Apologies if it is boring.
Remember “Real estate” doesn’t mean land that is “real” it means “Royal land” as in belonging to the king or government.
And don’t forget the computer software that has to be rented (e.g. most Adobe products) and all of the stuff tied to “the cloud”.
Some things make sense to rent, Term Life Insurance as opposed to Whole Life, for instance. We are renting our home right now because we are not sure yet where we want to live and want to build up a sizeable down payment.
Even the cars that are not leased now, are assumed tobe sold on financing, and for long periods (72 months), which is more like a lease with option to buy.
The leasing options and layaway plans reappeared after the credit crisis... many people have not climbed out of it yet. Particularly in communities that have many homes underwater...
The pressure is still on to have as many people in debt as possible.
I know some folks that moved here to get better paying jobs and have no intention of staying once their kids are out of high school and they do not want to worry about selling or the market collapsing. They also do not want to pay $400,000 for a 2200 sq foot house that costs $200,000 any where else. Can’t say I blame them.
Well, doing away with the concept of property would certainly make this whole Socialism thing a whole lot easier to implement.
It really should not be possible for a person to forfeit his property for failure to pay tax on it. THAT truly relegated everyone to tenant status.
All cell phones are rented too.
I would even go so far as to suggest that social, political, and peer pressure to "own" everything you use in life may even drive up the prices of many things. For example, you'd be surprised at how much less it costs on a monthly basis to rent a home than to buy the exact same home, in many cases.
this generation doesn’t look at ownership as a virtue, but rather as a burden. Why buy your smartphone when you can rent it and always get the latest and greatest? Music, movies, just rent what you like. People don’t care about being underwater on a car in a year or two, they just want what they want and only care about having enough money to make the monthly payments. You can have all the channels and fastest interwebs if you can just make the monthly payment.
They only thing of paying cash for the necessities of life, like McDs, lottery tickets, Starbucks, beer, and pot.
devaluation of the currency to pay for the massive government of Empire, government debt and wars of control and conquest led to the creation of feudalism in Europe
Similar conditions exist in the USA today. The creation of the Federal Reserve, and constant devaluation of the currency, manufactured inflation, fake interest rates, debt monetization just mean that those connected to government get the first crack at wealth and that all progressive government schemes are paid for - at the expense of the middle-class wages and property.
Debt is leverage.
Responsibility, honoring that debt and extending that debt is a business decision and is therefore priced into the cost.
Some people know how to leverage debt.
Under the current climate, with property taxes, difficulty in relocating, uncertain futures, and delicate margins in people's lifestyles (many live paycheck to paycheck now), of course renting all kinds of things makes some sense. You really want that flexibility.
But that's the point, eh?
The Powers That Be have constructed a world in which people shrug and say "Owning stuff just doesn't make sense today."
And that kind of seems like it's all part of the plan. Once upon a time, property was considered the foundation of liberty and independence. Now, it's kind of a hassle. And we look around and say "Where'd my liberty and independence go?"
Rent-to-Own has been around since at least the 1980s.
Before that, many families acquired items via Lay-away. Lay-away was common in many stores.
It was the advent of credit cards in the 1960s that sort of changed the way stores operated.
Lay-away sort of died out. It has made a return in recent years, however.
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Rent-to-Own does seem to appeal to a certain economic group of people. It is a convenient way to acquire some items.
I never cared for it because the ‘final’ price one would pay is 2 to 4 times higher than purchasing the same item elsewhere.
There is definitely a link between a population that has stopped breeding and the lack of a need for a house. As we’ve become akin to Okies following the crops around California 80 years ago, childless Americans know they can pick up and follow their jobs across the country. Here in NJ, that is exactly what many of our young people are doing.
Dell Walmsley of Lifestyles Unlimited did a presentation on 4/30/15 talking about economic black swan events. His forecast for the real estate market is that everyone who has been foreclosed on in the past six years will be unable to buy for another 5-10 years. And surveys of the young 20-somethings show they were impacted by seeing friends, family and even parents evicted.
End result? Lots of renters and lots of young people who don’t want to do anything but rent.
He described the seismic shift in the myth of home ownership as a major change, and the flat economy is driving many investors with cash to invest in real estate. This is his explanation for why property values and rental rates are going up, though home ownership as a percentage of the population is going down.
I agree with his assessment that the home ownership rate is going to fall, though whether it drops from 70% ten years ago to 63% now to 50% like he predicts, I don’t know.
If that same mentality expands to other products, such as cars and appliances, I can imagine car leasing exploding. After all, many think they have to have a car payment, so why skip the equity and save each month?
Sites like Uber and AirBNB and ones for renting products are growing. It saves money, but I don’t know if we will see more than a few niche stores renting fancy handbags and jewelry. We are certainly seeing more growth in renting tools from Home Depot and video games.
Will the government make you rent everything but the clothes on your back? No, because too many people want to retain control over what truly matters, be it a personal computer, cell phone, heirloom jewelry, etc. And no one wants to rent underwear, toothbrushes, anything that their lives depend on (oxygen machines being a common exception).
In short: Real estate rentals will certainly grow in the aftermath of the Great Recession. Automobile rentals may or may not expand, product rentals depend on the product and queasiness renting it. Will people rent absolutely everything? No.