@TickerGuy wrote

Quote:

a small group of assholes who think they can buy everything in sight and convert it to rentals of one form or another

This financial model works when investors can borrow at 2% and never worry about a declining market. That is what 12 years of Zirp has given us. America truly doesn't make things anymore. It just monetizes everything that has been made.

What has transpired in real estate and the financial markets since Covid is mind boggling. Of course when trillions of dollars are just handed out what else would we expect?

What boggles my mind is how worthless / undesirable rustbelt land has become in the midst of this froth. Oh, if there is a habitable structure it can be monetized. But a piece of dirt is useless as it costs too much for the local market to support new construction.

Just an example, for sixty years people have been moving out of western New York. The states tax policies are prohibitive to business investment so there is no trigger to stop the slide. I wonder, who ends up owning the property? What are the owners going to do with it?

Yet, because people have to live somewhere and they need to be able to work, they go where the work is - and so the crowded places get more crowded and the rural areas become ever more zombie like, well they do get a dollar general - woohoo!!