What if I can’t afford to buy a house? Do I need to get a loan from the bank? Do you also believe banks should be forced to lend money to people they don’t think will pay it back?
Get an apartment. Apartments are designed to best utilize space for those who need cheap and temporary housing. Houses take up far more space and unnecessarily contribute to sprawl when unchecked renting is allowed.
Lots of people rent houses long-term. It's a norm throughout much of Europe. Eradicating short-term rentals of houses is a coherent demand. Eradicating all rental housing is deeply silly.
I moved for a job to Ann Arbor from San Francisco back in 2001 with my spouse and our two kids. The idea that I should have immediately bought a house simply in order to start a job is risible. There are lots of good reasons not to own your house, even if you're going to stay in an area long-term (I ended up staying there for 4 years; we bought the house we lived in for our last year there, and took a bath on it, because buying a house you only keep for a year or two is usually a terrible idea).
I live in Chicagoland now. I own my house, but several of my neighbors rent theirs. Why wouldn't they? Residential real estate exposure is not a universally appropriate investment strategy. People live for decades in houses they rent; their landlords have property managers who handle upkeep, and the renters invest their money elsewhere. Maybe at some point they have to move houses; there are plenty of other rentals nearby.
Surely you understand it doesn't sound very convincing that you've drawn the line at just the point where it doesn't affect you and no farther.
Crime is lower in places where more people own their homes, communities are tighter, streets are cleaner. All these externalities of crime, community, and hygiene are apparently not a problem when you're a factor.
EDIT: Whoops, alex_smart below has pointed out that I am suffering from the context-loss-disorder that is common on HN. It is true, renting is a positive-sum thing and good for many.
I'd reply, alex_smart, but the downvotes have limited my ability to do so.
Aside from the fact that this whole argument is risible, I somewhat resent the implication that my renter neighbors are somehow responsible for crime and hygiene problems. I think it's ironic that you think my argument is the one cabined by limited experience of the world. There is nothing moral or prosocial about financing residency with a mortgage versus paying rent. If anything, housing policy throughout the US is far, far to biased in favor of owners over renters.
The issue here is short-term rentals, not the deeply weird idea that the only properties that should be available for rentals are multi-family dwellings.
>There is no real gain in productivity from allowing rental housing
This is the argument this thread had started with. Do you really believe there is no real gain in productivity from allowing people the freedom to freely move between cities in search for better jobs?
