Why Are We Ignoring the National Housing Crisis?

 

 

 

Rising housing costs are the single worst thing happening right now that is widening the gap between “haves” and “have-nots.”  Not gas.  Not groceries.  It’s housing prices that have become ridiculous, thanks -in part- to predatory corporations.

I’m surprised the current political campaign season has so little conversation about the national housing crisis. Tens of millions of Americans are struggling and suffering, right now.

If you’re renting, you’re bleeding. And, the problem is getting worse.

There are obvious reasons for the affordable housing problem, happening right now. The crisis, in part, is connected to rising interest rates. Higher interest rates mean fewer people can afford mortgages. That translates into fewer home purchases and a growing backlog of renters who stay as renters. Economic fact:  People will continue to rent if they can’t afford to buy.

But housing has outpaced the rate of inflation by a significant margin. This is due primarily to two factors:

[1] First, housing construction was interrupted for nearly two years due to COVID. Everything shut down, which meant there was a cutoff of new home/apartment inventory. Even in times of trouble, people still need a place to live.  But there simply weren’t enough homes and apartments being completed during 2019-2021. Renovations were also delayed. Supply lines and construction materials were in far shorter supply, and prices shot up. This causation has little or no political connection. It’s simply a market reaction to a lengthy interruption, the likes of which we’ve never experienced before.

[2] Second, massive predatory investment firms (corporations) were and are still gobbling up all the available inventory at alarming rates and shutting out the natural market ebb and flow of residential property buying. These cutthroat middlemen do NOTHING for the average person or family or help our economy, other than to add an unnecessary layer of profits for themselves at the expense of the people who can least afford it. If investment sharks were just a small number of outlier investment firms, this would not be nearly as problematic. Trouble is, these investment firms are coming in with cash offers and KILLING working-class people, particularly renters. Rents have been jacked up 30 and 40 percent in most urban markets. This might be the single worst thing happening right now that is worsening the gap between “haves” and “have-nots.” If you don’t own a house already, you’re pretty much fucked, now.

So, why isn’t this a huge campaign issue in 2022 and why aren’t we blaming the pro-corporate/anti-consumer “screw-the-middle-class” economic system that, in part, exacerbates a national problem?

Conclusion:  Half the country is screwed, thanks in some measure to events we couldn’t control.  But it’s also largely to a predatory culture that is built almost entirely on the EXPLOITATION of working-class people.

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