Tema: PPCC-Pisitófilos Creditófagos-Invierno 2022

[Derby]

https://dailyshotbrief.com/the-daily-shot-brief-january-26th-2023/

[asustadísimos]

ESTAMOS ASUSTADÍSIMOS (2).—

El mierdismo tiene sus reglas. La primera es: «bendita mierda que es todo, para gloria de la mía».

La segunda: «no se come mierda cuando no se malvende».

La tercera: «no se come mierda cuando no se compra para revender», sino para disfrutar siendo poseído por la mierda, por necesidad familiar o para exprimir inquilinos.

Eres lo que comes.

Los comprados, que se jodan. El dinero público no está para rescatar aventuras inmobiliarias, máxime después del Pinchazo de la Burbuja 2006-2010, por mucho que los ideólogos del sector se empeñen en que la crisis es de etiología financiera y no inmobiliaria —toda crisis económica es financiera por definición—.

El dinero público está para rescatar bancos de depósitos y empresas estratégicas. Es más, una vez que se han vendido inmuebles públicos, ya no se puede comprar ninguno, mucho menos en paquetes grandes —querella segura—. Solo cabe expropiar 'a la rumasa'.

La consigna ahora es que tú te encastilles en el 'hodl' mientras el sector:
— empaqueta la 'remierda' expurgada de la mierda congelada o/y desaguada;
— valora toda la mierda, no según neto contable ni 'a mercao', sino con el método de descuento de flujos, esto es, el descuento de unas imaginarias rentas de alquiler inflacionadas aposta;
— individualmente, ponen a salvo a sus cabecillas; y
— prepara el traspaso de su mierda al Estado poniéndole un lacito en forma de «oportunidad histórica de conformar un patrimonio público alquilable gestionado 'pofesionalmente' por 'ejpañoles', porque los fondos oportunistas han hecho su labor, avisaron de que no venían para quedarse y tienen derecho al reembolso con ganancias».

Así las cosas, Goldman Sachs publica un informe 'yanosestamosrecuperandista', pero en en el que compara las caídas de precios en EEUU con la crisis 'o-eight' (2008), pero especialmente intensas en cuatro ciudades, entre ellas, atención, San José, capital del Silicon Valley, y nuestra querida Phoenix, candidata con Dallas a ser a EEUU lo que Mierdrid a la UE:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/goldman-sachs-says-4-us-073102558.html?

¡¡¡¡-25%!!! para empezar a hablar.

Recordemos que 'bull markets climb up a wall of worry', mientras que 'bear markets slide down a slope of hope'; y que solo estamos empezando la corrección valorativa.

Finalmente, algo que cambia radicalmente el panorama y que nunca antes había sucedido: el Gobierno de EEUU acaba de anunciar oficialmente el control de rentas de alquiler dado que el mercado no se autorregula:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/01/25/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-announces-new-actions-to-protect-renters-and-promote-rental-affordability/

Entre la retórica antisobrevaloración inmobiliaria del Fed ('reset', 'good thing', 'get back', 'well out', 'go through the other side') y este anunció del Gobierno, podemos decir que estamos ante la proclamación del inicio del proceso que nosotros hemos llamado REPRESIÓN INMOBILIARIA Y DESINMOBILIARIZACIÓN que pone la calidad de vida del usuario en primer plano.

En España, el temita, ¡oye!, que no entra en coma inducido ni a tiros, con tanta brujita, tanta hada, tantas elecciones y tanto comemierdas entre los comunicadores. ¡Uy, uy, uy! qué ostiazo va a haber.

[Cadavre Exquis]

https://cincodias.elpais.com/cincodias/2023/01/26/companias/1674763631_697456.html

https://cincodias.elpais.com/cincodias/2023/01/26/companias/1674757359_011188.html

https://www.eleconomista.es/vivienda-inmobiliario/noticias/12124857/01/23/via-celere-negocia-con-greystar-para-crear-una-sociedad-conjunta-con-su-cartera-de-alquiler.html

https://www.eleconomista.es/vivienda-inmobiliario/noticias/12124756/01/23/Amancio-Ortega-volvera-a-invertir-en-inmobiliario-en-Espana-si-se-ajustan-los-precios.html

https://www.expansion.com/inmobiliario/mercado/2023/01/26/63d2c771468aeba74c8b4623.html



Saludos.

[Cadavre Exquis]

https://www.expansion.com/opinion/2023/01/26/63d2df87e5fdea8d0f8b4584.html

https://www.pressreader.com/spain/expansion-nacional/20230127/page/28/textview

El frenazo del PIB lleva a la destrucción de 82.000 empleos en la recta final de 2022

https://www.expansion.com/opinion/2023/01/27/63d2edff468aebb66c8b45e7.html

https://www.pressreader.com/spain/expansion-nacional/20230127/page/29/textview

Asturias, Aragón, Cantabria y País Vasco, las más castigadas por la crisis

Más de un millón de hogares con todos en paro

https://www.expansion.com/economia/2023/01/27/63d2bfede5fdea16758b45ca.html

https://www.expansion.com/economia/2023/01/26/63d26632e5fdeae3688b460b.html

Saludos.

[Cadavre Exquis]

Esta creo que no la hemos puesto.

https://www.reuters.com/technology/sap-cut-3000-jobs-efficiency-move-explores-qualtrics-stake-sale-2023-01-26/

2 minute readJanuary 26, 20239:38 AM GMT+1Last Updated 3 hours ago
SAP to cut 3,000 jobs, explore Qualtrics stake sale

https://cincodias.elpais.com/cincodias/2023/01/26/companias/1674731875_449336.html

https://www.pressreader.com/spain/expansion-nacional/20230127/page/16/textview

IBM y SAP se suman a los despidos de la industria tecnológica

Saludos.

[Cadavre Exquis]

https://www.pressreader.com/spain/expansion-nacional/20230127/page/32/textview

El Gobierno promociona en Bruselas la candidatura de Madrid para la sede antiblanqueo europea

https://www.pressreader.com/spain/expansion-nacional/20230127/page/31/textview

Bruselas expedienta a España por la nueva normativa antiblanqueo

Saludos.

[Derby]

Esto sí que, junto con el endurecimiento de la financiación, podría representar la puntilla para el negocio inmobiliario... A España llegará porque somos más de seguir la tendencia. 

Finalmente, algo que cambia radicalmente el panorama y que nunca antes había sucedido: el Gobierno de EEUU acaba de anunciar oficialmente el control de rentas de alquiler dado que el mercado no se autorregula:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/01/25/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-announces-new-actions-to-protect-renters-and-promote-rental-affordability/

https://news.yahoo.com/how-the-biden-administration-plans-to-tackle-high-rents-and-protect-renters-220554977.html

How the Biden administration plans to tackle high rents and protect renters

The White House rolled out a "blueprint" for a renters' "Bill of Rights" amid skyrocketing rents and predatory practices by landlords.

On Wednesday, the Biden administration unveiled actions it plans to take to protect people living in rental housing, which accounts for about 35% of the U.S. population, in over 44 million households.

The executive actions correspond with a “White House Blueprint for a Renters Bill of Rights” that the administration released on the same day. The blueprint offers a set of principles to “drive action by the federal government, state and local partners, and the private sector to strengthen tenant protections and encourage rental affordability.”

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the White House said, there were over 2 million eviction filings, with about 900,000 evictions taking place that disproportionately impacted Black women and children. According to the blueprint, the average rent increased by 17.2% between February 2021 and 2022, rising above $2,000 per month in May and far outpacing inflation. Prices have since decreased slightly, falling by 1.41% between November and December, just below the $2,000 threshold. The announcement came on the same day President Biden tweeted that people are starting to “breathe just a little bit easier” because fewer families are facing eviction than before the pandemic.

Rent has been growing increasingly unaffordable for decades. Between 2001 and 2015, the proportion of renter households that were rent-burdened — meaning they were spending 30% or more of their pretax income on rent — doubled from 19% to 38%, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts. In the announcement, the White House called out landlords for taking advantage of market conditions to “pursue egregious rent increases.”

Here’s how the White House plans to combat that:

Tenant protection is a major priority

The Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced that they will gather information to take a look at practices that unfairly block potential renters from accessing or staying in housing and protect them from discrimination.

The agencies also plan to collect a broad range of data that look at such practices as the creation of tenant background checks and how they are used, and how landlords use a renter’s source of income to make housing decisions. The move marks the first time that the FTC has issued a request so it can gather information to examine unfair practices in the rental market.

Additionally, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will propose that renters of public housing, and those who have project-based rental assistance who miss rent payments, will get a minimum 30-day buffer period before landlords can terminate their lease.

In fiscal year 2023, HUD will also award $20 million to the Eviction Protection Grant Program. The funds will go to nonprofits and government entities to provide legal aid to low-income renters “at risk of or subject to eviction.”

Access to affordable housing is set to expand

In 2023, the Federal Housing Finance Agency required that at least 50% of purchases of multifamily loans by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae be “mission-driven” — opening the way to financing multifamily loans that guarantee affordable housing.

Last year, the two federal mortgage corporations purchased a combined $142 billion in multifamily loans, supporting over 1 million units. The White House is hoping for movement in that same direction for 2023, which would mean an investment in an estimated 700,000 affordable units.

In addition, the FHFA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac say they could potentially establish tenant protections that crack down on “egregious rent increases” at properties backed by certain federal mortgages.

The White House is launching a 'Housing Challenge' this spring

It’s called the Resident-Centered Housing Challenge, to be exact. As a part of the challenge, the Biden administration is calling on housing providers and other partners to commit to improving the quality of life for renters and to strengthen and enhance policies that promote fairness and transparency for renters. There have been at least six commitments from states, organizations and companies like the National Multifamily Housing Council, Realtor.com Rentals and the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, which now have a reach of over 15 million rental units.

For example, members of the Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future, a collaborative of 12 nonprofits that own or manage about 145,000 housing units across the country, have committed to offering flexible payment plans for residents with unpaid rent who have gone through the proper protocol with property management, and to providing certain notices and protections for tenants.

The White House left the door open for even more commitments from interested parties to create new benefits for renters that “enhance their economic mobility, build credit, and prepare them for homeownership.” The administration also called for more stakeholders to improve the quality of communication on tenant rights, eliminate hidden fees, charges and add-ons, and open up pathways to eviction mitigation and prevention.

Biden’s plan, however, is not aggressive enough for some progressive lawmakers, like Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who, along with 50 other members of Congress, wrote a letter to the president on Jan. 9 urging the administration to crack down on price gouging.

“Reports of corporate landlords and real estate companies increasing the rent for their own profit are rampant, placing additional strain on already struggling working families. In a country where increases in rental costs have far outpaced wage growth, it is clear that these heightened costs and acts of corporate profiteering are exacerbating an already existing crisis of housing unaffordability and instability,” Bowman responded to Yahoo Finance’s Jennifer Schonberg regarding Wednesday’s rollout.

“We believe that the administration can go significantly further to help tenants struggling to pay rent as soon as next week," he said. "We need actions that will urgently address skyrocketing housing costs, keep people housed, and rein in corporate profiteering.”

On the other side, real estate industry representatives say any further regulation could discourage new housing production. “Rental housing policy is heavily regulated at the state and local level,” Kenny Parcell, president of the National Association of Realtors, told CNN. “Federally enacted policies can potentially drive housing providers out of the market, which will have an immediate and long-term impact of making rental housing even more competitive and, therefore, more expensive for renters.”

[wanderer]

Esto sí que, junto con el endurecimiento de la financiación, podría representar la puntilla para el negocio inmobiliario... A España llegará porque somos más de seguir la tendencia. 

[...]

Pues aquí los propietarios siguen emperrados en buscar 5 pies al gato

(click to show/hide)

Y digo 5 pies porque el dicho de los 3 pies es absurdo: basta con ignorar el 4º

Los propietarios encuentran una vía para subir el alquiler más del 2% permitido
Algunos propietarios intentan sortear el límite del 2% a las subidas del alquiler y la prórroga forzosa de los contratos de alquiler aprobadas por el Gobierno
https://theobjective.com/economia/2023-01-27/propietarios-alquiler/

Dicho esto, yo no soy nada partidario del control de los alquileres, sino de la aplicación estricta de la LAU para ambas partes, con los derechos y deberes que comporta.

[Benzino Napaloni]

Esto sí que, junto con el endurecimiento de la financiación, podría representar la puntilla para el negocio inmobiliario... A España llegará porque somos más de seguir la tendencia. 

[...]

Pues aquí los propietarios siguen emperrados en buscar 5 pies al gato

(click to show/hide)

Y digo 5 pies porque el dicho de los 3 pies es absurdo: basta con ignorar el 4º

Los propietarios encuentran una vía para subir el alquiler más del 2% permitido
Algunos propietarios intentan sortear el límite del 2% a las subidas del alquiler y la prórroga forzosa de los contratos de alquiler aprobadas por el Gobierno
https://theobjective.com/economia/2023-01-27/propietarios-alquiler/

Dicho esto, yo no soy nada partidario del control de los alquileres, sino de la aplicación estricta de la LAU para ambas partes, con los derechos y deberes que comporta.

Aquí la razón de que se esté haciendo otra cosa que no se comenta.

A estas alturas siguen existiendo muchos contratos que están bajo la LAU 2013. Bajo esta ley el contrato "largo" (ejem) son tres años más uno de prórroga necesaria. Luego se entra en tácita reconducción. La última revisión de la LAU es de 2019, así que en el mejor de los casos los contratos que quedan de la ley de 2013 están entrando en prórroga necesaria.

Sin embargo se prolongan tácitamente sine die. ¿Por qué?

Pues porque al propietario le sale a cuenta dejar que el bicho siga indefinidamente. Echarlo sería para vender o para cualquier cosa que no sea hacer un contrato nuevo. Porque la revisión de la renta se queda bajo control de los últimos decretos, y los plazos del contrato cambian drásticamente. El mínimo sube de 3 años a 5, o 7 si el propietario no es particular. La prórroga necesaria sube a 3 años. El preaviso para comunicar la no renovación (y así no activar la prórroga necesaria) sube de un mes a cuatro. El propietario no particular en ningún caso puede activar el 9.3 "por necesidad". Y de postre, se acabó el poder vender el piso libre de bicho en tanto que no haya disfrutado de la vivienda el periodo mínimo.


No nos imaginamos el daño que ha hecho la infausta LAU 2013. Estaba clarísimo que era una burda treta para que los propietarios pudiesen hacer el "mientras no lo vendo lo alquilo y le saco un dinerillo", porque para hacer esto necesitaban poder romper el contrato virtualmente en cualquier momento. La LAU 2013 lo permitía en la práctica tras sólo un año. Pero viendo la salvaje hotelización que se montó con eso, incluyendo el AirBnb, tengo mis dudas sobre si les salió la carambola o eran unas consecuencias buscadas consciente e intencionadamente.


Todo lo que se vomita ahora en los panfletos como "El economista" es porque se añora esa ley, que permitía guarrear con el alquiler sin trabas en la práctica.

[Benzino Napaloni]

En cuanto a las tecnológicas, confirmo (por obvias razones) que hay un movimiento de pánico. Pero que tiene una buena parte de irracional.

Me explico. Una pifia tremenda (ésta sí es una razón real) ha sido sobredimensionar las tecnológicas como respuesta a la pandemia. Aquel año es verdad que hubo un boom de demanda porque el personal encerrado en casa tenía que matar el tiempo de alguna manera. Pero de ahí salió una brutal paja mental que era creer que ese boom tenía bases sólidas. Lo primero que iba a hacer el personal era salir a que le diese el aire en cuanto que se pudiese.

Era un momento en que se podía experimentar, y quizá consolidar algunas ideas. Pero no todas. Un caso que no se comenta mucho en las noticias porque pasó ya hace un tiempo fue el de Domestika. Boom de cursos online de hasta hacer ganchillo... y fue de lo primero de lo que se hartó el personal. Acabaron en juicio porque trataron de diluir los despidos pero no coló y tuvieron que hacer el colectivo y pagar lo que tocaba.


La parte que tiene de irracional es algo que también ha afectado a otros sectores. Y que algunos periolistos y ejpertos también hacen. Como la crisis de 2008 se la tragaron con patatas, decían que no era gran cosa y joder si nos comimos crisis, ahora no quieren quedar como unos idiotas y venden que vamos a la misma situación.

Pero esta crisis es diferente. Los ciclos recesivos son normales cada cierto tiempo. Esta vez ni hay el endeudamiento que hubo en el ladrillo, ni activos tóxicos ni subprime, y en España tampoco está la horda de obreros de la construcción que hubo que despedir.

Rescato este artículo de 2020, porque es un aviso de cómo puede acabar realmente esta ola de despidos:

"Necesito gente que sepa trabajar, pero están todos colocados

"Cometí el error de despedir a 30 personas a principios de año porque pensé que ahora iba a pasar como en la crisis de 2008, donde los mantuve mucho tiempo y casi lo pierdo todo, pero me he equivocado. Eran gente muy buena", confiesa, y ahora no encuentra.

[Derby]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/intels-leap-of-faith-turns-into-a-lurch-11674832525

Intel’s Leap of Faith Turns Into a Lurch

Chipmaker’s expensive turnaround plan runs headlong into historic sales slump

(...) Intel’s fourth-quarter results late Thursday closed out one of the roughest years in the storied Silicon Valley giant’s long history. Revenue for the year fell 20%—the worst annual decline the company has seen since the dot-com bubble burst in 2001. The recent downturn is driven by shriveling sales in its two key businesses: personal computers and data centers. Both got worse as the year progressed, resulting in fourth-quarter revenue and adjusted operating income coming in well below Wall Street’s forecasts.

But Intel also set another record during the year. Capital expenditures totaled $24.8 billion, up 33% from the previous year. That is an eye-popping sum from a company that has typically spent in the midteens billions of dollars, and even more so considering it represents 39% of Intel’s revenue for the year. Capex has typically represented less than 20% of the company’s top line.

(...) PC sales saw their worst slump in years during the fourth quarter, and prognosticators like IDC think a recovery might not happen until next year. Meanwhile, data center customers have cut back their orders to sop up excess inventory. Intel projected a 40% year-over-year revenue decline in the first quarter, which would be the worst drop since at least 1992, which is as far back as data compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence goes. The company even broke with past practice by declining to give a projection for the full year, citing the uncertainty created by the slowing global economy and its broad impact on chip demand. Intel’s stock price, which already lost more than one-third of its value over the last 12 months, was down 7.3% Friday.

Intel is hardly the only chip company hurting from the downturn; rival Advanced Micro Devices is expected to report a significant slowdown in revenue growth for the fourth quarter and to project falling sales for the first quarter when it reports its own results next week. But AMD’s problem is mainly cyclical, driven by economic forces beyond its control. Intel’s problems, especially its loss of manufacturing leadership that has led to it losing share to AMD, existed before the industry’s current slump—and indeed even before the appointment of Pat Gelsinger to the chief executive post two years ago.

Mr. Gelsinger aptly warned then that a turnaround would take years. But worsening economic conditions are putting even more obstacles in the company’s path—and might be leading to some difficult choices. Credit Suisse analyst Chris Caso wrote Friday that Intel will need a “V-shaped recovery” in the second half of this year to avoid continued cash burn, which in turn could put the company’s dividend at risk. Intel maintained Thursday that it is committed to the dividend, but Mr. Caso noted that “we also know the company’s manufacturing plan is immovable, which could force tough decisions if a recovery from the current inventory correction is either muted or delayed.” Intel’s pain is far from over.

[Derby]

https://twitter.com/NickTimiraos/status/1619003115805745153

@NickTimiraos Powell put special emphasis on the category of core services inflation that excludes housing, given the potential for it to be stickier (and because housing inflation is set to slow)

Dec core PCE services inflation ex-housing:

+4.09% YoY
+4.04% on a three-month annualized rate

[Derby]

Glenn Kelman es el CEO de Redfin.

https://twitter.com/glennkelman/status/1618322829149343745

@glennkelman 16 of 16: Maybe the sea change our country was going through, in which each of us got to live where he wants, wasn’t a fad but unfinished business, cut short by a rate hike. The market could still easily falter. But housing in January has been stronger than anyone could’ve hoped.

[Derby]

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/blackstone-president-says-breit-has-backlog-redemption-requests

Blackstone President Says BREIT Still Has "Backlog" Of Redemption Requests

The $68 billion Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust (BREIT) has failed to stem soaring redemption requests from high-net-worth investors, Blackstone President Jonathan Gray told Financial Times in an interview.

Gray said it was "a little early" to say redemption requests of the nontraded real-estate investment trust were slowing.

"We have a backlog from November and December," he said, adding, "I will say the tone of the conversations with our advisers is much improved."

Perhaps the conversations with advisers improved after Blackstone sent an email to them with talking points to calm their anxious investors. One money we spoke with said the move by Blackstone to send a Q&A sheet to calm clients was 'unprecedented.'



Or maybe the 'buffet style' bailout of the nontraded real-estate investment trust by the University of California's endowment has calmed some investors, but redemption requests have yet to subside.

Another money manager with clients in BREIT told us after the UC Investments' move to purchase $4 billion of the real-estate investment trust that "there is no doubt Blackstone needed a 'name brand' to placate nervous investors."

(...) BREIT gives wealthy clients exposure to a portfolio of commercial real estate properties such as apartment buildings, office towers, and warehouses, but how the investment firm structures product on nontradeable markets opens up liquidity risks in periods of economic turmoil.

The ultimate fear is that money managers with clients in BREIT all ask for their cash back at once. Though that hasn't happened, Blackstone has had enough redemption requests to implement a redemption cap to prevent a further run. This creates a vicious feedback doom loop of anxiety for investors.

[Derby]

La gráfica que muestra la evolución de las rentas de alquiler es tremenda.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/eriksherman/2023/01/25/why-renters-bill-of-rights-wont-help-much/

Why The Renters Bill Of Rights Won’t Help Much

The Biden administration released its promised game plan to “protect renters and promote rental affordability.” The accompanying White House Blueprint for a Renters Bill of Rights sounds good but doesn’t have any actual force of law behind it, as the long legal disclaimer at the beginning makes clear.

According to government figures, 44 million households rent their homes. Most see the pressure they are under. People who own a home, if they bought before the fall of 2021 probably have a relatively low interest rate on their mortgage, likely have a long-term loan that makes that aspect of ownership stable and predictable in cost.

Renters have no such promise. One of the financial principles for those who invest in real estate is to raise rents over time, because that increases their annual income and also the ultimate value of the property. (By the way, while large corporations own about 45% of apartment units as of 2018, according to Pew Research, individuals and non-profits own the rest.)

Those rents keep going up, even if there is rent control which typically moderates the increases. But during the pandemic, they began to rise as if powered by a rocket. To get a sense of how things have changed, below is a graph of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics as assembled by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.



Although there was a slight downturn in part of the Great Recession, it has been an inexorable climb that sped up during the pandemic, as the increased steepness of the line shows. Also, it’s important to remember that every increase is on top of the previous high mark of rents. They get bigger and bigger.

Also getting larger every single year is the cost of living. Shelter costs are about a third of the Consumer Price Index, otherwise known as inflation, as the Brookings Institution, among others, notes. Rent has become a giant lever of pain for millions of people who often are in the worst position to bear up under it.

Rents have started to come down some, but nowhere near enough. The Biden administration’s program directs that the Federal Trade Commission and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will “collect information to identify practices that unfairly prevent applicants and tenants from accessing or staying in housing in order to inform enforcement and policy actions under each agency’s jurisdiction.”

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is to “launch a new public process to examine proposed actions promoting renter protections and limits on egregious rent increases for future investments” and “increase affordability in the multifamily rental market by establishing requirements that encourage the financing of multifamily loans that guarantee affordable housing.”

The Department of Justice will “inform potential guidance updates around anti-competitive information sharing, including in rental markets.” And the Department of Housing and Urban Development will “inform potential guidance updates around anti-competitive information sharing, including in rental markets.”

It all sounds noble, but none of this is going to help what is most needed in any sort of timely manner. The reason for the skyrocketing rents isn’t a simplistic cause of corporate ownership. According to Pew, as of 2018, corporates owned about 45% of apartment units, but individuals and non-profit organizations owned the rest. And while zoning is an issue in areas already with heavy development, it’s also not the big problem.

Instead, here are some of the multiple complex reasons why rents are high and are likely to remain so, even if they recede a bit:

*The US chronically underbuilt houses and apartment units for years after the 2008 crash, for various reasons, mostly having to do with a lack of available financing and many in the development business who lost their shirts, weren’t able to get loans from a then fearful financial industry, and who found other ways to make a living.

*A lot more apartment buildings have been built recently, and many more in the pipeline, but the cost of final product delivered private industry construction jumped about 35% between November 2019 and November 2022, so much of that has been for wealthier individuals, who can pay enough in rent to ensure the developers make a profit. It may not sound right, but building new housing depends heavily on private financing and someone making money.

*There was the impact of long-low interest rates and then the flood of liquidity that the Fed pumped into the financial system when the pandemic crash happened. Lots of investors had a huge amount of capital in total to invest, apartment buildings were one of the types of real estate that were top choices for investment. Lots of money trying to get properties meant prices skyrocketed, which then demanded higher rents going forward to justify the investment and get the types of return investors wanted.

*Most people don’t realize that a lot of landlords, typically the smaller ones who own most of the units, lost money during the pandemic with the eviction moratoriums and the funds that were supposed to help people stay in place but that often didn’t get to the landlords, so they started increasing rents to make up what they had lost.

*Finally, demographics have been shifting for years, from older cities to the south and west where businesses went because of lower wages and regulation. The promise was jobs, but the number of rental units couldn’t keep up.

Things will eventually catch up, at least that’s the hope. There are a lot of apartment buildings of various sizes under construction. More supply, if there’s enough affordable units, should give people options, which will drive down prices. But that depends on whether the new units are ultimately in the right places.

Simply demanding major changes in the way everything works in housing is a rough equivalent of hopes and prayers after a mass shooting. No one’s best wishes or posturing matters, because it won’t change a thing.