The Expensive Housing Problem
By: Jackie Chau, Gentjan Therqaj, and Alyssa Macy
The Problem
Eviction
Watch the sad story of a poor family being evicted from their apartment for not being able to afford rent:
The Rent Problem
The average monthly rent payment in the United States is $2024.97. For a household with median income in the United States, this takes up about 33.3% of their income. With increasing interest rates and inflation of other products being a concern after the pandemic, this makes paying for a house in modern times extremely difficult for most people, even when working two minimum wage ($12 per hour) jobs. Even with a generous $15 per hour wage, you make only $2600 per month (assuming standard 40 work hours per week), being barely enough for only rent itself. Rent is already difficult to pay in full, let alone the rest of the expenses.
$1372
Average U.S. Monthly Expenses
Rent is too expensive
Here is a graph of the various things that it takes to live in the U.S. for one month. Notice how big of a portion rent is?
I mean honestly, what are you supposed to do? It's so expensive!
The Solution?
JUST BE HOMELESS!!!
Benefits
No more rent!
Lowering interest rates and raising the minimum wage DEFINITELY aren't feasible, so why not just ignore rent as a whole? Being homeless can significantly free up your expenses by cutting out the rent portion of your income. By doing so, you automatically save $2024.97 per month on average, which can be either put in a savings account for future use or used for personal luxuries. You won't even have to deal with interest rates or anything; the only things you have to worry about are basic necessities such as food or water.
Benefits
No more rent!
Lowering interest rates and raising the minimum wage DEFINITELY aren't feasible, so why not just ignore rent as a whole? Being homeless can significantly free up your expenses by cutting out the rent portion of your income. By doing so, you automatically save $2024.97 per month on average, which can be either put in a savings account for future use or used for personal luxuries. You won't even have to deal with interest rates or anything; the only things you have to worry about are basic necessities such as food or water.
Living a homeless life might suck, but it can't even be as bad as having to work two jobs to pay for housing. A lot of people have to work two jobs just to pay for rent while supporting their family at the same time, and it sucks. I mean, that 80 hours of time spent having to work for no extra money. Imagine only having to work one job and having all that extra free time to do whatever you want! And if you really wanted to work 2 jobs, all that money is yours to spend on whatever you want! What would you do with more than $2000 of extra money per month? It's just free real estate (I guess?).
You don't only save on rent...
When living without a home, you are effectively choosing to live a minimal lifestyle due to likely having to live out of your car. This saves even more money for people who can't support their families. On average, converting from a normal lifestyle to a minimalistic lifestyle will save you $2025 if you're downgrading from a house to an apartment. Add the fact that you won't even be living in an minimalistic apartment anymore (which is on average $1702 a month), and you'll save close to $3000 per month (adjusted for increased gas prices due to living in a car)! Imagine having $3000 of spare cash every month! All that money can go to local businesses instead of being thrown into the monopoly that is the housing market. Sounds too good to be true, we know.
Futuristic concept of a living room on wheels
Productivity and Overpopulation
Additionally, productivity will not be affected by being homeless. People can still work and have jobs, and those who work from home can work from libraries and coffee shops with Internet access. Productivity won't be hindered by being homeless; jobs will remain the same while expenses go down. In fact, you'll have more free time so you could work on other things too! Once again, imagine all that extra money you'd have just by not paying rent!
A side effect of this solution is that less space will be taken up on Earth, leading to a reduction of land resources needed to sustain the population. This means that overpopulation will be less of an issue, as we will no longer need the housing to support the population. 39% of land in the United States, or 897,000,000 acres of land, is currently taken up by residential uses. Imagine what we could do with all that extra land!
Potential Problems
- Housing market may crash, resulting in many backrupties, recessions, and economic problems
- Gas will be more demanded as the result of everyone living in a vehicle, resulting in many environmental concerns
- The world will run out of gas at a much higher rate, leaving us with an energy crisis
- Certain renewable power sources such as solar and wind will not longer work (you're not going to try to put a solar panel on a car right)?
- The emissions from vehicles will cause global warming to go at an ever faster rate
- Inflation will be higher than ever as more people have more money to spend outside of the housing market
- Way too many cars and vehicles to fit on our current road and traffic system
- A lot more car accidents and casualties
- Not enough parking will be available to fit everyone living inside of a vehicle
- Trash and litter will stockpile everywhere due to the lack of convienient access to trash cans caused by being homeless
- Hygiene becomes a problem as showering in gyms slowly becomes unavailable and overcrowded
- Privacy becomes a concern from the lack of private space provided by the confines of a vehicle
- Lack of storage space may cause a lot of inconviences for families
- Everyone eats at fast-food restaurants, potentially making obesity and proper nutrition a concern
- Many businesses such as internet service providers, furniture stores, and real estate businesses go out of business suddenly
- Lack of a consistent water supply and power supply causes many inconviences for families
- Appliances that are typically used in everyday life (kitchen stuff, microwaves, refridgerators, etc) become redundant
- Any necessary electronics such as desktop computers for work will no longer be able to function at a person's "home"
Potential Alternatives
- Lowering interest rates
- Higher minimum wage
- Less restrictive and costly land zoning rules
- More lenient loaning systems
- Anti-inflation policies
- Financial aid programs
- If all else fails, lower the prices of apartments (they're $1702 per month?!)
Thanks!
SOURCES
Just Be Homeless™
Works Cited
“Average Rent in the U.S. & Rent Prices by State.” RentCafe, https://www.rentcafe.com/average-rent-market-trends/us/. Accessed 11 January 2024. “Biden-Harris Administration Announces Actions to Lower Housing Costs and Boost Supply.” The White House, 27 July 2023, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/07/27/biden-harris-administration-announces-actions-to-lower-housing-costs-and-boost-supply/. Accessed 11 January 2024. “Car Ratings Car Shopping Guides How Much Do People Spend On Gas Each Month?” J.D. Power, 11 January 2023, https://www.jdpower.com/cars/shopping-guides/how-much-do-people-spend-on-gas-each-month. Accessed 11 January 2024. Ptomey, Christopher. “Commentary: Rents are soaring. Here's how to bring them down.” Fortune, 24 August 2022, https://fortune.com/2022/08/24/rents-soaring-property-prices-real-estate-housing-solutions-research-christopher-ptomey/. Accessed 11 January 2024. tarvin, drew. “18 Months as a Nomad - By the Numbers - (an)drew tarvin | Founder of Humor That Works | Speaker, Author, Consultant.” Andrew Tarvin, 1 September 2016, https://drewtarvin.com/travel/18-months-nomad-numbers/. Accessed 11 January 2024. Thompson, Nancy. “Typical Percentage of Land Uses.” Useful Community Development, https://www.useful-community-development.org/typical-percentage-of-land-uses.html. Accessed 11 January 2024. “What Are the Average American's Monthly Expenses?” Ramsey Solutions, https://www.ramseysolutions.com/budgeting/american-average-monthly-expenses. Accessed 11 January 2024.
The Expensive Housing Problem
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Transcript
The Expensive Housing Problem
By: Jackie Chau, Gentjan Therqaj, and Alyssa Macy
The Problem
Eviction
Watch the sad story of a poor family being evicted from their apartment for not being able to afford rent:
The Rent Problem
The average monthly rent payment in the United States is $2024.97. For a household with median income in the United States, this takes up about 33.3% of their income. With increasing interest rates and inflation of other products being a concern after the pandemic, this makes paying for a house in modern times extremely difficult for most people, even when working two minimum wage ($12 per hour) jobs. Even with a generous $15 per hour wage, you make only $2600 per month (assuming standard 40 work hours per week), being barely enough for only rent itself. Rent is already difficult to pay in full, let alone the rest of the expenses.
$1372
Average U.S. Monthly Expenses
Rent is too expensive
Here is a graph of the various things that it takes to live in the U.S. for one month. Notice how big of a portion rent is?
I mean honestly, what are you supposed to do? It's so expensive!
The Solution?
JUST BE HOMELESS!!!
Benefits
No more rent!
Lowering interest rates and raising the minimum wage DEFINITELY aren't feasible, so why not just ignore rent as a whole? Being homeless can significantly free up your expenses by cutting out the rent portion of your income. By doing so, you automatically save $2024.97 per month on average, which can be either put in a savings account for future use or used for personal luxuries. You won't even have to deal with interest rates or anything; the only things you have to worry about are basic necessities such as food or water.
Benefits
No more rent!
Lowering interest rates and raising the minimum wage DEFINITELY aren't feasible, so why not just ignore rent as a whole? Being homeless can significantly free up your expenses by cutting out the rent portion of your income. By doing so, you automatically save $2024.97 per month on average, which can be either put in a savings account for future use or used for personal luxuries. You won't even have to deal with interest rates or anything; the only things you have to worry about are basic necessities such as food or water.
Living a homeless life might suck, but it can't even be as bad as having to work two jobs to pay for housing. A lot of people have to work two jobs just to pay for rent while supporting their family at the same time, and it sucks. I mean, that 80 hours of time spent having to work for no extra money. Imagine only having to work one job and having all that extra free time to do whatever you want! And if you really wanted to work 2 jobs, all that money is yours to spend on whatever you want! What would you do with more than $2000 of extra money per month? It's just free real estate (I guess?).
You don't only save on rent...
When living without a home, you are effectively choosing to live a minimal lifestyle due to likely having to live out of your car. This saves even more money for people who can't support their families. On average, converting from a normal lifestyle to a minimalistic lifestyle will save you $2025 if you're downgrading from a house to an apartment. Add the fact that you won't even be living in an minimalistic apartment anymore (which is on average $1702 a month), and you'll save close to $3000 per month (adjusted for increased gas prices due to living in a car)! Imagine having $3000 of spare cash every month! All that money can go to local businesses instead of being thrown into the monopoly that is the housing market. Sounds too good to be true, we know.
Futuristic concept of a living room on wheels
Productivity and Overpopulation
Additionally, productivity will not be affected by being homeless. People can still work and have jobs, and those who work from home can work from libraries and coffee shops with Internet access. Productivity won't be hindered by being homeless; jobs will remain the same while expenses go down. In fact, you'll have more free time so you could work on other things too! Once again, imagine all that extra money you'd have just by not paying rent!
A side effect of this solution is that less space will be taken up on Earth, leading to a reduction of land resources needed to sustain the population. This means that overpopulation will be less of an issue, as we will no longer need the housing to support the population. 39% of land in the United States, or 897,000,000 acres of land, is currently taken up by residential uses. Imagine what we could do with all that extra land!
Potential Problems
Potential Alternatives
Thanks!
SOURCES
Just Be Homeless™
Works Cited
“Average Rent in the U.S. & Rent Prices by State.” RentCafe, https://www.rentcafe.com/average-rent-market-trends/us/. Accessed 11 January 2024. “Biden-Harris Administration Announces Actions to Lower Housing Costs and Boost Supply.” The White House, 27 July 2023, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/07/27/biden-harris-administration-announces-actions-to-lower-housing-costs-and-boost-supply/. Accessed 11 January 2024. “Car Ratings Car Shopping Guides How Much Do People Spend On Gas Each Month?” J.D. Power, 11 January 2023, https://www.jdpower.com/cars/shopping-guides/how-much-do-people-spend-on-gas-each-month. Accessed 11 January 2024. Ptomey, Christopher. “Commentary: Rents are soaring. Here's how to bring them down.” Fortune, 24 August 2022, https://fortune.com/2022/08/24/rents-soaring-property-prices-real-estate-housing-solutions-research-christopher-ptomey/. Accessed 11 January 2024. tarvin, drew. “18 Months as a Nomad - By the Numbers - (an)drew tarvin | Founder of Humor That Works | Speaker, Author, Consultant.” Andrew Tarvin, 1 September 2016, https://drewtarvin.com/travel/18-months-nomad-numbers/. Accessed 11 January 2024. Thompson, Nancy. “Typical Percentage of Land Uses.” Useful Community Development, https://www.useful-community-development.org/typical-percentage-of-land-uses.html. Accessed 11 January 2024. “What Are the Average American's Monthly Expenses?” Ramsey Solutions, https://www.ramseysolutions.com/budgeting/american-average-monthly-expenses. Accessed 11 January 2024.