshore and use smaller boats to ferry passengers to land)
Basically, if you just want to live in one place but be on the water, you’re probably looking at a houseboat. If you want to sail around the world while hanging out with David Geffen, get a yacht.
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Thanks. That’s exactly what I was hoping to get.
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Obviously you are not an avid fan of Sleepless in Seattle
I generally don’t do rom-coms, unless forced. It never happened with that movie.
Welp. Initial loan at 5.0% fell through. I have a benefit through my employer that they didn’t like (it’s a separate loan that’s crazy good terms for me - but I owe the whole thing in 60 days if I quit). 5.375% is what I’m getting. Bleh.
That’s pretty insane. 200 bps increase in like 90 days. That just plain sucks.
Realtor - Property History
Zillow - Price History
Those will show the listed rental price if it was on MLS.
How would you change it?
The first idea that comes to mind would be increasing property taxes on single family homes that are investment properties. Apartments are trickier since you don’t want to drive rents up and we need housing for people who can’t afford to buy.
If it gets as bad as I think it could there will be immense political pressure to do something about it. I also think there’s a non-zero chance the property tax thing happens accidentally because of underfunded pension plans.
Make a tax based on “unoccupancy”. A person only needs so much space. Come up with some formula taxing home ownership based on square footage per permanent resident. Make some sort of empty nest grace period to smooth increases from kids growing up and moving out. Tax the shit out of people who own multiple homes. Figure out a way to account for long-term house renters.
This might be viable. In Florida there’s a homestead exemption where the cost basis of your property tax is reduced by 50k and increases are capped at 3%. On an average home that saved you like 600 a year so not enough to matter, still has a high percentage of investor owned properties. Increasing both property taxes and the exemption may make a difference imo.
In South Carolina the taxes are 3x if you don’t use the house as your primary residence.
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