Without reading the article I'm going to bet the simple answer is "because they can"

correct and we need to remember this before agreeing to housing reforms that are 90 percent upzonings. Public housing for everyday folks NOW!

It's this. There is literally no reason, none whatsoever, for a near universal rent increase like what we've seen outside of simple profit-taking.

If most landlords were holding variable-interest loans? Yeah ok, then I could see it. But the vast, vast majority of loans are fixed these days. There's no excuse.

state wide rent control, now

Oh, but some study conducted by landholding interests that can't actually be replicated in any other study says rent control bad and make problem worse acktually

lulz yes, lets sit on our hands and pay more because the political and real estate class thinks rising rents somehow HELPS US.

3D printed homes are the answer. To their credit, Maine is dabbling with this through Dr. Dagher at UMO. The state should subsidize developers to make large communities of small-ish homes and only sell them to income-qualified folks. To be clear: The state says, "Okay Mr. Developer. You buy the land and we'll kick in X,Y,Z and you can only sell homes (by covenant in perpetuity on each property - in the deed so one can buy and flip at market rate) to buyers that can prove income of 80% area median income (AMI) or less." These are not Section-8 folks. The state alrady has programs for that. These are your firefighters, nurses, cooks. Mostly young, first-time home buyers.

Because they decided to buy out all the housing in Maine and completely screw over the people who actually live here.

Look, the more rent they collect, the more they can tip their barista. Trickle down baby!

......

...and a statewide 10% property tax on non-owner occupied properties and a >50% tax rate on rental income to cover that "X,Y,Z".

👍🏻

I love the people with 100k desk jobs and a few rentals. Heart and soul of our community's

yep

I mean im not against them but mostly worried about the type's just getting by who don't have a pot to piss in so to speak.

I'm suggesting no non-owner occupied homes in the project by using a zoning overlay.

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For taxation, I'm talking state-wide.

Additional tax on out of state property owners. Also corporations can’t own residential properties.

It’s called price fixing

https://www.inman.com/2023/01/23/realpage-hit-with-second-class-action-suit-alleging-rent-price-fixing/

https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/26/23479034/doj-investigating-rent-setting-software-company-realpage

But of course we can’t have rent control though because of the fReE mArKeT

Don't forget all landlords use one computer algorithm to ensure rents are as high as possible at all times.

yep and the YIMBY's deny it. They think you can flood the market with housing and lower prices.

And the NIMBYs fight tooth and nail to prevent zoning changes because it might hurt their property value(s growth) which would make their home be less of an investment and just a residence.

fake news. Yes people have a ton of ideas of zoning, no they dont have PACs, no they dont have political party's and no not all of them are defending home values. Also its backwards new pricey places drive people's home prices up

If that's "as well" and not "instead of" I fully support it.

Let's abolish "corporate personhood" altogether while we're at at.

There is a NIMBY issue. No one wants "affordable housing" in their neighborhood because their worried its going to disrupt their neighborhood. Lord forbid the neighborhood of 15 people doubles because someone wants to build apartments on sewer and water.

Because housing has been commodified and is being redirected en masse to the short term rental market as profits are higher than with long term tenants. This state is filled with landlords who don't care about having functioning, working communities because the DINKWADs on vacation are willing to spend a mortgage payment on two nights in Portland.

These landlords are both local and from away. They're all opportunists, and one of the two is happy to let the other group suffer all the scorn.

right, part of why I don't over use the term "from away" its all the same game. Yeah we are screwed because they have massive short term stay demand or really rich they have a 2nd house.

Again im not saying that we dont have no types, every state does. Its an odd focus at the moment because what is being built is $1800 rents. Im against people who dont want change for real affordable, hopefully public housing.