# The apartment renter's greed is killing me **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 17, 2007, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apartment-renters-greed-is-killing-me/408397 "2007-06-17T23:37:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![GuyNblueJeans](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e9bcb4/32.png) [@GuyNblueJeans](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuyNblueJeans)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apartment-renters-greed-is-killing-me/408397/61 "2007-06-18T17:07:06Z")
“Oh Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood.” – Eric Burdon Good Morning, All! Thank you for taking the trouble to comfort and advise this most humble and simple man in his time of great stress. The kind, gentle warmth of your precious love sooths my much tattered soul more than you could ever know. Thank you! Firstly; let me say again that I was NOT the least bit rude or mean to the lady yesterday when I spoke to her in her office. Nor will I “go off” on the manager today, as some of you suggested I might. Believe it or not, I’m actually a NICE guy!🙂 Secondly; as I said, I’ve no problem with rent going up; I do have some understanding of the realities of life. But it does seem a bit excessive jacking it up so much everytime the lease expires. I’m not a tight-wad, but I’m not Bill Gates, either. Thirdly; I’ve tried talking to my boss about a raise. But he just laughed and pointed out that it’s all pretty much determined by a (stingy) formula that’s set in stone. The company has at least a couple of billion dollars banked and all the top people on the totem pole make sure they get theirs, but don’t really care that much for the working stiffs under them. (Perhaps the Lord will fix them up with a learning disability in the next life and thus they’ll find out how it feels to have to work like a dog while being squeezed from all sides. It would serve 'em right.) Fourthly; there’s no danger of me shooting out windows. It was merely a fantasy of mine to - SPREAD THE PAIN!🙂 (One of my favorite Biblical passages is, “Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord!” Not that such is warranted here, but you never know…) How I lament how it was when I got out of the service back in '76. A wonderful salt-of-the-earth type older couple rented me an upstairs three room apartment in an old farm house situated on the city limit over looking a big, beautiful corn field for only $90-per-month! It’s a shame that there aren’t more of those kinds of folks around. Everyone seems to be so money-hungry these days, no feelings at all, just grab the money and laugh all the way to the bank seems to be the name of the game. Whatever happened to the time in America when a regular Joe could kick-back in a chair with a cup of coffee and say, “What a nice world. I’ve got me my dignity. I’ve got me a roof over my head. And here I am enjoying a nice cup of coffee without so much as a care in the world. God bless America!”? Now-a days it too often seems to be all about how to best go about weaseling every nickel and dime one can out of one’s fellow man, leave 'em crying in the wake of one’s brilliant money-grab know-how 'cause all the other geniuses out there are doing the same thing – mercilessly butchering the dignity and financially exploiting us poor simpletons as the path to their riches! What a shame. ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apartment-renters-greed-is-killing-me/408397/62 "2007-06-18T17:10:18Z")
Yeah. Wow. The world was perfect in 1976. Nobody had any financial worries, and nobody was ever cheated. I blame the Internets. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apartment-renters-greed-is-killing-me/408397/63 "2007-06-18T17:34:39Z")
[QUOTE=GuyNblueJeans] (One of my favorite Biblical passages is, “Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord!” ) [/QUOTE] Yeah, but do you know what He’s charging for a one-bedroom apartment these days? Sheesh! ---
**Author:** ![MrJackboots](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MrJackboots](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrJackboots)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apartment-renters-greed-is-killing-me/408397/64 "2007-06-18T17:34:55Z")
[QUOTE=GuyNblueJeans] How I lament how it was when I got out of the service back in '76. A wonderful salt-of-the-earth type older couple rented me an upstairs three room apartment in an old farm house situated on the city limit over looking a big, beautiful corn field for only $90-per-month! It’s a shame that there aren’t more of those kinds of folks around. Everyone seems to be so money-hungry these days, no feelings at all, just grab the money and laugh all the way to the bank seems to be the name of the game. [/QUOTE] Nitpick: Back in 1976, the median household income was [$14,958](http://www.allcountries.org/uscensus/744_money_income_of_families_median_income.html). Thirty years later, in 2006, it was [$46,326](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_in_the_United_States). Some back-of-the-envelope calculation says that your rent back then was $275 or so in modern dollars. If you’ve moved to a more urban area or a wealthier, you can tack on quite a bit extra to the relative costs, too. I’m not saying that the cost of renting hasn’t gone up substantially, at least in your case, just that you may be overstating things somewhat. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apartment-renters-greed-is-killing-me/408397/65 "2007-06-18T17:57:24Z")
[QUOTE=MrJackboots] Nitpick: Back in 1976, the median household income was [$14,958](http://www.allcountries.org/uscensus/744_money_income_of_families_median_income.html). Thirty years later, in 2006, it was [$46,326](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_in_the_United_States). Some back-of-the-envelope calculation says that your rent back then was $275 or so in modern dollars. If you’ve moved to a more urban area or a wealthier, you can tack on quite a bit extra to the relative costs, too. I’m not saying that the cost of renting hasn’t gone up substantially, at least in your case, just that you may be overstating things somewhat. [/QUOTE] According to the CPI Inflation Calculator ([link](http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl)), $90 in 1976 is equivalent in buying power to $328.92 today. Plus, I believe we’re now spending a greater proportion of our take-home pay on housing these days, aren’t we? Renters, mortgage holders, all of us. The old “rule” of not spending more than 25% of your income on housing has been blown out the window. 30% is very common, with many areas going into 40 and even 60% [cite](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/03/nyregion/03census.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5088&en=40b0336e7bb0fb12&ex=1317528000&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss) So even just simply accounting for inflation doesn’t count for changes in how we spend our money. So quityerbitchin’. We’re all feeling the crunch, and that includes your landlords. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apartment-renters-greed-is-killing-me/408397/66 "2007-06-18T18:05:55Z")
You are talking about an extra $1.32 a day! You could find that much by walking around a 7-11 parking lot! ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apartment-renters-greed-is-killing-me/408397/67 "2007-06-18T18:09:39Z")
[QUOTE=GuyNblueJeans] How I lament how it was when I got out of the service back in '76. A wonderful salt-of-the-earth type older couple rented me an upstairs three room apartment in an old farm house situated on the city limit over looking a big, beautiful corn field for only $90-per-month! [/QUOTE] How much did you earn back in 1976? How much did a gallon of gasoline cost in '76? What about a gallon of milk? You may realize, as others have, that inflation increases the costs of things. Comparing your rent now to what it was 31 years ago isn’t going to provide any sort of accurate understanding of the relative greed of the people you’ve interacted with; the increase in rent over three decades is merely a fact of life, and a modern landlord would be a fool to charge you the going rate from the mid-70s. I once read that nostalgia is “the ability to remember yesterday’s prices while forgetting yesterday’s wages”. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apartment-renters-greed-is-killing-me/408397/68 "2007-06-18T18:12:00Z")
[QUOTE=GuyNblueJeans] Tomorrow I’m to speak with the manager and, I’m sure, that’ll be interesting. [/QUOTE] Yeah, “interesting”. > [@](#): > > I have no problem with people making a tidy profit. But I do have a problem with these greedy pigs not taking into account what a fine, trouble-free tenant I’ve been and how very, very little my wage has increased these past several years. Life Clue #1: NO ONE figures in your wages when the calculate their costs, prices and expected profit or loss. Get over yourself, it isn’t about YOU. > [@](#): > > It’s bad enough that a renter doesn’t get any equity; that they can just fling him in the road if he lands on hard times and that’s that! Life Clue #2: You want Equity, BUY SOMETHING. Renting is just that, and you have no ownership or rights other than “I’m paying you the amount of money you want me to pay in order to allow me to stay here right now”. > [@](#): > > Like I told that lady in the rental office, those exploiting people in this world may just get the same treatment in the next world. 🙂 > > Greedy, greedy pigs. :rolleyes: Stupid selfish ignorant people and their complete failure to grasp basic economics. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![little\_bit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@little\_bit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/little_bit)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apartment-renters-greed-is-killing-me/408397/69 "2007-06-18T18:22:10Z")
[QUOTE=Chimera] Life Clue #2: You want Equity, BUY SOMETHING. [/QUOTE] I was wondering when someone would tell him to quit whinning & get a mortgage. ---
**Author:** ![alice\_in\_wonderland](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alice_in_wonderland/32/176_2.png) [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apartment-renters-greed-is-killing-me/408397/70 "2007-06-18T18:25:03Z")
There was a story on the news here recently, about renters having their montly rent increased from $675 per month to $2,000 a month. There are no provincial regulations preventing this increase. (Landlords may only increase rents once per year, but it can be by any amount). I’m afraid your $40 increase generates a big, fat “meh” from me, and I find your classification of your landlords as “greedy pigs” based on a 5% increase to be rather obnoxious. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apartment-renters-greed-is-killing-me/408397/71 "2007-06-18T18:25:28Z")
[QUOTE=little\*bit] I was wondering when someone would tell him to quit whinning & get a mortgage. [/QUOTE] But wahtever he does, don’t go with an Adjustable Rate Mortgage. ---
**Author:** ![Tabithina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f04885/32.png) [@Tabithina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabithina)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apartment-renters-greed-is-killing-me/408397/72 "2007-06-18T18:30:40Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] According to the CPI Inflation Calculator ([link](http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl)), $90 in 1976 is equivalent in buying power to $328.92 today. Plus, I believe we’re now spending a greater proportion of our take-home pay on housing these days, aren’t we? Renters, mortgage holders, all of us. The old “rule” of not spending more than 25% of your income on housing has been blown out the window. 30% is very common, with many areas going into 40 and even 60% [cite](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/03/nyregion/03census.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5088&en=40b0336e7bb0fb12&ex=1317528000&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss) So even just simply accounting for inflation doesn’t count for changes in how we spend our money. So quityerbitchin’. We’re all feeling the crunch, and that includes your landlords. [/QUOTE] Yes. And landlords have to pay higher insurance than homeowners, and we also need to carry extra liability insurace. If we have rentals in an area where property values are skyrocketing, we get slammed with a bigger tax bill as a result. If we don’t pay our taxes, we lose the place, and who does that help? If we pay your utilities, we get screwed whenver the utlitity rates go up. Sometimes even the nicest, “Mom and Pop” landlords have no choice but to raise your rent. We need to pay our bills, and we are providing a service to you. As said, we are all feeling the crunch. Is there any way that you would consider applying for some sort of financial help? There is no shame in that. Even if you got food from a food bank once a month, that would offset the increase in your rent. If you feel bad taking food from a food bank, volunteer there on your day off a couple times a month. They will be glad of the help! Sometimes people need a leg up in hard times. But don’t take it out on the landlord. If he/she is charging the going rate for your area, there is probably a reason for that. And yes, landlords are operating a business, and need to make some money. Any other service industry, it’s okay for the business to make income–why is it not okay for the landlord? ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apartment-renters-greed-is-killing-me/408397/73 "2007-06-18T18:36:42Z")
[QUOTE=Ravenman] … which always inspires the response from someone who lives on vast amounts of land for pennies a day in a place that has very little, if anything, in common with California. [/QUOTE] I just can’t help it sometimes. I try, I really do. Perhaps I should join a group and go to meetings or something. ---
**Author:** ![VarlosZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@VarlosZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VarlosZ)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apartment-renters-greed-is-killing-me/408397/74 "2007-06-18T18:45:27Z")
**Guy** , I’m sorry that your rent is increasing faster than your income, and I’m sorry that you’re not getting the sympathetic ear you’d probably hoped for. However, you have to realize that rent increases like this are totally standard and to be expected, and that complaining about this situation is like whining because you have to pay for gas to put in your car. It’s just a fact of life, and everyone who rents has the same problem. > [@](#): > > Whatever happened to the time in America when a regular Joe could kick-back in a chair with a cup of coffee and say, “What a nice world. I’ve got me my dignity. I’ve got me a roof over my head. And here I am enjoying a nice cup of coffee without so much as a care in the world. God bless America!”? Do you not have your dignity, your coffee, and a roof? As for ‘not a care in the world’ . . . are you nuts? When was it exactly that Americans didn’t have worries? ---
**Author:** ![Dunawake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dunawake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunawake)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apartment-renters-greed-is-killing-me/408397/75 "2007-06-18T18:50:43Z")
The rent hike for me this year is close to $200. Probably the only thing I **don’t** like about the Bay Area, so I just suck it up and deal with it. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apartment-renters-greed-is-killing-me/408397/76 "2007-06-18T18:58:11Z")
Unless you’re living in some total shit hole that nobody wants to live in and where there are no jobs, **housing prices go up**. When housing prices go up, rents on apartments go up. That’s just what they do. This is one reason why renting your home isn’t as good as buying with a fixed rate mortgage in the long term. I assume most owners of apartment complexes are paying some sort of mortgage- do they generally get fixed or adjustable rate mortgages? > [@GuyNblueJeans](#): > > I’ve tried talking to my boss about a raise. But he just laughed and pointed out that it’s all pretty much determined by a (stingy) formula that’s set in stone. The company has at least a couple of billion dollars banked and all the top people on the totem pole make sure they get theirs, but don’t really care that much for the working stiffs under them. Have you considered looking for another job? I hate job hunting at least as much as anybody else does, but I’d probably start looking elsewhere if my job couldn’t cover my rent and there were no possibility of a raise. [QUOTE=Lizard] Far be it from me to tell you what to do, but posting _this:_ . . . is probably unwise. [/QUOTE] Eh, I think everybody who deals with a less-than-responsive apartment complex management feels that way sometimes. I was certainly having fantasies of violence toward mine when it took them a week to get a guy out to look at our dishwasher. ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apartment-renters-greed-is-killing-me/408397/77 "2007-06-18T19:10:57Z")
[QUOTE=GuyNblueJeans] Whatever happened to the time in America when a regular Joe could kick-back in a chair with a cup of coffee and say, “What a nice world. I’ve got me my dignity. I’ve got me a roof over my head. And here I am enjoying a nice cup of coffee without so much as a care in the world. God bless America!”? [/QUOTE] I remember those days. I think it was called ‘childhood’. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apartment-renters-greed-is-killing-me/408397/78 "2007-06-18T19:24:26Z")
[QUOTE=Tabithina] Yes. And landlords have to pay higher insurance than homeowners, and we also need to carry extra liability insurace. If we have rentals in an area where property values are skyrocketing, we get slammed with a bigger tax bill as a result. If we don’t pay our taxes, we lose the place, and who does that help? If we pay your utilities, we get screwed whenver the utlitity rates go up. Sometimes even the nicest, “Mom and Pop” landlords have no choice but to raise your rent. We need to pay our bills, and we are providing a service to you. As said, we are all feeling the crunch. [/QUOTE] You left out the governmental permits. I’ve shelled out $15,692 this month to keep our apartment registrations valid for another year. ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apartment-renters-greed-is-killing-me/408397/79 "2007-06-18T19:26:10Z")
[QUOTE=GuyNblueJeans] Thank you for taking the trouble to comfort and advise this most humble and simple man in his time of great stress. The kind, gentle warmth of your precious love sooths my much tattered soul more than you could ever know. Thank you! [/quote] You posts your gripes and you takes your chances, here at the SDMB. Though, truly – sorry to hear your rent is going up, man. That sucks. > [@](#): > > Thirdly; I’ve tried talking to my boss about a raise. But he just laughed and pointed out that it’s all pretty much determined by a (stingy) formula that’s set in stone. The company has at least a couple of billion dollars banked and all the top people on the totem pole make sure they get theirs, but don’t really care that much for the working stiffs under them. I’m a little curious why IYO your landlord has an obligation to sort of take care of you – recognize you have a disability, recognize you’ve been a great tenant, adjust your rent down accordingly (or at least not raise it) – but you don’t place the same obligation on your company to recognize you have a disability, recognize you’ve been a great worker, and adjust your salary up accordingly. It seems like you see that low pay is just one of those bad realities of life sometimes, so I’m curious why you don’t see that higher rent is another. > [@](#): > > Fourthly; there’s no danger of me shooting out windows. It was merely a fantasy of mine to - SPREAD THE PAIN!🙂 (One of my favorite Biblical passages is, “Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord!” Not that such is warranted here, but you never know…) Well, “vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord” is given as the reason we do not seek vengeance ourselves, not as a justificiation of vengeance, so it doesn’t really suppport your point. > [@](#): > > How I lament how it was when I got out of the service back in '76. A wonderful salt-of-the-earth type older couple rented me an upstairs three room apartment in an old farm house situated on the city limit over looking a big, beautiful corn field for only $90-per-month! It’s a shame that there aren’t more of those kinds of folks around. Yeah, well, that was 30 years ago. Those people are dead. > [@](#): > > Whatever happened to the time in America when a regular Joe could kick-back in a chair with a cup of coffee and say, “What a nice world. I’ve got me my dignity. I’ve got me a roof over my head. And here I am enjoying a nice cup of coffee without so much as a care in the world. God bless America!”? We are a capitalist nation. There NEVER was a time that Regular Joe wasn’t expected to pay market rates for his cup of coffee and his roof. ---
**Author:** ![Billdo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/billdo/32/315_2.png) [@Billdo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billdo)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apartment-renters-greed-is-killing-me/408397/80 "2007-06-18T20:43:27Z")
[QUOTE=Anne Neville] I assume most owners of apartment complexes are paying some sort of mortgage- do they generally get fixed or adjustable rate mortgages? [/QUOTE] It varies, of course, but many commercial mortgages have only a 10 year term (though they most likely have a longer amortization schedule), meaning that the landlord has to refinance at current interest rates every 10 years or so. In addition, most commercial mortgages have prepayment prohibitions or penalties, so commercial landowners cannot necessarily refinance when interest rates are low the way a residential owner can. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apartment-renters-greed-is-killing-me/408397.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apartment-renters-greed-is-killing-me/408397.md?page=5)