Hacker News Reader

For renting to be a better deal than owning, one of two things has to be true:

1. Your landlord is losing money

Or

2. The rental market is dominated by landlords who own outright, or bought long enough ago that their cost is much lower than the cost of owning is now.

I’ve never seen #1 happen, and the only place i’ve lived where #2 was the case the market has now adjusted and it’s very much not true anymore.

View on HN

Just like in the production of other durable goods, the lower bound on price (rent per sqft of floorspace per month) has a relationship with opex, capex, & financing costs, but it's only binding when we are talking about a very small scale - and individual with a mortgaged property trying to get into rental.

Buildings last 60-100 years. It does not take that much over building in a previous era to decimate the bargaining position of landlords of a future era. We have been using the law to prevent this horrible no good outcome /s for the last 100 years or so. We can stop anytime.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com