have you guys experience over crowding in your apartment or condo?


my condo is way over crowded. I notice a change over 10yrs. There are new 7-8 people moving into 1unit. It is crazy. The elevator is always pack at anytime of the day. It is much worse at rush hour 3pm and 5pm.

It drive me insane just to wait for elevator. I feel like a sardine in a can.

This is the effect of the over-priced real estate market.

While many have called the current drop in real-estate prices a "crash" in reality, even now, after the huge drop in prices, the fact that wages have not kept up with inflation coupled with a coincident drop in full time employment has left many people with no choice but to pack more people into a space intended for two or three. Expenses vary place to place, but someone earning $42,000 a year can't buy a house - ever - here on the east coast. And once you get to Manhattan - forget it. When I first started working in my current job three years ago, I considered getting a small apartment as a place to stay for some of the late nights that inevitably crop up. I didn't need much - a one-room studio apartment would be fine. I found a place not too far from the office. One room - 12' x 15 '- no kitchen, just a countertop microwave and a sink like you might find in a hotel room and a bathroom that would be at home in any RV. $3,150 a month. No, really. I recently looked at the same apartment, now that the real-estate market has "crashed" guess what the rent is? $2900 a month. Now Manhattan is a bit surreal when it comes to housing prices, but in other markets, it's still very much a huge expense.

Consider this - I spend 14% of my income (pre tax) on housing. I am in the minority here - the "guideline" published by the national association realtors is 30-40% - and the reality is that many people spend more than 50% of their income on housing. But that leaves no room for other expenses - like food, transportation and importantly for 47 million Americans, health care.

I have a family member who rents a small house. At first, the rent was shared between her and one other person. But work is hard to find, so they added a 3rd person. And then a 4th. Now, this tiny house has four people all struggling to make ends meet - none of them can afford health insurance AND rent, so they are all uninsured. None of them have any savings, they live month to month. So, they try to cut the cost of rent by packing more and more people into the space.

So when you feel like a sardine packed in, consider that nobody WANTS to live like that - and certainly it's not a choice made willingly.

What does insurance and health care have to do with housing?

I might just be a cynic when it comes to it, but I believe that housing is one expense that can always be lowered. We don't -have- to live in the kinds of places that most of us have. Trust me, I've lived in some real beauties (sarcasm). I've lived off of nothing but ramen and made do. If a person decides that housing or dining is more important then the necessities why should we worry or care about the rest?

Of course there are always extenuating circumstances, don't get me wrong. I just don't like people dragging political agendas into unrelated discussions.

edit:

one of the places I lived had 15 Ecuadorians living there. 14 of them were oilfield workers working oposite hitches so there were only 8 at a time at the apartment. Only one of them spoke English. He was an old grizzled man that had seen one hard life, missing an eye and a digit or two. They always kept to themselves other then plugging up the parking.

And yet the solution is so simple to ensure another housing / financial bubble doesn't burst and burn everyone yet again.

Just legislate that no domestic mortgage can be sold without provisioning a,b,c,d,e;

a) a 10 or 20% minimum deposit on any domestic property.

b) a 3.5 times income maximum personal mortgage limit (12-24 months accounts provable from bank statements)

c) a 5% or pro rata (progressive) mortgage tax on every mortgage over $200,000 value for the construction for local authority rented social housing.

d) ensure that a healthy rented sector is available by modifying a, b and c favourably for mortgage to rent products (i.e no mortgage tax up to $500,000 properties)

e) A maximum APR on any contractual loan;

Personal APR Rate (credit card, hire purchase etc) - 5 times the base rate with limits on the maximum loan availability to 0.5 times personal annual income (a statutory check with other CC lenders etc would need to be done to ensure there are no multiples to the 0.5 times income loan limit).

Mortgage APR Rate - 1.5 times the base rate rate

(anything above these limits would be recognised as loan sharking subject to criminal prosecution)

f) A legally set national mimium wage rate set to 0.5 times the national average income with a flat income tax rate upto $250,000.

g) A National Health Service paid for by a progressive Pay As You Earn National Health Insurance tax. (health services are then focused on medical need not just the ability to pay)

h) A child benefit paid (upto the age of 16) to all mothers directly regardless of the mothers income.

i) Free healthy school meals for every child.

The over crowding of my apartment occurred before the recession. It drive me nuts that I have to wait 10min for elevator.

Could always use the stairs...

I'm HARDLY dragging politics into this. Here's the facts.

1. In the USA, your health insurance generally comes via your job, and if you lose your job, you lose your employer subsidized health insurance. Yes, you can buy your own health insurance...

2. In the USA, health expenses are higher per capita than anywhere. The annual premium for an employer health plan covering a family of four averaged nearly $12,700 in 2008, that's a little more than $1,000 a month. The average monthly rent in the USA (according to Forbes and MSNBC) is $828 a month.

Many millions can't afford to rent and have health care.

I've seen a lot of people gather up several to an apartment/house/condo then drive a van/suburban so they can all go to the same place of employment. Cleaning crews for large office buildings or the mowing crew.

Yep. You get paid $6.15 an hour and you live in any urban center, you're going to live with a lot of people.

I think we have a few folks here who can give some direct experience about what it's like to currently (not when you were some kid) be an adult making lousy money or to live in a place where the best job you can hope for is 30 hours a week at a fast food place - just enough money to pay some of your rent, and nothing else.

So, Picard120 - I feel for you. I hate slow elevators and tight crowds...but I also wonder about the economics of overcrowding and homelessness at a time where we have 1 in 10 homes in foreclosure here in the USA - and more to come.

I've seen a few that make less that $6.15/hour, was trying not to say it but many of those groups are not documented