I am trying to buy an apartment building with friends to live in it and to remove it from the rental market, and I am learning that it’s basically impossible. Like, it IS doable, but every single building of any size that goes on the market is immediately snatched up cash by basically anyone and everyone with the cash to do it. It’s apparently been that way for years. I don’t and won’t ever have the cash to buy an entire building, so my group can’t compete.

We’re told that it is possible but that we have to get lucky and basically find a building that falls through the cracks somehow. I’m told to expect it to take a year or more. The worst part is I am seeing some of these buildings and many of them just…stay empty. Folks buy them and then they just don’t bother renting them out or living in them. Or they’ll rent out half the units and leave the other half empty to try to drive rents up. Housing has stopped being housing long ago in the US and is now purely an investment. The land is worth more as an investment than the hassle of renting and folks that have more money than they need don’t really care about making an immediate return on that investment, so they’re valuing the land itself rather than the buildings.

It’s disgusting and absolutely nothing is being done about it. I’m over here trying to do the “right thing” by actually participating in the housing market and I can’t. Nobody can. It’s only going to get worse.