New Apartment Buildings

I began to think about this yesterday as I drove past so many large apartment buildings in my city. It seems that not many, if any, have been built in the last 40 years and many of those are being turned into condo apartments. It got me wondering where we'll find rentals in the future.

Condo apartments here cost anywhere from $100,000 and up...it's rare to find anything under $200,000...so where will people who can't finance a mortgage be able to live? I've noticed that some apartment buildings have been filled with welfare recipients which leaves the low income working families out in the cold.

Turning older apartment buildings into condos where people purchase the apartment and also pay a monthly service fee is something fairly new here. It's probably a boon to the building owner who has been having trouble making a profit due to rent increase controls. They can sell each unit for a good profit and then manage the building, collecting the monthly service fees which I'm not sure are government regulated.

Last year I looked at one such building which was in the process of being turned into condos. It was built in 1978 and was horribly run down on the inside. The few tenants I saw still living there looked like low life so it wasn't a welcoming sight. Each apartment was being gutted and beautifully renovated after it was sold but the entry and first floor hallway that met potential buyers was decrepit. It was very apparent that the owners weren't receiving enough rent from the tenants to clean the place up.

There were approximately 24 units in the building, all selling for approximately $110,000 (a bargain) so that would mean over 2 million dollars to the owner plus the ability to continue receiving $7,200+ per month in service fees. Any overage costs would just mean increasing those fees. No wonder apartment building owners are going this route!

I admire people who struggle with low paying jobs rather than sit back and accept welfare and it just isn't fair that it's becoming increasing difficult for these people to afford to live. Taking away the availability of apartment rentals will surely cause many of them to give up and just take the dole.

Low income seniors have it a bit better. Even though the waiting list is long, there are senior apartments reserved for them alone. My husband's aunt lives in one and they are quite nice.

I don't know what the answer is other than the government building more geared to income apartments specifically for people who have jobs. I can hear the left wingers screaming "discrimination" but people who work for a living have to be given some rights, don't they?

Just a thought.