Housing / Renting Conditions in the US

[DoomSquirter]

I'm curious if this is just san jose, ca, or everywhere. In reality, I really need to vent.

I'm on a no-fault 60 day notice (owner wants to sell property). lived here a very long time. don't want to post specifics.

Housing is so bad here that wife and I just spent last 3 weekends, both sat/sun looking at about 5-8 places per day, that's 10-16 per weekend. Not one bite till this last weekend. There were people outbidding people at open houses, taking landlords aside, coming back landlord says it's rented.... lying about features, lying about houses, scams, landlords wanting to HOLD ONTO bank account statements, etc... Asking bosses how their job performance is (to see if they are wanted and will hold the job).

I just put 3k down on a house I don't want so that tomorrow, can find out if I can get the place I do want (difference in rent is same for both, but quality is 10 times better). That 3k I will never ever see again if I get the other place.

What madness is this?

How I wish the world was MC. I could go to the corner, dig a hole in the ground, keep on digging till I hit 20 above bedrock, hollow out a cave, move my wife in here and steal the electricity from the grid. Live off bugs I guess... *rofl* It's just insane.

 

[Hambeau]

Silicon Valley has always been "bad juju" as far as housing is concerned, at least since I moved there in '76 to start my first job. At that time my roomie and I were paying over $400 for a 1-bedroom apt... I made a whopping $3.80/hr. back then when the Mercury News was running over 50 pages of tech job ads every Sunday.

Now, in Sacramento, the rent for the lot our moduiar home (which we own) sits on is about $450, + almost $200 for water each month thanks to the drought.

 

[MajPayne21]

Definitely not the same everywhere, but California is particularly bad. I am in SoCal, and the housing market and rental market are similar. Prices are exorbitant in the cities and people will throw money around to rent a shabby house that's too small because they have no choice.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

 

[DoomSquirter]

I'm more concerned about whether it's just the pricing that has made everyone crazy and then the things you end up doing for that. 15 years ago, it was hard, but we only had to choose and be chosen by one place. Even if you were under some time constraints (up till now, they've always been self imposed). The thought of putting a deposit down on a place that is a PLACEHOLDER and nothing else, to ensure you have something, and then hopefully getting the place you want... that's the part that I think is outrageous. I'm wondering if others have had to do the same thing before or if this is now the new thing no matter where you are looking, or if this directly caused by the market itself. Now I have to juggle two places, being sure to balance both out and not exit out of one till the other is assured.

Yeah, I know it's expensive here. Understood. SO jealous of that 450 amount I can't even tell ya. You pay to play so to speak. But this. This is outrageous. If money was the concern here, I'd end up in a crappy place that I didn't want just cause I couldn't risk the possibility of not getting the other one (which we sort of have now, but not 100%). Then I start thinking in terms of what happens till we get actual keys and are moving in. What happens if one or both pull out for better offer. ugh. I think I'm going to dig a hole to bedrock for the next 3 weeks and live with the cave spiders.

 

[Hambeau]

Just be careful you don't end up on the doorstep without a place to live. About 10 years ago I was renting a small house in the foothills near here just off I-80 from a private owner when they decided to move back in to their house... No warning, less than a weeks' notice and no recourse.

 

[midi_sec]

Just be careful you don't end up on the doorstep without a place to live. About 10 years ago I was renting a small house in the foothills near here just off I-80 from a private owner when they decided to move back in to their house... No warning, less than a weeks' notice and no recourse.

That sounds like it's crossing our renters laws these days. I'm not 100% sure, but the laws are pretty nuts these days in favor of the renter.

Regardless if it's written in the contract, a contract can't break the law.

 

[DoomSquirter]

still hiding near bedrock. can't hear you. lalalalalalalalala

Yeah. I've thought of worse. trust me. Oh well. This next month is going to be a nail biter I guess.

 

[Yusunoha]

each country has it's own problems, I can say the same for the Netherlands, the house prices are so ridiculous, it's nearly impossible to get a decent place for a low price

 

[DoomSquirter]

each country has it's own problems, I can say the same for the Netherlands, the house prices are so ridiculous, it's nearly impossible to get a decent place for a low price

that wasn't my issue. It's always been high. Back in late 80's, my rent went up 200 bucks from where I was living in santa monica (ON THE BEACH mind you) to a crap house, with 2 other roomates, one an ex con from quentin who stole my beer every chance he got. I'd talk to friends and everyone that bought houses bought them in tracy, or sac or anywhere NOT here. Even as I made more salary, people were buying in boonies if they wanted to buy at all.

My problem. The chaos surrounding the market now. I guess in areas where it's more high end prices, you have people desperate to rent, but all the rentorss/ landlords, know this and have started this "well, I'm going to make you jump through every hoop known to man so I can ensure I get the best candidate for this place as possible" which essentially is the same thing as the job market. The screenings and such. the card's flipped on the other side now and they take advantage of it every chance they get. It's sad.

Thank you for letting me vent. At the time I was at my wit's end. Now got a place, move in end of month, packing everything up and hopefully won't have to deal with this anytime soon. *knock on wood* I'm out the other deposit but happy to be in a much newer place with (and this does get me excited hehe) network connects, cat6 in every room with a patch panel near washer/dryer area with lots of room to put my switches and fw's and mount them to an actual wood panel just so I can screw everything down. it's perfect. for a geek. Very pleased. ok, I'm jinxing this right now. *knockonwood knockonwood knockonwood*

 

[Hambeau]

that wasn't my issue. It's always been high. Back in late 80's, my rent went up 200 bucks from where I was living in santa monica (ON THE BEACH mind you) to a crap house, with 2 other roomates, one an ex con from quentin who stole my beer every chance he got. I'd talk to friends and everyone that bought houses bought them in tracy, or sac or anywhere NOT here. Even as I made more salary, people were buying in boonies if they wanted to buy at all.

My problem. The chaos surrounding the market now. I guess in areas where it's more high end prices, you have people desperate to rent, but all the rentorss/ landlords, know this and have started this "well, I'm going to make you jump through every hoop known to man so I can ensure I get the best candidate for this place as possible" which essentially is the same thing as the job market. The screenings and such. the card's flipped on the other side now and they take advantage of it every chance they get. It's sad.

Thank you for letting me vent. At the time I was at my wit's end. Now got a place, move in end of month, packing everything up and hopefully won't have to deal with this anytime soon. *knock on wood* I'm out the other deposit but happy to be in a much newer place with (and this does get me excited hehe) network connects, cat6 in every room with a patch panel near washer/dryer area with lots of room to put my switches and fw's and mount them to an actual wood panel just so I can screw everything down. it's perfect. for a geek. Very pleased. ok, I'm jinxing this right now. *knockonwood knockonwood knockonwood*

Sounds like heaven!

I'm in a run-down mobile home from 1976 (Wife owned it when we married) with wiring so bad that Ethernet-over-Power won't work.

At least I have my Cisco 2620 and 2800 routers to screw with the freeloading neighbors trying to hitch a wireless ride on my Comcast 100Mb down/20Mb up cable connection... I even had one ask me if my connection was ok after I throttled the subnet I allowed him on down to 19.2 Kbit (I felt generous) after packet-tracing him streaming porn across the one linksys wrt-54g I allow to be visible to the outside world

Sometimes I just do nice things like block port 80 for a change...

 

[buggirlexpres]

I live in a closet. Rent's cheap.

 

[Yusunoha]

I live in a closet. Rent's cheap.

and you've a beautiful view on the sea and so much room for activities

 

[DoomSquirter]

I live in a closet. Rent's cheap.

come out of the closet. the wireless is better.

p.s. say hi to tom cruise for me. tell him stan needs his jeans.

 

[DoomSquirter]

Sounds like heaven!

I'm in a run-down mobile home from 1976 (Wife owned it when we married) with wiring so bad that Ethernet-over-Power won't work.

At least I have my Cisco 2620 and 2800 routers to screw with the freeloading neighbors trying to hitch a wireless ride on my Comcast 100Mb down/20Mb up cable connection... I even had one ask me if my connection was ok after I throttled the subnet I allowed him on down to 19.2 Kbit (I felt generous) after packet-tracing him streaming porn across the one linksys wrt-54g I allow to be visible to the outside world

Sometimes I just do nice things like block port 80 for a change...

yeah, when I was in santa clara for 10 years, I lived right next to a very very busy post office. I used to see all these connection attempts trying to gain access to my wireless which was blocked and mac filtered that I had an idea. I had a web cam pointing out the window to the street and a config for screen that I'd mostly have open setup to alert me when there was a connection. I had an open wireless setup but with a twist. I had a list of porn sites or other innocous places to visit which would be randomly chosen for each connection attempt using a captive portal setup using pfsence. It was a funny diversion since I could watch the reactions of the people in their cars as they tried to connect. I'd post the vids and me and my friends would chuckle. I'd subtitle the vids with the sites they were being redirected to. My favorite was one guy who snapped his laptop closed so fast and was looking around to see if anyone saw him.

Yes, I was bored. I do recommend pfsense to anyone wanting more than the average firewall. there's alot of power under the hood there. especially if you use a small alix system to run it on. My cisco gear has been in storage forever cause of it. Native vlan support and 3 gigabit ports make it pretty damn versatile. I'm going to have fun setting up everything at new place.

totally OT, but there was a company that sold microwave based LOS network (thus, you need an antenna on roof which is only downside) but the service itself was pretty damn cheap and you had to be in range of their dishes on the mountains. They sold us at the company I worked at, a 4mb down for like 150/month. setup took 1.5 weeks. was awesome for moving into new building while waiting for our fiber drops and 4 T3's as they looped an OC48 from a nearby connection (took 3 months). I ended up keeping the service and using it for public wifi for guests/employees. There are alternatives other than just your phone/cable providers if you look hard enough.

 

[FyberOptic]

I've never lived in a big city, I honestly can't imagine what it's like to not be able to find a home. There's plenty around here for sale or rent at any particular time where I am in Tennessee. Even during the whole housing crash there a few years ago, this entire region fared it pretty well. I guess the mountains protect us from more than just storms!

 

[midi_sec]

I've never lived in a big city, I honestly can't imagine what it's like to not be able to find a home. There's plenty around here for sale or rent at any particular time where I am in Tennessee. Even during the whole housing crash there a few years ago, this entire region fared it pretty well. I guess the mountains protect us from more than just storms!

I've never flat out *not* been able to find housing, even here in the city. You may not be able to find cheap housing near where you work, but there's always going to be something within commuting distance.

I've lived near you, just to the west in Missouri, so I can relate to most of what you're saying. The area is full of cheap housing, even in relation to wages. The market is just a lot tighter out here, you've really got to search if you want to find a good place, that's all.

 

[DoomSquirter]

it's like the old saying, pay to play. My only 2 places I've ever lived were Los Angeles and San Jose. Figures, both places are on the high end of rent, etc... So, the price range has always been higher than move. I can accept that, I've worked in High Tech most of my life, so I could always afford some level of a place. The fact that rent is so much higher now isn't as big of an issue. But, with scarcity, that's the scary part. I've not had to look for a place in over a decade. Something has happened in those years that has caused a major change to occur. The onus is on the renter to suffer an enormous amount of scrutiny and bring quite a lot more to the table than just money. It's seriously ridiculous the hoops we were forced to endure to get not one place, but two (one as backup in case primary didn't happen).

The reason this became so serious was because we were under a 60 day notice (non fault) to vacate. I think a law needs to be changed to give people more time. I don't think 60 days is enough time anymore to deal with this level of frustration and craziness. The whole time, I had my lawyer on speed dial waiting to initiate, what would have been a very serious issue if it had come to it. Yes, I would have had the time to deal with everything, yes it would have cost me a couple grand to do it, and yes, I'd have a very black mark on my rental record the next time I wanted to rent, making that time even worse than now.

Makes me want to move to Tennessee or someplace like it that doesn't have these ridiculous conditions. Ya know, where the sane people live...

 

[YX33A]

Y'know, all this talk on housing reminds me of somethin'... You ever heard of the Boom and Bust Cycle? I think we're heading soon to another bust. Then it'd be time to bust out those wallets because the prices will be falling fast.

 

[midi_sec]

We just got out of a bust out here. People have been paying bottom dollar for houses in my area from around 2009 til 2013.

I don't think we've even started booming again yet.