The housing market - Think it depends on the definition of underwater

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > The housing market - Think it depends on the definition of underwater

«‹›203 »

War and Pieces: Apr 24, 2022; DID NOT VOTE FOR FETTERMAN

AnimeIsTrash posted:

You can actually apply to cuba to study medicine. Rania Khalek interviewed a bunch of US students there when she was visiting.

https://ifconews.org/our-work/elam-medical-school/
It's a young person's program tho

# ? May 26, 2022 21:52

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 24, 2024 02:22

Cabbages and VHS: Aug 25, 2004; Listen, I've been around a bit, you know, and I thought I'd seen some creepy things go on in the movie business, but I really have to say this is the most disgusting thing that's ever happened to me.

Xaris posted:

is there any evidence of all the computer touchies who fled to bozeman or bend or boise or sand point or upstate ny having to come back

it's a mix, my current and former companies both transitioned to "remote for as long as needed / forever" mode and haven't changed that position

I have heard from plenty of other people in software that they are being requested back to the office

mostly this seems to cause the ~30-40% of people who can get another job on basically no notice to just go do that for whatever other remote thing comes up first, so, it's going to be interesting to see how that plays out.

i have worked at some places at least part of the way through brain-drain periods. it's not that you can't go through that and make money, because pricing in general and software specifically is detached from reality. but, product quality and customer experience always gets shittier when your motivated and smart people all decide poo poo's hosed, hit da bricks

edit: most software companies do not care about "product quality and customer experience". see: Facebook, Somethingawful, etc

# ? May 26, 2022 21:54

mawarannahr: May 21, 2019

Western Europe sounds like it�s gonna be even more dangerous than ever if you�re not white, and it�s going to be cold, starving, and otherwise generally immiserated with imminently privatized healthcare ( got to pay for war )

# ? May 26, 2022 21:56

shrike82: Jun 11, 2005

Cabbages and Kings posted:

edit: most software companies do not care about "product quality and customer experience". see: Facebook, Somethingawful, etc

lol

# ? May 26, 2022 21:57

i am harry: Oct 14, 2003

shrike82 posted:

lol that�s not true

lmao guess she never had any other option but to get married then

# ? May 27, 2022 02:42

Archduke Frantz Fanon: Sep 7, 2004

projecthalaxy posted:

Theres that crazy libertarian island off norway where there are no laws, Skalbard or whatever. Maybe they need gentrification.

naw they have laws in england it just normally looks like that

# ? May 27, 2022 04:09

cool av: Mar 2, 2013

I hate the housing market.I hope it dies and goes to hell.

# ? May 27, 2022 04:53

KidDynamite: Feb 11, 2005

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/23/realestate/renters-affordable-lottery-brooklyn.html?smid=tw-nytrealestate&smtyp=cur

tldr: white dude from michigan applies for housing lottery futher gentrifying nyc!

quote:

He Won the Lottery for an Affordable Apartment, After Years of Trying
Josh Bianchi visited New York City from Michigan in the fourth grade, and he was hooked. Then he found out how difficult it could be to live in the city.

Published May 23, 2022Updated May 24, 2022
Josh Bianchi, 30, spent years applying to affordable housing lotteries while cycling through Craigslist rentals. This winter, he found his golden ticket.
Josh Bianchi, 30, spent years applying to affordable housing lotteries while cycling through Craigslist rentals. This winter, he found his golden ticket.Tom Sibley for The New York Times
In the fall of 2013, Josh Bianchi was living in a nine-by-ten-foot room in an unheated rehearsal studio in Bushwick, Brooklyn, when the city condemned the building. He�d found the place on Craigslist, for $650 a month, and knew the situation wasn�t exactly legal: When he signed his lease, his landlord wrote �art studio� on each page, even after making it clear to Mr. Bianchi that people were living there full time. He lived next to a woman named Orion who had recently given up her pet rooster after the other tenants complained about the noise.

Conveniently, the building was a short walk from the bar where he worked until 4 in the morning a few nights a week. It wasn�t his dream home, but it was an affordable place where he could lock a door and be alone. Plus, it allowed him to stay in the city he loved. �It was how I held onto the ground in New York,� Mr. Bianchi said.

After the city left a sign at the building�s entrance stating that all of the tenants had two days to evacuate, Mr. Bianchi panicked. He and a few other tenants approached the Red Cross�s Emergency Family Shelter, a program that primarily serves unhoused mothers and children, and offered to put some of them up in a hotel for two nights; instead, Mr. Bianchi crashed on couches.

One night, while Mr. Bianchi was working at the bar, a friend told him about an article on the website Gothamist about Housing Connect, an online portal launched in 2013 that allows New Yorkers to apply for affordable housing lotteries. The idea sparkled in his head like a golden ticket. After finding a new apartment (also without heat) with another former tenant of the recording studio, for $1,650 a month, Mr. Bianchi created a profile on the website, and began applying for apartments.

While Mr. Bianchi is no longer trawling Craigslist for apartments, he still uses it to source his furniture — like this couch, which he purchased from a couple in Park Slope
While Mr. Bianchi is no longer trawling Craigslist for apartments, he still uses it to source his furniture � like this couch, which he purchased from a couple in Park SlopeTom Sibley for The New York Times
Over the last eight years, Mr. Bianchi has applied for countless apartments on Housing Connect, and visited an estimated 14 places for in-person inspections. The units ran the gamut, from unappealing shoe boxes to barely-affordable apartments in new-construction buildings.

According to the HPD, over 45,500 units have been made available between 2014 and 2021; many are subsidized units within newer-construction buildings, according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, which operates the lottery. Over half a million New Yorkers are currently registered on Housing Connect, and eligibility for each lottery is determined by the applicant�s assets and their income relative to the area median income.

Mr. Bianchi, who grew up in St. Clair Shores, Mich., had dreamed of moving to New York since visiting with a choir group in the fourth grade. �It was sort of all I talked about in high school,� he remembered with a laugh. �I really wanted to come out of the closet,� which seemed far easier to do in New York than in Michigan. He finally moved to New York in 2011, to attend Marymount Manhattan College.

�I had all these ideas about how cool it would be,� Mr. Bianchi said. �And it was cool. I felt as unselfconscious as I thought I would when I was 10, thinking, �I can live in New York and be so strange!� I�m a little bit less strange now, but when I came here at 19, I was a free bird.�

Mr. Bianchi has enjoyed having a spacious kitchen to outfit. He has stocked up on cutting boards, and his boyfriend bought him a microwave as a housewarming gift.
Mr. Bianchi has enjoyed having a spacious kitchen to outfit. He has stocked up on cutting boards, and his boyfriend bought him a microwave as a housewarming gift. Tom Sibley for The New York Times
$2,300 | Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn

Josh Bianchi, 30

Occupation: Content operations associate at Gimlet Media

His second living room: �I�m across the street from Doris, the bar, so I�ll invite people over to see the apartment, and then go to Doris and have a drink.�

The flip-side of Housing Connect: �It can make you feel a bit evil. If you tell your friends about the lottery and they get a place, you�re happy for them, but then there�s one fewer of these extremely rare rent-stabilized places.�

As he moved through college, eventually transferring to City College, he lived in cheap apartments, mostly in Bushwick, that he found on Craigslist. Then, for three years, he lived with a partner in Brooklyn Heights, where they split the $2,200 a month rent. But even that apartment felt precarious in its own way: �I always felt happy that things were going well,� he said, �but I would get so anxious about rent hikes or unforeseen circumstances or emergencies that would knock me back to a nine-by-ten room in an unheated building.�

After he and his partner split during the pandemic, Mr. Bianchi sublet a room in a friend�s apartment for $835 a month, but dreamed of once again living alone. He briefly considered moving upstate, but decided against it. The thing that has kept him in New York City, he said, is that �here, you can keep dreaming.�

Finally, last August, he found a rent-stabilized, $1,400-a-month studio apartment in Williamsburg that overlooked the JMZ subway tracks. It was so close to the train platform, he said, �I got to wave to my neighbors while they made their way to work.� The train regularly woke him up at odd hours. While it felt like a success to find a place where he could afford to live alone, and he got along well with his neighbors, he still dreamed of something a little less rattling. That same month, he moved from a job at the BBC as a digital content coordinator to a higher paying job as a content operations associate at Gimlet Media � or, as he calls it, a �podcast handyman.�

In December 2021, Mr. Bianchi applied for another apartment through Housing Connect: a one-bedroom renting for $2,300 a month in a new-construction building in Bedford-Stuyvesant, which he could now afford. In January, he received an email saying he had qualified to take part in the lottery, and could visit the apartment. He also had to submit pay stubs, bank statements, and proof that he�d been living in New York for at least six months.

At the showing, �I was supposed to pull out my phone to check the cell service, or check the water pressure, that sort of thing,� Mr. Bianchi remembered. �But I was blown away because it had a balcony and a washer-dryer. I didn�t care what the situation was, I went home and sent in an application.�

The apartment building sits on a busy stretch of Fulton Street, but the windows are double-paned, Mr. Bianchi said. Compared to his last apartment, which overlooked the subway, �this feels like a quiet country house.�
The apartment building sits on a busy stretch of Fulton Street, but the windows are double-paned, Mr. Bianchi said. Compared to his last apartment, which overlooked the subway, �this feels like a quiet country house.�Tom Sibley for The New York Times
Two weeks later, he found out he had gotten the apartment. His landlord in Williamsburg told him he could break his lease if he was able to find a new tenant, and he found someone through a Slack channel at his work dedicated to the New York housing search. Luckily, she was a heavy sleeper.

Moving into his new apartment has afforded Mr. Bianchi the peace and security he has been searching for through eight years of Housing Connect lotteries. Like his old apartment, the new apartment is rent-stabilized, so while he could face rent increases, they are based on approvals by the city�s Rent Guidelines Board. �It soothes so many of my anxieties, to hang up pictures without worrying that in six months I�ll have to leave my apartment,� Mr. Bianchi said. �This is a home that my parents can come visit, where I can make dinner for someone. It�s my bright little sanctuary.� His plants are loving the ample light from the large south-facing windows, and he has finally been able to build shelves to house his collection of books.

While moving to New York was a fulfillment of a childhood dream, this apartment has fulfilled a more recent one. When he was living in an unheated apartment in Bushwick, �I would stare at these new apartment buildings in the neighborhood being like, �Who lives there? How is anyone living there?�� Mr. Bianchi remembered. �And I just wished so much that I could live in one of those glass block apartments. I always felt like, �I wish someone would ask me to live in one of those.��

Correction:
May 24, 2022

An earlier version of a picture caption with this article misstated the location of Josh Bianchi�s current apartment in Brooklyn. It is on Fulton Street, not Avenue.

A version of this article appears in print on May 29, 2022, Section RE, Page 9 of the New York edition with the headline: Affordable Housing Keeps His Dream Alive. Order Reprints | Today�s Paper | Subscribe
Who rents in New York, where they live and what they have to put up with.
Special offer. Subscribe for
$4.25 $1 a week.

Thanks for reading The Times.

# ? May 27, 2022 12:48

Ornery and Hornery: Oct 22, 2020

he was living in nyc at the time he applied and he is income verified for the specific affordable unit

this is a nothing story and I don�t know why you posted it

# ? May 27, 2022 15:21

mawarannahr: May 21, 2019

I liked the part about a woman named Orion who had recently given up her pet rooster after the other tenants complained about the noise.

# ? May 27, 2022 15:24

Mattavist: May 24, 2003

I like the part where Josh Bianchi, 30, spent years applying to affordable housing lotteries while cycling through Craigslist rentals. This winter, he found his golden ticket.

# ? May 27, 2022 18:26

mawarannahr: May 21, 2019

it was cool that he had a Slack channel at his work to help him and people working with him find apartments, too. labor organizing for housing ftw.

# ? May 27, 2022 19:11

The Oldest Man: Jul 28, 2003

I have just learned that mortgage rates are going back down a bit

But only for jumbo loans

So really you'd be an idiot to get a mortgage for less than a million dollars

:chloe:

# ? May 27, 2022 19:49

Not a Children: Oct 9, 2012; Don't need a holster if you never stop shooting.

My old man told me about buying his first house in the early 80s with an interest rate of 13%

Apparently the going rate was 17%, he only qualified for the 13% rate because his income was so low, which makes zero sense to me

# ? May 27, 2022 19:59

External Organs: Mar 3, 2006; One time i prank called a bear buildin workshop and said I wanted my mamaws ashes put in a teddy from where she loved them things so well... The woman on the phone did not skip a beat. She just said, "Brang her on down here. We've did it before."

Not a Children posted:

My old man told me about buying his first house in the early 80s with an interest rate of 13%

Apparently the going rate was 17%, he only qualified for the 13% rate because his income was so low, which makes zero sense to me

I can't imagine that poo poo but then you realize how low the price was and it's like ohhh yeah, okay sure.

# ? May 27, 2022 20:05

Archduke Frantz Fanon: Sep 7, 2004

Mattavist posted:

I like the part where Josh Bianchi, 30, spent years applying to affordable housing lotteries while cycling through Craigslist rentals. This winter, he found his golden ticket.

Philly is finally opening up 150 public housing units in the summer, which will help clear out our waiting list of merely 30000 people waiting for public housing

# ? May 27, 2022 20:18

Bar Ran Dun: Jan 22, 2006

The Oldest Man posted:

I have just learned that mortgage rates are going back down a bit

But only for jumbo loans

So really you'd be an idiot to get a mortgage for less than a million dollars

out here price per square ft on some of the million dollar properties is 277. on the 1000 ft homes it is as high a 700.

# ? May 27, 2022 20:31

actionjackson: Jan 12, 2003

Not a Children posted:

My old man told me about buying his first house in the early 80s with an interest rate of 13%

Apparently the going rate was 17%, he only qualified for the 13% rate because his income was so low, which makes zero sense to me

when I looked at interest rates when refinancing, it seemed like the lowest rates are just for houses in a certain range, and then it goes up again. so the lower and upper tails have the highest rates, and the middle area had the lowest

# ? May 27, 2022 20:57

Jonny 290: May 5, 2005; [ASK] me about OS/2 Warp

Not a Children posted:

My old man told me about buying his first house in the early 80s with an interest rate of 13%

Apparently the going rate was 17%, he only qualified for the 13% rate because his income was so low, which makes zero sense to me

my parents were so stoked when they got like a 7.25% 30-year fixed around '93 that they literally got a keg and invited all their friends over to celebrate

# ? May 27, 2022 21:05

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; Can't post for 17 hours!

mortgages should be indexed to inflation

# ? May 27, 2022 21:15

Ammanas: Jul 17, 2005; Voltes V: "Laser swooooooooord!"

indigi posted:

mortgages should be indexed to inflation

the word for that is rent

# ? May 28, 2022 00:07

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; Can't post for 17 hours!

rent increases way faster than inflation

# ? May 28, 2022 01:36

Nonsense: Jan 26, 2007

I think I will own several homes. I've decided to live in each one every day, but only keep one clean.

# ? May 28, 2022 01:42

Chef Boyardeez Nuts: Sep 9, 2011; The more you kick against the pricks, the more you suffer.

It will be cool when the bubble pops and my houses' entirely bullshit value goes away like the fever dream it is.

# ? May 28, 2022 01:44

Zantie: Mar 30, 2003; Death. The capricious dance of Now You Stop Moving Forever.

Chef Boyardeez Nuts posted:

Everyone Zillow your childhood home
Mine: $289,500 for a 4 bedroom ranch in a town mostly known for meth

My parents never owned a house for me to grow up in.

# ? May 28, 2022 06:09

ProperGanderPusher: Jan 13, 2012

Cabbages and Kings posted:

it's a mix, my current and former companies both transitioned to "remote for as long as needed / forever" mode and haven't changed that position

I have heard from plenty of other people in software that they are being requested back to the office

mostly this seems to cause the ~30-40% of people who can get another job on basically no notice to just go do that for whatever other remote thing comes up first, so, it's going to be interesting to see how that plays out.

i have worked at some places at least part of the way through brain-drain periods. it's not that you can't go through that and make money, because pricing in general and software specifically is detached from reality. but, product quality and customer experience always gets shittier when your motivated and smart people all decide poo poo's hosed, hit da bricks

edit: most software companies do not care about "product quality and customer experience". see: Facebook, Somethingawful, etc

Anecdotally, I�ve only of one coworker of my wife who moved from NYC to small town Tennessee then moved back within like two years. He had no clue what he was getting himself into and hated having to drive 30 minutes to a non-Walmart supermarket and was generally bored as hell.

Nobody made him come back, of course, so it�s not quite the same.

I wonder how many coastie computer touchers end up with buyers remorse. There�s gotta be stories of some couple emptying their stock to move into a small Appalachian town thinking they�re going to cosplay as cottagecore mountain folk only to be horrified at the reality of living in some of those areas.

# ? May 28, 2022 06:12

shrike82: Jun 11, 2005

lol no one's moving to bumfuck nowhere to remote

it's either hometown or smaller (cheaper) cities

# ? May 28, 2022 06:18

Cabbages and VHS: Aug 25, 2004; Listen, I've been around a bit, you know, and I thought I'd seen some creepy things go on in the movie business, but I really have to say this is the most disgusting thing that's ever happened to me.

ProperGanderPusher posted:

I wonder how many coastie computer touchers end up with buyers remorse. There’s gotta be stories of some couple emptying their stock to move into a small Appalachian town thinking they’re going to cosplay as cottagecore mountain folk only to be horrified at the reality of living in some of those areas.

Yeah, no idea, it will be interesting to see what trends emerge. I went remote into the woods in 2016; most of the people I know who are remote tech workers are still choosing to do it from urban areas. I know very few people who made huge lifestyle changes through this beyond the shock that comes from not commuting, not seeing people face to face, not having social lunches, etc. That is already a lot to deal with, throwing a total environment mix up in, is probably more jarring, unless you hate cities as much as I do and so the relief of not having to deal with them just trumps it all.

I like my family and seem to be pretty fine not seeing many other people that often but that's also how I grew up, spent a lot of time alone in the woods or with one or two friends in the woods. Also lots of BBSes.

shrike82 posted:

lol no one's moving to bumfuck nowhere to remote

it's either hometown or smaller (cheaper) cities

Depends what you count as bumfuck but I moved from the NoVA area to a town in Vermont with 1000 people in it that is a half hour or more from being able to get milk/etc once it's dark half the year. I have no real connection to Vermont, just seemed like the nicest place within a day's drive of mine and my spouse's parents.

I agree that this is not at all the usual or normal model, though. I would call myself a pretty extreme outlier, even though that had never really clicked with me until now.

Cabbages and VHS has issued a correction as of 06:37 on May 28, 2022

# ? May 28, 2022 06:33

CongoJack: Nov 5, 2009; Ask Why, Asshole

Zantie posted:

My parents never owned a house for me to grow up in.

Ahead of their time!

# ? May 28, 2022 07:11

i am harry: Oct 14, 2003

Zantie posted:

My parents never owned a house for me to grow up in.

og millennials

# ? May 28, 2022 15:40

cool av: Mar 2, 2013

Zantie posted:

My parents never owned a house for me to grow up in.

yeah I could zillow my childhood homes but the implication that my parents owned or still own it is lol

# ? May 28, 2022 16:29

Fozzy The Bear: Dec 11, 1999; Nothing much, watching the game, drinking a bud

My old realtor sends me these generated emails about the housing market where I live:

# ? May 28, 2022 16:48

Ammanas: Jul 17, 2005; Voltes V: "Laser swooooooooord!"

Fozzy The Bear posted:

My old realtor sends me these generated emails about the housing market where I live:

price drops are neat but with interest rates rising your payment is either the same or more

# ? May 28, 2022 19:21

Crusty Nutsack: Apr 21, 2005; SUCK LASER, COPPERS

my landlord finally set up online payments and of course it'll cost me $2.95 for the pleasure of paying them through it lmao

scum of the earth motherfuckers

guess I'm gonna keep using checks until I die

# ? May 31, 2022 16:22

Ferdinand Bardamu: Apr 30, 2013

Crusty Nutsack posted:

my landlord finally set up online payments and of course it'll cost me $2.95 for the pleasure of paying them through it lmao

scum of the earth motherfuckers

guess I'm gonna keep using checks until I die

yeah my property management company instituted a $10/month fee to pay for the maintenance of the online portal that manages online payments and maintenance requests (which they sometimes defer to ???). lol

# ? May 31, 2022 16:28

Honky Mao: Dec 26, 2012

We pay our landlord through Venmo
I just assume there are tax crimes of some kind happening there

# ? May 31, 2022 16:32

Nothus: Feb 22, 2001; Buglord

WaryWarren posted:

yeah my property management company instituted a $10/month fee to pay for the maintenance of the online portal that manages online payments and maintenance requests (which they sometimes defer to ???). lol

Ours did this too, on top of a service fee for using any method of payment other than a direct transfer from a bank account and doubling "trash" and "activity" fees.

loving shakedown

# ? May 31, 2022 16:33

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

we currently pay rent by walking into a bank and depositing a check directly in the landlord's account

i guess it's more reliable than putting a check in the mail, but it definitely feels antiquated

# ? May 31, 2022 16:47

mawarannahr: May 21, 2019

SorePotato posted:

We pay our landlord through Venmo
I just assume there are tax crimes of some kind happening there

same and i prefer it and don�t care. cool emoji too; rent is autocorrected to 🏠💸

# ? May 31, 2022 16:48

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 24, 2024 02:22

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

Around 2008-2010 I lived with two friends in an apartment and our landlord was running some tax scam through us by claiming our unit as her primary residence, so all kinds of official notices/mail would show up. She owned a bunch of the condos in that building and we had huge stacks of mail piled around that she never claimed. We moved out before anything came of it but I always wondered what exactly the deal was and if she was overleveraged or something.

# ? May 31, 2022 16:54

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > The housing market - Think it depends on the definition of underwater

«‹›203 »