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    Jerry-NetherlandHamilton Nolan
    7/02/15 12:41pm

    Another facet of this phenomenon [lack of new affordable units] is that, at least here in Los Angeles, there isn’t a lack of construction projects, there’s a lack of affordable construction projects. Every new building being built is promoted as “luxury apartments” or “luxury condos”. In the westside area of Playa Vista, they’re virtually building a new mini city, but it’s all for “Silicon Beach” and priced accordingly - good luck finding a one bedroom in any of this for under $3,000/month (photo from last year shows a few dozen buildings in some stage of construction and acreage prepped for more of same, which has since all gone into construction as well):

    (How this is being marketed):

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      Jerry-NetherlandJerry-Netherland
      7/02/15 12:49pm

      Just as in the westside, much the same is going on in and around downtown LA (which was very low rent until about a decade ago). Most of downtown LA is highrise luxury apartments and condos, but now the area outside downtown (which was sort of a no man’s land until maybe 5 or 6 years ago) is being completely redeveloped into - you guessed it - luxury apartments:

      (foreground):

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      LangostaJerry-Netherland
      7/02/15 1:04pm

      I hear you, but in both cases - they’re turning nothing into something. The Playa Vista neighborhood used to be a bog (a lot of it still is), and the area betweeen USC and the Staples Center was just run-down, vacant buildings.

      East LA, Echo Park, etc are still fairly affordable.

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    김치전!Hamilton Nolan
    7/02/15 12:24pm

    Can’t buy a house for yourself? Why not buy a house together with your friends?

    Many stoned viewings of The People’s Court have shown me that this is a terrible idea, unless you like being sued by your ex-best friend when you tell her she can’t let her fourth polyamorous boyfriend defecate in the compost heap.

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      dothedew김치전!
      7/02/15 12:31pm

      when you tell her she can’t let her fourth polyamorous boyfriend defecate in the compost heap.

      When did you become so uptight?

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      thwarted666김치전!
      7/02/15 12:40pm

      I really need to start watching The People’s Court.

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    toothpetardHamilton Nolan
    7/02/15 12:36pm

    Why not buy a house together with your friends?

    One idea is to take over an old motor court motel, that would be excellent. Another is to pitch in on a 4 plex pirate ship. A complex of container-rooms around a gazebo/boardwalks would be nice, each with its own function and nicely under permitting overheads.

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      AssFault on the Highway to Helltoothpetard
      7/02/15 12:50pm

      I was acquainted with some quite inventive space hackers in Seattle who very quietly converted much cheaper-to-rent/purchase commercial property into quite livable and very cool residential lofts. What they were doing was illegal, but there wasn’t a lot of oversight nor enforcement, and they chose spaces specifically for their ability to conceal what was going on inside. Also, you can imagine how much the Seattle community would have rallied around the risk of someone losing their “home,” regardless of the legality, if they were ever pressured to leave. Still, they indeed ran a remote risk of being found out and forcibly removed, but so much of their tenancy was high turnover, that not much notice was needed for the nomadicly-inclined souls who inhabited the space. In one case where they were found out, the property owner ended up finishing out the hacks, rezoning the space, and renting it out for a handsome profit, which was quite irksome, but hey— thems the breaks.

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      toothpetardAssFault on the Highway to Hell
      7/02/15 12:55pm

      Associated with some old Ballard foundry/fremont types, this comes up regularly. Maybe lay up a little land lot next to the current vashon island compound; but for all the insane growth there are these interesting zones of dross- city auctions and stuff like that... all we can do to pay rent while renting the place we own as it is these days. It’s like paying out to weather the storm til everyone’s broke again. Rather rent in the city at this point anyway, let the absentee landlord deal with the rising ‘value’ on a 10,000$ house, and associated taxes.

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    MizJenkinsHamilton Nolan
    7/02/15 12:32pm

    I’ve been wondering for a long time why seniors (especially widows and widowers) don’t do this more often. A few of my girlfriends and I have already made a pact that when we get old and dottering we will pool our money on a big ol’ house and an at-home nurse. Seems like it would be a much more civilized and familiar alternative to a nursing home with strangers.

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      AssFault on the Highway to HellMizJenkins
      7/02/15 12:41pm

      GOLDEN GIRLS IRL. I love this idea!

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      John BoehnerMizJenkins
      7/02/15 12:41pm

      My best friend and former roommate of years moved in with her partner. I’ve actually drunk-cried at her ILL NEVER GET TO LIVE WITH YOU AGAIN.

      My hope is rekindled! Now I just need to wait 50 years and for Nathan to die. (I love Nathan but he is the usurper.)

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    MissNormaDesmondHamilton Nolan
    7/02/15 12:50pm

    When I was a kid in the ‘60s I was totally looking forward to living in a commune. They seemed to be the wave of the future. Then all the bourgeois hippies (not all hippies, the bourgeois ones) realized that having your own place was a lot easier, made up with their moms and dads, and became yuppies, and communes seemed to vanish from public consciousness.

    The problem with putting one together, I would guess, is that it’s a business relationship, and if you want to have a successful business relationship with anyone you have to put a lot of thought into how you’re going to structure it so as to make it fair to everyone. You have to draw up contracts, get everyone to agree on them, and enforce them when people don’t live up to their agreement. None of this is fun, and the version where you don’t do this and things go completely to shit is even less fun.

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      PsychodogMissNormaDesmond
      7/02/15 1:02pm

      it’s a business relationship, and if you want to have a successful business relationship with anyone you have to put a lot of thought into how you’re going to structure it so as to make it fair to everyone.

      This is the antithesis of a business relationship; particularly a successful one. Someone has to be in charge so, by definition, it can’t be fair to everyone.

      The world/life is not fair; never has been and never will be. For those that want to earn a history, liberal arts or fine arts degree, accept that you will earn less and struggle more than those who earn a finance, business or STEM degree. You’ll likely be happier in life but you WILL earn less.

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      Jerry-NetherlandMissNormaDesmond
      7/02/15 1:08pm

      It’s difficult even in the most comportable arrangement. I had two friends who bought a duplex (two-family home, one downstairs apt, one upstairs, with large shared backyard). Each would have their own place, and it made the otherwise unaffordable idea of buying affordable.

      After about 18 months, one got a much better job and decided to move to something better, and rented their unit out. That was when the trouble began (natch). It then took another 7 years until the whole thing was sold, by which time the two friends were only communicating through lawers.

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    LangostaHamilton Nolan
    7/02/15 12:34pm

    “ Therefore even upper middle class people, who traditionally would have bought homes or apartments, are forced to rent.”

    Outside of LA, the Bay Area, NYC (and maybe DC and Boston) this is not the case at all.

    It all smacks of, “I want to live in a world class city. I want it to be walkable, with plenty of public transportation options. I want to be surrounded by culture, food, bars and lots of other interesting, educated people. I want endless economic and social opportunities.”

    “But I don’t want to, like, pay for it. Eww.”

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      Cherith CutestoryLangosta
      7/02/15 12:44pm

      That’s not what it’s saying though. It’s saying pay a price for it that makes sense for your and others you are willing to live with.

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      Jerry-NetherlandLangosta
      7/02/15 1:03pm

      LA used to be very affordable. Now it is the least affordable rental city in the country (based on rents:income)

      http://www.scpr.org/blogs/economy/…

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    theUnBetrothedHamilton Nolan
    7/02/15 12:31pm

    Yes, paying rent is never ever a good idea financially even during epic housing deflation, renting is literally tossing money into a fire-pit (unless it is for very short term situation of course).

    Own, don’t rent.

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      frau meixia, twitter troll extraordinairetheUnBetrothed
      7/02/15 12:37pm

      “Own, don’t rent” unless you’re a 30-year-old with low income and bad credit, like I donno, me.

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      RyantheUnBetrothed
      7/02/15 12:45pm

      This is terrible financial advice. Just flat out awful.

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    Smut KaleidoscopeHamilton Nolan
    7/02/15 12:41pm

    Oh god no. No one ever do this. Imagine 5 years into your 30-year mortgage, where one friend loses a job, or wants to move, or wants to move in their mother-in-law, or wants to make babies. Where there’s no way to evict your roommate who realizes they can live rent-free because they’re on the deed and you’re not going to destroy your own credit by falling behind on your mortgage. Or who realizes that even if you fall behind, foreclosure can take years and they still have free rent. And now you have middle-income people who have no possible way of affording the litigation costs of forcing the sale of the home, but would be forced to litigate if a single person holds out.

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      Cherith CutestorySmut Kaleidoscope
      7/02/15 12:54pm

      I agree. But there are ways to mitigate that. You can form your own co-op. So that the co-op owns the house. And you just own shares of the co-op. Non-compliance would be a violation of your agreement and can lead to standard eviction procedures. It doesn’t eliminate those issues. But it works with some. Rather than just a standard sharing a mortgage with some buddies.

      ETA: I say this casually to brainstorm without fleshing out or researching the legal complexities, which I am sure are more complicated than I have made it out to be.

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      InternetDoctorMDCherith Cutestory
      7/02/15 1:08pm

      I live in a co-op and it’s worked pretty well so far.

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    JustActSurprisedHamilton Nolan
    7/02/15 12:29pm

    The biggest barrier to widespread urban communal ownership is really just the will to do it.

    You know why? Because hell is other people.

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      stacyinbeanHamilton Nolan
      7/02/15 12:48pm

      I’ve noticed a lot of farms for sale in the south that have multiple properties on them, they would be perfect for this. Close but not TOO close.

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        HubcapJennystacyinbean
        7/02/15 1:03pm

        Don’t like Southern culture? That’s fine! Bring enough friends and family and have your very own, very So Soho right there on your property.

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        stacyinbeanHubcapJenny
        7/02/15 1:21pm

        My issue is more the humidity, but you're right too!

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