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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]For Mr.  “Info is Power”: If so many people are renting out their homes rather than selling, why are rents so damn high and rentals in short supply?  I didn’t go to a school in an upscale neighborhood, like your kindergartener, so I eagerly await your reply.   [/quote]

It's Ms. actually.

There is a housing shortage in these neighborhoods. "Upscale" neighborhoods (I live on Capitol Hill -- I'll let others decide if it's upscale or not) tend to have a lot of SFHs and limited multi-family housing. So even if more people choose to rent out their homes rather than sell when the move (which is absolutely a phenomenon I see on the Hill -- we know maybe a dozen families who have done just that in the last few years because they didn't want to give up a super low rate on an appreciating asset) there simply is not enough housing in these neighborhoods to meet demand. Especially in a neighborhood where the major draw is the schools and the family-friendly nature of the neighborhood. Even if there is multi-family housing it is often not conducive to actually raising kids there (on the Hill most apartments are relatively small and in older buildings with little to no outdoor space). So there is huge demand for houses large enough for families that are inbound for good elementary schools. This drives up rental prices and actually only make it more appealing for people to rent out their homes instead of selling.

The truth is that owning a home in a neighborhood where housing is in high demand is great for sellers but the situation is really hard for buyers and you generally need a lot of resources to own a home there. Either a high income or family help or yes inheriting a home from family who bought well before the prices skyrocketed.

I can see you are mad at me so perhaps this will mitigate your anger: I live in this neighborhood in a condo that has barely appreciated since I bought it. It's not inbound for one of the "good" schools and we've had to play the lottery to find a workable education situation. We assumed when we bought that we'd use it to park our money for a while and then move to a SFH when our incomes increased. They did increase but then housing prices went up and we never caught up. So our kids live in a condo and it is what it is. It took us a while to understand the lay of the land in terms of how the market here works. Now we get it and are using that info to move to a different neighborhood where we can get in on the ground floor a bit more. That's why I think "info is power." Because I was naive when I was first looking to buy and there was a lot about the market including what drives the low inventory (I genuinely believed this was a temporary issue that would shift when I was buying because that is how our realtor who was our only real resource put it. I didn't understand and it took me years to really get it. I wish I'd had someone to explain it all to me when I was younger. That's why I think info is power.[/quote]

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