Tag: Housing

The Rent Is Too Damn High

Land Value Tax

An idea that is coming of age?

About 15 years ago here on IST, I wrote about the idea of Land Value taxation…..not much of an interest in those dark days…..but I still thought it was an excellent idea then as I do now.

But let my post explain what LVT is all about….

Land Value Taxation–An Answer To The Problem

Then there was this post as well….

Ever Hear Of Land Value Taxation?

Rent in my area is out of sight…..a one bedroom apartment can go for as much as $900….a friend of mine lives in a pretty good area and rents his 3 bedroom house for $1000 a month his land lord just dropped a bomb in his lap….his rent next month will go up to $1400 a month….like I said a nice area but not that damn nice.

Is their a cure for these astronomical rising rents?

Why yes there is.

Cities and towns across America are dealing with either an abundance of underused land or a shortage of housing — or both.

Economists and policymakers are increasingly promoting a relatively simple policy that could go a long way to addressing both of these crises, simultaneously bringing housing costs down in the most expensive places and boosting investments in struggling communities.

It all started in 1879 when the American political economist Henry George published a bestselling book: “Progress and Poverty.” The opus, decrying industrial capitalism and the oppression of the working class, made George a popular hero and, eventually, spawned a whole school of thought called Georgism.

The ideology is centered on the idea that natural resources should be shared by everybody, rather than monopolized by the wealthy elite. Fast-forward nearly 150 years, and a Georgist proposal — land-value taxation — is being promoted by urbanists and pro-development advocates as a solution to the housing affordability crisis and much more.

The idea is to tax landowners annually based on the value of their land and reduce or eliminate taxes on any developments made to it, such as apartments, office buildings, or retails stores.

The principle is: “tax what you take out of the natural world, not what you make,” said Stephen Hoskins, research director at Resource Justice and a self-described Georgist.

https://www.businessinsider.com/real-estate-costs-lower-rents-housing-prices-land-value-tax-2023-11

Yes it is a great idea and people like me have been writing that for well over 50 years.  It was a great idea in 1879 and it is an even greater idea today.

I you want answers to the problem of constantly rising rent then LVT is that answer and possibly an answer to other problems as well.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I W rite, You KNow

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Shades Of 2008

Here we go again!

Does anyone remember the crash of 2008…..well do not look now but it is happening all over again (as predicted because Congress could not rein in the greed and corruption of the banks.)

A year ago, mortgage rates were below 3%. On Thursday, Freddie Mac data showed the average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage was up to 5.89%, the highest point since 2008, NBC News reports. Rates briefly dropped this summer as the Federal Reserve raised the key interest rate in an effort to slow inflation. The housing market already was cooling off, per the Wall Street Journal. It’s a sector the Fed can exert great influence over because the market responds to changes in interest rates. “We’re all focused on the housing sector,” Fed Vice Chairwoman Lael Brainard said at a conference Wednesday.

The mortgage industry boomed during the pandemic, as many companies refinanced borrowers seeking loans at lower rates. Companies often were able to expand, but that’s over now that rates are rising again, with some having to lay off employees or shut down, per the Journal. Chairman Jay Powell indicated Thursday that the Fed wants to keep rates higher for a while. The climb in mortgage rates is a reaction to Powell’s comments last week, said Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist for a real estate data firm, “in which he reiterated his unwavering focus on bringing inflation down to its 2% target level.”

If there is yet another crash we can lay the blame at the feet of Congress and the president…..the powers are scrambling to try and head off this inevitability until after the mid-terms.

Watch your mortgage rates closely…..

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Sunday, 28Jul18

It is Sunday and I have read something that gives me a small glimmer of hope in our future……first a little background…..

Every time I see a “building boom” I think of the wood being used……why can we not with our technical know how come up with a more efficient way to build a home?

Not long ago I read about an engineer in Western Sahara that was building homes for refugees out of plastic water bottles…..

As the sun rises on the Sahara desert, Tatah Lehbib begins his 2.8-mile walk to the garbage landfill just outside of the Sahrawi refugee camp, where he finds the long-sought treasure to help his people endure living in one of the most inexorable places on Earth: plastic bottles.

https://thinkprogress.org/sahrawi-refugees-housing-dd57f9591d57/

That is a great way to use all those damn water bottles that we as humans make everyday……then I read another good piece about using plastic bricks to build homes……

Conceptos Plásticos is a Colombian construction company that builds homes, shelters, classrooms, and community spaces out bricks and pillars made entirely from recycled plastic, rubber, and electronic waste. The company was founded by Oscar Mendez, an architect, and Fernando Llano, who had previously researched the reuse of plastics as building materials to create “ecoblocks.”  This business venture intends to address three major issues: affordable housing, jobs for vulnerable communities, and reuse of materials that would otherwise end up in landfills.

The base material for these homes are gathered from local recyclers resulting in a reduction of water and energy consumption. By reusing plastics, the company is able to divert materials that otherwise would take 500 years to biodegrade from being dumped in landfills. This plastic is ground into a rough powder then melted and poured into a mold that creates stackable bricks or “ecoblocks” that can be put together in a Lego-like fashion to build walls, roofs, and decks that are insulated as well as earthquake- and fire-resistant. Simple assembly and disassembly make for homes that are easily relocated, making them useful for temporary housing of refugees, homeless people, or military personnel.

http://projectcensored.org/affordable-housing-built-days-recycled-plastic-bricks/

Humans are making great use of technology to find and use materials made from recycled goods……and then I read about a home built using a 3D printer……

While using basic technology may still cause daily grief for some, the industry is moving in leaps and bounds, with progress being made in alternative, and somewhat surprising, domains.

With these advances in technology and the advent of 3D printing, it has now become possible to print a building – a development that’s caused a stir in the construction business for various reasons, including potential disruptions in multiple global supply chains.

https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/countingthecost/2018/07/printing-homes-3d-printed-houses-change-world-180722081917866.html

These are great stories and great use of technology to build homes and schools and such……always a feel good day…..and the trees will smile.

May your day be calm and relaxing….chuq

The Eco-Village

My Sunday and I feel like a lazy mutt that wants to lay in the sun and ignore everything around him.  But I have a tradition to maintain of at least one post per day even on weekends…..I will not disappoint.

Over the years there have been several attempts to put together a totally environmentally friendly living space…..even one that a moron like Bannon was part of in the past……The Biosphere 2 , I believe….well there is yet another attempt to put together an eco-village…….

Ford’s Twin Cities Assembly Plant in St. Paul, Minnesota opened in 1925 to build Model Ts in a state-of-the-art facility powered by a hydroelectric dam on the Mississippi River. At its peak, the factory employed 1,800 well-paid UAW workers in a 2 million-square-foot facility about 7 miles from both downtown St. Paul and downtown Minneapolis. When the last vehicle, a Ranger pickup truck, rolled off its line just before Christmas in 2011, it was Ford Motors’ oldest factory. About 7 million vehicles were built here over 86 years.

The closure left behind an economic hole in St. Paul, and a formidable environmental challenge: The site was laced with residue from decades of automaking—petroleum compounds, paint solvents, lead, and arsenic.

https://www.wired.com/story/ford-st-paul-development-housing-cities-yimby-nimby/

Not as ambitious as the Biosphere but at least it is an attempt……I wish them well in this endeavor….but let’s be honest the average American does not care one iota about the environment until it is too late and then they will sob and ask why…..

On another ecological front……..

Take the big announcement from Starbucks about there banning of the straw tops……

Based on this ambitious goal, Starbucks hopes to eliminate one billion straws a year from its 28,000 stores worldwide. As an alternative, the company has designed a straw-less lid made of a recyclable plastic that, unlike lightweight, single use straws, can easily be captured in the recycling process. The lid will be introduced to Seattle and Vancouver consumers this fall with pilots in other global stores starting in 2019. Other options being considered include paper or compostable straws that can be used for cold drinks. As an industry leader, Starbucks has the influence to persuade other brands to reconsider their approach to packaging and plastic waste.

As with everything……there is more to the story……

2018 will forever be remembered as the year that hating plastic straws went mainstream. Once the lonely cause of environmental cranks, now everyone wants to eliminate these suckers from daily life.

In July, Seattle imposed America’s first ban on plastic straws. Vancouver, British Columbia, passed a similar ban a few months earlier. There are active attempts to prohibit straws in New York City, Washington, D.C., Portland, Oregon, and San Francisco. A-list celebrities from Calvin Harris to Tom Brady have lectured us on giving up straws. Both National Geographic and The Atlantic have run long profiles on the history and environmental effects of the straw. Vice is now treating their consumption as a dirty, hedonistic excess.

Not to be outdone by busybody legislators, Starbucks, the nation’s largest food and drink retailer, announced on Monday that it would be going strawless.

http://reason.com/blog/2018/07/12/starbucks-straw-ban-will-see-the-company

Hope your day is good…….chuq

This Is How We Build A House

Saturday in the garden……snacks of cheese, fruit and nuts and a really nice Riesling…..

Before I post my regular stuff I need to report that ZBig has died…….

Zbigniew Brzezinski, the hawkish strategic theorist who was national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter in the tumultuous years of the Iran hostage crisis and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the late 1970s, died on Friday at a hospital in Virginia. He was 89.

A very intelligent man especially in international relations….I did not agree with him on much but I could still appreciate his approaches…..

May he Rest In Peace

Now for today’s gem of knowledge……..

You know there is always a story or a report about all the plastic build-up around the world….we have had stories about a massive island of the stuff floating in the Pacific and there has been reports of the amount of the stuff left behind on Mt. Everest……even a story about millions of piece of plastic found on some Pacific island…..in other words solid waste is becoming a major problem.

Let’s turn our attention to Western Sahara…a region that I know well for I worked there for months in the late 70’s…..but first a little history via youtube…..

The conflict had made a refugee crisis that most of the world knows nothing of…..or even really cares….

I recent read a story about this guy in Western Sahara that has a new approach to building adequate housing…low cost housing…..for refugees.

Sahrawi engineer Tateh Lehbib has designed houses for Sahrawi refugee camps that are resistant to desert heat, sandstorms and torrential rain

With temperatures soaring beyond 50 degrees Celsius and sand storms wrecking havoc on the Sahrawi refugees inhabiting the adobe houses and tents of the refugee camps around Tindouf, western Algeria, the region has been aptly named, the Devil’s Garden.

Young Sahrawi engineer, Tateh Lehbib, 28, found an answer to their woes: all they needed to rebuild a home in this arid land was 6,000 plastic bottles.

Source: Meet the Sahrawi refugee building homes from plastic bottles in the desert | Middle East Eye

A completed round house made of plastic bottles in the Sahrawi refugee camps of Tindouf, Algeria (MEE/Eugenio G. Delgado)

I always like a good recycling story and this one is a great one……plus it provides a home for some family that does not have one……

My day is done….posting is a chore on weekends that is why you only get one per day……time for that snack and a glass of wine…….

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and have some laughs….chuq

“HUD”

Nope…not a misspell of the movie starring Paul Newman…..this one stands for “Housing and Urban Development”……

It appears that PEOTUS Trump has made his pick for this agency…..a person that earlier said that he was not qualified for a cabinet post and has said that he is not sure why he ran for president…..that person is Ben Carson……

Ben Carson is Donald Trump’s pick to run the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The president-elect made the announcement Monday morning, praising the retired neurosurgeon’s “brilliant mind,” reports Politico. “We have talked at length about my urban renewal agenda and our message of economic revival, very much including our inner cities,” said Trump. Carson, 65, has never held public office, but he has said his own experience growing up in poverty in Detroit would give him insight into this role. In his previous public comments on federal housing, he has criticized the Obama administration’s efforts as “social engineering,” notes the New York Times. In particular, he wrote an op-ed last year criticizing an anti-segregration rule and comparing it unfavorably to federal busing.

“I am honored to accept the opportunity to serve our country in the Trump administration,” said Carson, who became one of Trump’s most prominent backers after dropping out of the GOP primary race. In the role at HUD, Carson “will be enlisted to serve as Trump’s unofficial envoy to African-Americans,” says the Washington Post, even though, as with the 2015 op-ed, he appears to hold positions at odds with groups such as the NAACP. While some critics wonder why someone with a background in health would be a fit for public housing, an analysis at the Atlantic takes note of a growing consensus that housing is, in fact, a public health issue, especially in terms of children.

Someone is smoking some stiff stuff!

I still do not understand why he, Trump, keeps picking people that obviously do not have an ounce of experience in the fields he is putting them in……since Carson was a doctor I would understand him as surgeon-general or the head of HHS…..but HUD?

Yet another conspiracist in the cabinet…..looks like it is gonna be a long 4 years.

Will It Happen Again?

Just a little FYI for my readers…….

Remember back to 2007…..that was the year that the economy dropped like a rock…..and the housing market lead they way…..and we have been clawing back ever since……lots of lost money and lots of anger by the people of this country.

The president and the Congress worked hard (sorry that is the wrong word but for the sake of sanity I will let it go) to make sure that this type of crash never happens again…..do you believe that? (then I have a bridge I would like to talk about)…..

Here are some other troubling anecdotal signals on the housing market:

1. A major financial website recently ran a guide to the best cities to “flip” houses in. (I don’t want to encourage the behavior.) Real estate speculation via house “flipping” was another early sign of trouble ahead.

2. A few days later, news arrived that home prices in the Bronx had shot up by an astonishing 30% in the first quarter. Crazy advances in home values were, a decade ago, also a signal of trouble ahead.

3. Ads, then as now, were running on TV for “quick mortgages.”

All of these signals raise a serious question: Are we getting closer to another housing meltdown that will once again damage your investment portfolio?

Source: The seeds of the next housing crisis have been planted – MarketWatch – Linkis.com

Here we go again sports fans……

Homophobic Clergy

Sunday and my last day of  Zen before I return to the world of politics….I thought I would do a religious post for today….I do so few…..trying to change (good luck with that)……

We have been embroiled in a debate about the rights of gay people as compared to what we call “straights”….can they marry?……and other freedoms that are normally extended to everyone else in our society…..churches come out against anything gay (all the while priest are porking alter boys)….politicians come out either pro or con, depending on where they want the voters to go (all the while some are having affairs or chasing pages)……and then there are the people that are just plain scared of gay people……

But today I will post on some bishops that have , in my opinion, overextended their so called authority………

An association of Catholic bishops is battling a pending regulation that would ban discrimination against anyone based on “sexual orientation or gender identity” in federally funded housing projects. The rules would force some religious groups to compromise their beliefs or quit the housing programs, argued lawyers for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.  “Faith-based organizations should retain the freedom they have always had to make housing placements in a manner consistent with their religious beliefs,” said a statement from the lawyers.  Gay discrimination in the housing market is a major problem, and as many as one in five transgender individuals are homeless because of housing discrimination, according to recent findings that concern HUD officials. “In considering the mounting evidence of violence and discrimination against LGBT persons, the department is concerned that its own programs may not be fully open to LGBT individuals and families,” HUD said in a statement earlier this year.  The Catholic church collects millions in public dollars for building and operating federally funded housing across the nation. For more on the controversy, check out the Daily Kos here.

I am personally, sick of these types of people that think they speak for the country….first of all….they do NOT….second, these people need to clean up their problems with their priests before they try to tell the rest of the people how or where they can live……..in other words….BUTT OUT OF PEOPLE’S BUSINESS!

A Sad Indictment!

We have all seen the photos and reports after a disaster when an aid truck shows up and is mobbed by people pushing and shoving to get some of the aid….but there is one place on earth that you would not expect to see such a mob action….CNN has a great report and be sure to watch the video carefully…….

http://bit.ly/9jMCQz

These are the people that the GOP is ignoring completely in their pursuit of the almighty majority……I fear for my country and I fear for the Middle Class……