Quote from: RE on Jan 14, 2024, 12:58 AMRight on cue:  Just as I said, the problems of a lack of affotdable housing are the same in the GWN as in the FSoA, OZ and I am certain in Jolly Old England as well.  All these economies use the exact same housing model, which treats real estate as an asset to be traded for profit rather than as an essential service the society needs to provide for its members.  So for decades the construction industry has been building not the type of housing that most people could afford, but instead the type that promised the greatest profit to the investor/developer.

This has forced people over the same period of time to take on ever increasing debt loads to afford the housing, possiblee for as long as the "value of real estate always goes up".  You could always sell at a profit and keep leveraging up.  That all crashed spectacularly in 2007, banks forclosed and former owners were driven back to the rental market while the banks got bailed out.  Da Fed dropped interest rates and new mortgages were handed out with now affordable homes...as long as nterest rates stayed low.  When the interest rates came back to normal, those homes bacame unaffordable again, but there hasn't been investment in lower priced housing.  So this time, there's nowhere for peoplw to go when shut out of the expensive home market.

There will be another crash in real estate, but this time the ability of Da Fed to drop the interest rates again is limited.  The housing crisis will get a lot worse before it gets better.  Count on more homeless people flooding the parking lots with tents.

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canada-facing-housing-shortage-consider-cap-international-students-minister-2024-01-13/

Canada, facing housing shortage, to consider cap on international students

RE

All the above is true but consider this, who would want to own and rent out a home, the idea of doing that is for those without experience in how the system works. Renters are given incredible protection, you can not evict someone yourself, it all has to go through the court system and at best if you have done everything right maybe just maybe at the three month mark they can be evicted, by sheriffs that you have to pay. You are out court costs, time, 3 month rent, and will have a property that you need to spend thousands on getting it into rentable condition. The rental market is for the big players who have legal on staff, painters, electricians and stuff like that in house. It takes a large player in the rental market to make money and of course with  large holders of rental property they can move the cost to rent upwards.