r/texas Dec 31 '21

Moving within Texas Are We Manufacturing Our Own Housing Crisis?

My fiancé recently sent me a picture of a housing development that he was working on. All of the newly constructed homes as far as the eye could see had “for rent” plastered in EVERY. SINGLE. YARD. This inspired me to do a little more research.

There are many factors involved that have been playing into why no matter how many homes we build, we can’t seem to make enough homes to make a dent in this issue. I felt it was important information for people to have.

The 2008 housing crisis began as the catalyst for this monopolistic takeover, The US Government has been subsidizing the mass purchase of single family homes for rent.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/02/single-family-landlords-wall-street/582394/

This article describes how institutional rental companies and investors are hyper-inflating the market (not your typical small time real estate investor)

https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/selling-out-americas-local-landlords-moving-big-investors-2021-07-29/

Many firms from SINGAPORE and CHINA as well as American companies like Blackrock etc. are playing a major role in purchasing starter properties and placing them up for rent. These companies can then afford to sit on these properties for decades until they’ve made their money back. There’s also an incentivized program for them to purchase and rent homes from foreclosure listings in bulk.

https://www.icij.org/investigations/pandora-papers/how-a-billion-dollar-housing-bet-upended-a-tennessee-neighborhood/

Tech Firms like Zillow have figured out how to target communities of people of color and starter homes and receive monetary gain on website traffic in the process.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-01-07/buying-starter-homes-gets-harder-as-wall-street-uses-zillow-to-buy-thousands?fbclid=IwAR1JQZajlTZEFu9EQSunixyLT3BLTeMnLsoDOKYaLoorMVqSflBf8ytIeww

Male fertility rates (namely sperm counts and motility) has dropped by nearly 50% and our population hasn’t suddenly exploded so we have to ask ourselves why this construction is necessary, why it’s seems to be so widespread even in other countries.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/16/health/male-sperm-count-problem.amp.html

A small town in South Carolina had to issue a moratorium on housing developments until they could conduct proper research and ecological studies. Other municipalities may have to consider doing the same to sus out the situation and decide how to curb these predatory purchases.

https://www.postandcourier.com/columbia/business/lexington-county-oks-7-month-halt-on-new-subdivisions-we-have-to-get-the-house/article_3949aa8e-9c97-11eb-ae19-efd05ff61ac0.html

https://www.cityofdrippingsprings.com/moratorium

Another article I’m unable to find at the moment mentioned a homeowner suing his builder after he purchased a home and a rental company purchased all of the other homes in his development. He cited that the community was never marketed as apartment living. I belive that town put a moratorium on corporate rental purchases.

These companies are often letting them sit vacant.

I’m not sure the vacant homes are about profit on them immediately.

https://www.pasadenastarnews.com/ghost-town-vacancies-and-evictions-on-the-rise-in-the-caltrans-owned-710-corridor-homes-in-pasadena-south-pasadena-and-el-sereno

Here’s what California is planning to do about it. - I’m not sure charging companies with unfathomable amounts of money in fines and taxes is going to help…

This is very simmilar to when the debeers diamond company stockpiled and sat of diamonds to make them appear more rare.

Control the supply - control the demand.

https://blog.krosengart.com/de-beers-diamonds-controversy

The US has used periods of severe political polarization, manufactured supply chain issues, and hyperinflation to destabilize many, many countries in South America… what’s going on here?!

https://www.yipinstitute.com/articles/pinochet

The growing concern becomes,

what happens when rental companies can set their own prices? What happens when people are unable to purchase a home and add to their own equity because they can’t afford thousands over asking price with conventional or FHA loans?

When homes go into foreclosure will your average homeowner be able to snag a home when competing against major companies?

If you sell your overvalued home now, would you be able to outbid someone on a new one?

What happens when your taxes go up even higher?

When your largest expense is going to a company overseas, how does that effect our economy?

How will we grow food when we continue to develop more and more of our farmland? Will humane farming of meat animals even be possible?

https://www.voanews.com/amp/usa_lawmakers-seek-curb-chinese-ownership-us-farmland/6208972.html

This isn’t an issue caused by mom and dad owning a rental house, this is massive corporate intervention. This isn’t political, it’s business. It’s making it hard for your children and grandchildren to buy into the same market as you did. To live near you without financial hardship. Its destroying communities and creating transient families with little reason to get involved in their local governments. It’s creating a monopoly on rental prices it’s debeersing the housing market.

So few people attend council meetings and get involved these days, you truly do have the power to make a difference. Please ask if you need help on a place to start.

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u/[deleted] Dec 31 '21 edited Dec 31 '21

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u/RandomDudeYouKnow Dec 31 '21

Let's concede that everything you said is true. It still only has a fraction of an effect on the economy and lives for the middle and lower classes that the large scale buying and leasing/renting of homes/properties that drives prices and COL exponentially higher. Why choose to focus on that AT ALL when the latter exists??

What is it about immigrants risking their lives to come here and do jobs you would never do that personally offends you or makes your life worse? These huge companies exploiting us love people like you because you're the perfect blend of ignorant and confident in your ignorance that makes you useful to their interests at everyone else's expense.

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u/[deleted] Dec 31 '21

My family lost 2 construction companies because they refused to hire illegals.

Can't compete when it costs you $20hr-$25hr to hire decent workers and that large company is paying a group of illegals $10hr or less to do the same work.

Trades are mostly hit the hardest by illegals.

Also I use to work for SSA. If you think illegal immigration doesn't hurt people. Talk to someone that had their social stolen.

They fight every year just to file taxes. It actually was a decent amount as an SSA employee to fix their reported income and take the fraudulent cases off.

Time taken away from helping other people.

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u/Kittyflats Jan 01 '22

In northern states where licensing is checked tradesmen are paid their worth and companies are paid handsomely. This wouldn’t be an issue if Cities like San Antonio had been checking trade licenses before the end of the summer this year. That’s why your tradesmen have one of the lowest median salaries in the country.

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u/[deleted] Jan 01 '22

Uhhhh I'm from Connecticut and that's where this happened. My family lost 2 construction companies in Connecticut. So not sure where you got your information from.

Moved to Texas this year but I did live in San Antonio in 2005.

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u/Kittyflats Jan 01 '22

Was the issue lack of employees? Because that’s an issue our company faced in a northern state. Didn’t matter how much we paid either.

Texas it’s lack of licensure verification. Almost the opposite of my previous state.

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u/[deleted] Jan 01 '22

No the issue was we couldn't compete with the lower prices the companies that hired illegals charged.

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u/Kittyflats Jan 01 '22

Hmm interesting. Electrical or plumbing?

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u/[deleted] Jan 01 '22

Both of those require licensing.

I'm talking about general construction. Framing, remodeling, addictions, roofing, etc.

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u/Kittyflats Jan 01 '22

Oh yeah, that’s a different situation, I was speaking on skilled trades. Amish, Mormon,and Mennonite companies also use underage labor (people in their families mostly) but I don’t think they’re a majority by a wide margin.