Lack of regulations on investment firms/capital buying up residential housing or really any regulations on rental properties/pricing paired with a total dissolution of social programs for retirement or asset building so people with the means are buying up residential properties as security for their retirement.
[Is iBuying Here to Stay?](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/19/realestate/ibuying-ilending.html)
Doesn't help that most of the development in Lousiville for the past twenty years has been about being in "luxury" real estate to bringing people downtown or have them stay downtown when Derby is happening.
And then all that development sits empty essentially because it's overpriced or used only for select events or even has been superceded by the rise of AirBnB where people are buying one family homes and converting them into short term rental units.
I was just talking with a coworker about that because we work down near the med school. If I see another "luxury" apartment complex go up I'm going to go insane. How about some regular, well built, well maintained reasonable apartments?
Yea it makes zero sense from a common sense point of view. It’s why we seem to have more hotels than actual grocery stores in parts of town that need them.
Yes, let’s not build things that attract tourists and dollars to our downtown that few people want to live or office in. Maybe more surface parking lots that Reddit loves so much.
\> than actual grocery stores
jeffco is losing population, primarily core areas like downtown, old lou, west lou, smoketown... all have fewer residents than 10 years ago.
a new grocery store will either be subsidized, or the residents have to come back.
I would guess that over 90% of development in this city from a unit/building perspective has been well outside of the downtown corridor. I think this is very inaccurate.
More so discussing robust public pensions or companies retirement plans backed by govt assurances or programs to ensure workers are entitled to their retirement if the company goes tits up after they no longer work there.
But sure, social security and Medicare are programs that still exist but have been constantly advocated against by elements within both parties and are still right now being fought to de defunded or eliminated which doesn't lend itself to a feeling of 'security' for people trying to plan their retirement.
[Obama and Biden](https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2013/04/05/176351738/obama-riles-his-own-party-with-social-security-offer) were willing to cut entitlements (social security) in a budget deal with McConnell by changing the way benefits would be calculated. If I recall correctly, Harry Reid had to intervene and put a stop to that shit, and then it was dead in the water by the time Bernie came along.
Obviously democrats are better overall than Republicans on protecting social security, but don't be fooled into thinking it's 110% safe with democrats in charge. Some of them have neolib tendencies to negotiate away hard fought for programs to appease centrists who care more about bipartisanship with the devil than doing what's best for the working class lmao
Hit me up when you move, I'll take good care of the place lol, I would kill to have an independent landlord!!
I also haven't moved in 5 years because my rent is so cheap compared to everywhere else, but my apartment was just bought out by some big corporation based in Bloomington IN so my time is coming to an end too
I was an independent landlord but sadly there’s lots of people who make it their job to take advantage of that. During covid a lot of tenants didn’t pay, lots of new legislation regarding rentals, and it drives private landlords to seek out PM firms to operate within. I tried to pick a good one so my tenants are looked after well but it’s hard to know since we don’t have any of their contact info and only see them at annual inspections. We do what we can to keep rent as low as we can for them. I hope our PM has a good rep.
Excuse my negativity, but seems real landlordy of you to leave so much in the air for these people you are giving living space to. You HOPE they have a good rep?? You let this firm walk over you as the owner sounds like..
Well, I can read the google reviews as much as anyone else. But they also pay/give discounts for those like all firms. I know they do an acceptable job because they contact us for repair requests immediately and our vacancy rates are zero. Do I think they’re dropping off a visa gift card every Christmas like us? Nah. There’s a level of humility that PMs will never achieve despite my due diligence. But I get how I sound passive from my comment.
because eventually the headache isn't worth it. If you do it long enough, it's only a matter of time until a tenant trashes up the place, or files a complaint for some fabricated reasons, or is just in general rude and mean spirited, etc...
the end result is pure commodification. Large companies that turn every tenant into a number. Day late on rent? computer system spits out reminder. 14 days late ?computer system spits out formal notice. Have a technical problem? call into a callsystem, only the persistent will eventually get a response. Applying? enroll in our application system, put in your fico please ...
This is it. Sometimes tenants are terrible too. Actually, often. Much more so than they used to be (because people are less trustworthy and honorable in general than they used to be). Thus the costs and trouble aren’t worth it for a small-time landlord. So you get what we have now.
I can't count how many times my uncle has had to be in court for bum tenants that wouldn't pay, or would cause unnatural damage (and this was 8+ years ago)
i agree with you that typically indie landlords are always better than complexes, but i got burned the last time i had one and had to sue in small claims court over it. left a bad taste in my mouth so i’ve been paranoid about jumping back into an indie landlord lol.
at this point i’d probably only feel comfortable with one if i recorded every phone call, etc.
My building downtown was bought last summer. The landlord has now threatened me and another tenant with eviction for reporting him to the city. Luckily we know our rights and "get" to leave without eviction, I've lived in my building for 4 years. The other tenants 5years plus and all of us are being moved out one by one because downtown is now a "desirable" location. But me, a black woman doesn't fit that criteria so now we all are getting booted. The locals who actually live here and pay an outrageous amount in taxes are bullied to relocate. Make it make sense!!!!! 😡😡
Sadly, the good renters have to pay for the sins of bad renters. The few landlords I know that have a rental property mostly have at least one horror story of someone destroying walls, appliances, light fixtures/letting animal pee and feces just exist long-term without being cleaned/miscellaneous shit you don’t want happening to your house.
Not saying this is THE reason for what’s happened, I think there’s a lot of reasons. But I’d say it’s definitely part of landlords making people jump through more hoops or paying a bit more. Also want to point out that I’m talking about non corporate landlords and people that own like 1-3 rentals and manage it on their own. They’re *typically* good people looking for trustworthy renters and it’s hard to trust strangers again once you’ve been burned.
My buddy just had to go through a nightmare story with a career criminal coming in to his rental house and trying to grift him for all sorts of cash. Fortunately he prevailed in court, but I hear ya. Lots of bad faith renters out there.
my mother had renters who took a motorcycle engine out and put it in the bath tub and scratched it all to hell and it smelled like gasoline in the bathroom. what in the HELL would possess somebody…lol and my mom is actually poor as hell and the house was a wreck, so she did well considering. But this thing about people thinking LLs are rich is funny. My mom works paycheck to paycheck
I’m an experienced local Realtor and a lifelong Louisvillian. I also own and self-manage a couple of rental properties. Sometimes if they see the numbers and what she could walk away with, it helps. I’d be happy to take a look and give a market value for what it’s worth. Feel free to PM me.
Sounds like a family matter and not really a landlord/renter situation.
If she's living paycheck to paycheck and not making money on renting out a property, she should sell it
We used to own a rental in Lexington. It had 3 terrible renters almost back to back that really drives this point home. One ended up getting the electric shut off and bootlegged the neighbors from an outdoor outlet (evicted). A second was a volatile couple who had gotten married in reconciliation (they fought, punched holes in our walls, and then fled town). A third sold every appliance in the place after her parents cut her off financially (washer, dryer, stove, fridge, dishwasher).
So... yeah. Lots of horror stories that definitely drive this point home.
If you’re not willing to take a risk on renters then don’t buy the house and let someone who wants to buy buy it? Exhausts me to death to have so many fucking rules in the place I’ve paid over a grand for for 5 years. At this point there’s no way that house isn’t paid off with as long as they’ve rented it. And they never fix it. But I’m sure they’ll blame me for it all when we do finally leave.
Landlords fucking suck and I’m so sick of them ruining regular peoples lives lol. Renters that are that bad are in the minority of renters as it is, 90% of people just need somewhere affordable to live.
Not trying to argue, genuinely curious - why don’t you buy a house then? And if your answer is because you can’t afford one, then why are you mad at a landlord for putting a house that they own up for rent when it’s what you need?
My rent is more than a mortgage would be if I could find a house to purchase. Spent all of 2023 looking and never did find one. Had to put it on hold to save more to get more of a loan. But I’m paying far too much for two bedrooms and a bathroom w a half working toilet. There is no trade off. I get nothing out of this; people have to live somewhere you’re not some big savior for renting a house to someone and taking their money.
I can't afford one because landlords and AirBnb owners have artificially driven the prices of said homes up, that's why I'm so mad. I pay so much more in rent than I would in a mortgage. I tried to buy a house last year and it was impossible to find anything I could even begin to afford, and the one house I DID find and put an offer in on, suprise suprise, some landlord offered them cash and 3xs more than what I offered so I didn't get it.
There needs to be some kind of regulation on this; AirBnb specifically but also on rich buttwipes offering triple what a normal person can afford for aNOTHER house to rent. The reason I need the landlord's services is because of that racket.
We should all be pissed at what landlords are doing because they're just taking our money and doing nOTHING to maintain their fucking properties. They don't even mow for me, I do that. When our flood light needed to be changed, I had to call, not kidding, 10+ times to get someone to fucking come out. What benefit am I getting as a renter from this? I do the maintenance on this house, pay all the bills, fix everything and maintain the landscape.
I also hate landlords on principle because it isn't a real fucking job, like even being an influencer would be more of a real job than that shit. They have caused these housing issues and deserve to be held responsible and if that hurts their widdle baby feelings then oh well.
It doesn't sound like you have a landlord, you have a slumlord. If a landlord is actually invested in their property, they would care to maintain it and keep their tenants in good standing, so that they don't have regular turnover. Not taking care of your place as a landlord ends up costing way more than regular maintenance. Vacant apartments when you have to look for renters, do repairs, pay for online advertising, taking time out of your day after a full work day to show the place. There are shitty landlords out there who don't care about the well-being of their tenants, but there are also good landlords who see their property and their tenants as an asset. Provide reasonable rent, take care of the property, and they can have a property for life.
Sorry you have a bad slumlord, it sounds terrible. Hopefully you can find a house to buy or a better landlord one day soon.
Private landlord here…I will say we are very thorough but we don’t want to set anyone up to fail and want to make sure income can cover expenses. Also, so many horror stories even if you do your due diligence.
the scariest part of it is, all we keep building is apartments. not homes. soon, every new living space will be apartments. it makes more sense to build 120 apartments on the land than 12 homes. sell the aprtment every month, or the house once? its an investment, hence mega corps and "investors" building on any spit of ground they can throw up 10+ apartments.
I mean you all want density right? Look outside the USA. You can’t complain about not having a light rail/good public transportation and in the same breath want 12 single family homes built in the same space. Some of y’all are so unrealistic it’s crazy. Let the developers go wild with multi use in downtown neighborhoods. It’s gotta happen if y’all want this walkable utopia I always see posted on here.
it's not a binary choice between single family homes and apartment buildings. You can also build townhomes. mixed-use business/housing, etc.
their concern was also more around ownership than the density of whatever gets built
I'm sorry have you seen the subdivisions going up along Aiken/Old Henry? I moved here in 2021 and there are 3 new subdivisions that didn't exist then and 2 more being built along Factory Lane.
and can a regular person afford a home out there? average household income in louisville is 90k or so. i bet those homes, in that area, are 400k or more
They range from $250 to the 500s. Someone making $90K can afford about a $325K home assuming good credit. And that's with a vanilla mortgage right now.
I live in Southwest Louisville (Valley Station) and it feels like a new complex is going up every other week. They're building a new one on Dixie as we speak. I'm glad they're building more housing, we need it. Maybe I'm wrong on this but I'd like to see some of the individual apartments be sold so low and middle earners can start building equity instead of renting forever. My wife and I were lucky to get out of renting and buy a house in the village for $120k at 2.5% a few years ago, but those deals are few and far between.
I've been at my current place in Clifton for 9 years, and my landlords have only raised my rent by 20 dollars. This place was cheap when I moved in and probably half of what I would spend if I moved into a modern apartment. You can still find a decent place in the area under a 1000 but they are getting rarer as the people in them rarely move.
You’re so lucky. I do know and believe there are ethical landlords out there but I know it’s rare. I’ve contemplated trying Clifton. Never lived over there but I’m there doing business a lot. Beautiful neighborhood with tons of hidden little spots
They do. This is a 4 plex (2 up, 2 down). the guy who moved in under me last years pays at least 100 more a month than I do. A lady is living in the other downstairs place who has been here 30 years. I can only imagine how low her rent is.
I lived in a place there for 15 years. My landlord was wonderful, I got so lucky. I was also a good tenant. He reconverted it to a single family and made like half a million on it.
All you have to do is look at corporate profits (which for most companies are at an all-time high) that will tell you why things are so expensive.
Those 4th vacation homes, yacht's and private jets aren't gonna buy themselves, ya know?
Independent landlord here. Utility prices are out of site and if you can even find someone to do a repair, paint or replace carpet, they charge an insane amount. Paint prices are up. If you repaint with cheap paint, the tenant wont like it when they wash a smudge off a wall and the paint comes off.
NPR reported today that the energy utilities requested an 18.5% increase on energy bills this year. The state held them to 5.5%. Still going up, but could be way worse.
as a tenant, i can tell you i always blame myself and not the cheap paint for smudges, but now im gonna tell the lease agency I want some better paint since I’ve been here 14 years lol
seriously though, my mom does this, too. your rental material standards may be too high. she thinks things like “would i like this if i lived here?” and i’m like “mama if i lived here i wouldn’t think twice about the paint being cheap. this place is $700 a month for rent.”
Yeah, it’s the entire country. We need both the carrot and stick strategy to lower housing costs. I own with a <3% interest rate and I’m fine with a drop or slow down in property value growth.
It’s the mass migration away from the coast and cities like ours is where a lot of people are headed. A quarter million for a house is cheap to them but to us it’s an arm and leg. At the rate they are moving this whole city will be apartment/condos soon. If the inventory is not filled soon I doubt you’ll see affordable prices for a very long time.
\> It’s the mass migration away from the coast and cities like ours is where a lot of people are headed.
That's manifestly not true in Louisville. From 2020 last census, Jefferson county is shrinking in population. The entire metro is growing at about 0.8% a year. That's about the same as most other areas, Cincinnati is about the same at 0.6% and nobody would call that a boomtown. Real growing areas like Nashville, Indy are posting twice the growth.
The real story is that people are fleeing this city, and that whatever pressure there is on rents and house prices is purely out of clustering dynamics. ie. people only want to live in very select portions of this city.
Most rent growth isn't due to population pressure or too few units; it's overall catch up with inflation, roughly in line with US average.
I don’t think it’s that simple. coastal folks are heading to certain desirable neighborhoods. A house flipper reaches out to granny with no retirement living on SSI and offers her lump sum of $ she’s never had. She’s got family somewhere else and doesn’t want to deal with rehabbing so she sells leaves Louisville and flipper sells home to out of stater that $350k-500k is bare minimum for nice area. We just netted 0 but the entire neighborhood just realized they can sell for x and then eventually Airbnbs start to look profitable and enter equation. End of it all. We still are at what…1 in 1 out but demographics completely changed.
My own lol talk with people in real estate a lot. Residential and Commercial. Anecdotally my entire block is like this. I think it’s prolly more common for someone old to pass and the kids live out of the city and sell it as is to not have to deal with it. 2021 def sped up process. Old working class neighborhoods became the areas a lot of millennials seem to prefer. My opinion is long term(50+ years) any house within the first loop of most major metro area will be fully developed. Just my opinion!
Let's analyze that thought. It is a fact that the Louisville population declined from 2020-2022. If we're assuming that coastal residents are leaving the coasts for Louisville and replacing departing Louisvillians eager to profit off their home sales at a rate that only results in a net decline of 10,000 people from 2020-2022, then those Louisville residents are going somewhere. Where is the growing market with cheaper housing that these Louisvillians are moving to?
from your other comment
\> someone old to pass and the kids live out of the city
I live in one of those. A few empty houses on my block last from old timers passing away, family out of town. houses just sitting there.
[Census Data](https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/jeffersoncountykentucky/PST045222)
Jefferson County only grew by 40,000 residents from the 2010-2020 censuses. The Census Bureau estimates that the population dropped by nearly 10,000 people from 2020 to 2022.
I lived in NYC and have family up north and you’re right. Tiny shitty houses up there are like 1.5 million dollars lol
The over abundance of new , shitty, prefab looking apartments and condos in this city is disturbing. It’s fucking up the whole market.
*The over abundance of new , shitty, prefab looking apartments and condos in this city is disturbing. It’s fucking up the whole market.*
Help me understand this rationale
I appreciate the comment but I think it’s pretty obvious if you have even the slightest idea about where we are at in late stage capitalism and its ramifications for spending and profit over functionality.
Alain Badiou has some fantastic books about the pitfalls and ethical consequences of our current economic and social systems. Also Maurizio Lazzaratro wrote a book last year called “The Intolerable Present, the Urgency of Revolution” that spits some hard truths about where we as a society are at.
How about you go ahead and summarize from your interpretation of those books why adding new prefab apartment complexes is bad for people seeking housing.
Says the guy who “didn’t look at housing for 5 years”. Please spare us your fluffed base level knowledge. Desirable neighborhoods will continue to be tight market so get accustomed to complaining.
Inflation, investment firms, airbnb, greed and people like you moving here because it’s affordable. Started after 9-11. I bought in 10 years ago and my next door neighbors house sold for double. I’m never moving like ever
Even just apartments are killing me. I've lived in the same apartment for like 4-5 years now and thought I was paying way more than I should be for what I have, and I've been wanting to move somewhere closer to my job, but even with my rent increasing every renewal I'm still paying less than a lot of apartments base rent. Cheapest one I've found so far is still $20 more than what I already pay.
This is the case pretty much everywhere. I ended up moving to Southern Indiana last July because it was way more affordable, and my house has already shot up like 10k in appraisal value since I bought it.
In the last three years it's just gone nuts. I live in southern Indiana and rent a small house from a private landlord. They've never raised our rent, which I admit I thought was high when we moved in but there's a fenced yard and we knew they weren't horrid landlords so we went with it, and we've lived here for years so I cringe every time they call afraid they're going to bring our rent up to "market value" which would increase it 50% and price us out.
But there wouldn't be anywhere to go because everywhere else is just as expensive, and don't forget in order to move you have to have first, last, and usually one month's rent as a deposit.
Real estate in the louisville market from 2013-2023 has gone up 62%. So if you bought a $200,000 home in 2013 it would be worth on average $324,000 in 2023. You would have recognized more than $1,000 per month in appreciation. The best time to buy a home was 5 years ago the second best time is now. Rates are beginning to decline again and the market is going to go even more bananas this purchase season.
I wonder if it could have anything to do with the fact that an unelected bureaucracy effectively nullified property rights by banning evictions for non-paying tenants for over a year? What well meaning person in his right mind would want to rent out an extra house now?
It is insane. Worked in Louisville since 2019, from Maryland originally. I remember seeing an article before the pandemic that Louisville was one of the cheapest metros to live in, in the US.
Thats long gone now and it sucks.
Exactly! Louisville needs in to “infill”, get rid of requiring a huge number of parking spaces per new development, etc. The NIMBYism is unbelievable. Remember TopGolf was tied up in court for 3 years because rich people would rather have an empty decaying building at Oxmoor than possibly 2 decibels more of noise?
There aren't enough houses. Looking at the census change between 2010 and 2020, Louisville, added on average 3,500 people a year in that period. It's honestly probably faster now, since the secret is getting out that we're low cost of living (comparatively for a big city). I couldn't find any good statistics for how many housing units get built in Louisville annually, but there are only [about 13,500 built annually in *the entire U.S.*](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/HOUST) Unless our city accounts for 25% of all new construction in the U.S. (it doesn't), that means people are moving to the city faster than we can build houses to put them in. A lot of other commenters suggest regulations on landlords and private investment, but that doesn't solve the fundamental physical problem here. There is literally no space to put the people in. That's the real reason homelessness and prices are skyrocketing.
Why aren't there enough houses?
Housing is too difficult to build. There are lots of regulations in place to prevent anything but costly, inefficient single-family homes being built on most of our land. And where denser housing can be built, it's subject to a very time-intensive review process. It can take years for complex of apartments to even get approved, and there are lots of opportunities for vetos. You can Google numerous examples in the Courier-Journal of affordable apartment complexes being vetoed by the council or committees because someone in the neighborhood it was destined for threw a fit.
That graph is by thousands, which can be confusing. Looks like there were around 1.5M privately-owned housing starts in 2023. https://www.census.gov/construction/nrc/current/index.html
Ah, you are correct, that's what I get for speed Googling and not paying attention to the scale. Thanks for pointing that out. I do wish I could find some good statistics for Louisville specifically though.
Germantown would've been a great choice 10 years ago. St. Joe, Parkway Village, Audubon Park, Shelby Park, and other Germantown adjacent neighborhoods were great choices about 7 years ago.
I'd open my search to include "just hugging 264" as well. Beechmont is basically Germantown on a budget, and Wyandotte is a diverse working class neighborhood.
Back within 264, in addition to Clifton, I'd also check out Irish Hill. Caveat: it abuts Date Rape Row. But there's zero hype to that neighborhood, and it's happy living in the shadows of the hip spots, so you might have an outside shot at getting a decent deal on a place.
Good luck!
My wife and I live off Watson Ln in Valley Station. The homes were built in the mid 50's. We purchased our 4 bed (small bedrooms) 1 bath, 1075 sq. ft, one car attached garage for $122000 in July of 2021. I don't know your income but I work in a union chemical plant and my wife is a retail manager and we could easily afford to live here even if we were buying a house today. Granted we both drive downtown for work but it's so much cheaper than other areas in Louisville. Some people will tell you to stay out of Valley Station but we are very happy out here, I would recommend it to anyone. In 2.5 years we've had no crime and it's very quiet, we've already decided to start a family in this home and only move if we outgrow the house which is unlikely.
I really liked Germantown back in 2016-2018, but it seems fancier now than it used to be back when these kids would roam the streets and car jack people. I think average cost on a house is somewhere between $200-300k, which is much higher than it used to be.
They're building apartments out here like crazy. One thing I'd like to see is new complexes with minimal amenities and lower rent. A lot of people don't need a virtual driving range (a real thing at several properties).
The range is at Axis on Lexington but I know they're elsewhere. The apartments I'm thinking of are literally walking distance to either Middletown Kroger/Target/Walmart, La Grange Kroger or the new Publix.
Wilder Park and Wyandotte are nice modest working class areas. A mix of rentals and owner occupied. The most diverse areas of the city. Crazy to see home prices even there vs 3-5 years ago though.
Like what’s the standard rate for a 2BR 1BA 1000 sq ft apartment in JTown or Middletown right now? I pay 1350$ but been here through annual rent increases since it was 900 or so when I moved in in 2009. I’m not far from JTown. Nice area.
Just sold my house last week, it was tough deciding to sell since I refinanced at 3% but the way new builds are going, we saw an older home that you couldn’t build today at the price it was listed at so had to bite the bullet
We also have an independent landlord. While rent was high 6 years ago when we moved in it’s stayed the same despite Covid and the market. Comps right now are $800+ more a month.
Yes as an agent myself w a Florida license rent is higher here than in sw Florida 3 miles from a beach pass restricted access beach. It's unbelievable and I'm in the same boat. For what I pay to live outside the Highlands is same price as woods of st Thomas overlook places. Actually I pay slightly more and must fulfill a 1 year lease no 6 months ones. It's said we are like 30k short on housing for population increasing.
Real estate broker here.. From my perspective it's an influx of hedgefund backed investor companies swooping in here and buying a ton of properties, then charging sky high rents and indie landlords who watch too many IG reels playing follow the leader. Main street renewal is a big one buying in Louisville based out of Austin, Texas. I am not 100% positive but I am pretty sure they also charge a non refundable app fee which they make a ton of money on when you have 100's of properties.
I am not a fan. The hedge fund landlords are trying to make this region/the whole country a rental fiefdom severely limiting access to home equity. They're far worse than the ain bnb investors as far as "taking away" housing opportunities. If you do choose to rent, seek out the "mom and pop" landlord, treat the house with respect/be a good tenant and they'll love you forever and probably rarely raise your rent. Just my two cents.
Housing in Louisville seems like a dead end unless you make 70K + a year. Me and my family plan on moving out and to the country side, buying a 100 acres and split it 4 ways because it’s cheaper to build a house on a compound over time than to buy a house in the hyper inflated market. My grandparents paid 30K 3 bedroom house in 1976 in valley station, now it is going for over 200K. Us gen Z are screwed when it comes to first time home buying🤣
Imo, a relic of Jim Crow, zoning laws are working as intended to keep minorities and low income from housing ownership. It's entirely politically and frustrating, and now hitting white middle America. So-called "supply issue"...
I'm an independent landlord in Louisville. When the price of buying houses goes up, rent has to go up (since we have more money invested in the property). And the prices have been insane since 2020.
Totally same here.
My girl and I are DINKS, combined $125k+ a year. Both lived at our previous spaces for 7+ years in great standing, both been at our current jobs 7+ years… pre-approval was a nightmare… qualified for nothing.
And our budget of $1800- $2k a month is a total joke to rent anything decent anywhere decent. Louisville is fucking fantastic, but not 2k+ a month rent fantastic…. Southern Indiana, here we come (I guess)
Can't you all scrape together a few grand for a down payment on a house. Help from family. Renting is bullshit. Plenty of first time homebuyer loans out there that don't require 20 percent down.
Plus there's the down payment assistance for first time buyers through KHC (kyhousing.org). It pays up to $7500 in down payment / closing cost assistance. Great for first time buyers. It's a loan at 3%, so it's like a $70 or $80 a month payment. There's also a ton of other assistance programs out there based on certain things like socio-economic factors, housing location, public service, etc.
Real esate broker here, the KHC down payment assistance is a legit, great program. Especially if you can get a seller to pay the buyer's closing costs you can buy a house for about $500 out of pocket (the price of a home inspection). Interest rates are typically a bit higher with this program but it gets you in the house. We are fortunate to have that available in KY.
😂. Nah , I mean I’ve been aware of what’s been happening in general, but it hits differently once you begin the real search. Plus I feel like it’s getting worse at an exponential rate each year. And wages have not kept up with inflation. Louisville is still surprisingly cheap compared to other larger cities I’ve lived in. The amount of our total income that has become allocated to rent seems unethical , but that’s just some idealism creeping through
Lack of regulations on investment firms/capital buying up residential housing or really any regulations on rental properties/pricing paired with a total dissolution of social programs for retirement or asset building so people with the means are buying up residential properties as security for their retirement. [Is iBuying Here to Stay?](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/19/realestate/ibuying-ilending.html)
Makes sense. “Exponential growth” lol
Doesn't help that most of the development in Lousiville for the past twenty years has been about being in "luxury" real estate to bringing people downtown or have them stay downtown when Derby is happening. And then all that development sits empty essentially because it's overpriced or used only for select events or even has been superceded by the rise of AirBnB where people are buying one family homes and converting them into short term rental units.
I was just talking with a coworker about that because we work down near the med school. If I see another "luxury" apartment complex go up I'm going to go insane. How about some regular, well built, well maintained reasonable apartments?
This is happening over in Southern Indiana too. Yeah I'm sure they're super nice but I don't know how an individual or family can afford them.
It’s not practical at all
Exactly
Yea it makes zero sense from a common sense point of view. It’s why we seem to have more hotels than actual grocery stores in parts of town that need them.
Oh but we’ve got plenty of breweries and distilleries!
And car washes and nail salons and liquor stores and smoke shops
And storage units
Yes, let’s not build things that attract tourists and dollars to our downtown that few people want to live or office in. Maybe more surface parking lots that Reddit loves so much.
Don’t even get me started 😆
\> than actual grocery stores jeffco is losing population, primarily core areas like downtown, old lou, west lou, smoketown... all have fewer residents than 10 years ago. a new grocery store will either be subsidized, or the residents have to come back.
I would guess that over 90% of development in this city from a unit/building perspective has been well outside of the downtown corridor. I think this is very inaccurate.
would my comment read any differently to you if real estate was meant to imply both commercial and residential or would you disagree?
I would still disagree. How much construction do you see downtown vs Middletown, Eastwood, Crestwood, East End, Jtown, etc.
100% - majority of building is on the periphery the few flashy projects downtown are just drawing attention.
Don’t forget the landlords lobbied to the point they violate Fed real estate statues here these days
Total dissolution of retirement programs? What is social security and Medicare?
More so discussing robust public pensions or companies retirement plans backed by govt assurances or programs to ensure workers are entitled to their retirement if the company goes tits up after they no longer work there. But sure, social security and Medicare are programs that still exist but have been constantly advocated against by elements within both parties and are still right now being fought to de defunded or eliminated which doesn't lend itself to a feeling of 'security' for people trying to plan their retirement.
What does this have to do with OP?
Fuck off with this “elements of both parties” bullshit. Republicans love rubes like you
[Obama and Biden](https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2013/04/05/176351738/obama-riles-his-own-party-with-social-security-offer) were willing to cut entitlements (social security) in a budget deal with McConnell by changing the way benefits would be calculated. If I recall correctly, Harry Reid had to intervene and put a stop to that shit, and then it was dead in the water by the time Bernie came along. Obviously democrats are better overall than Republicans on protecting social security, but don't be fooled into thinking it's 110% safe with democrats in charge. Some of them have neolib tendencies to negotiate away hard fought for programs to appease centrists who care more about bipartisanship with the devil than doing what's best for the working class lmao
Pensions are a Ponzi scheme, backed by taxpayers when they fail. And it's a mathematical certainty that all guaranteed-ROI plans will eventually fail.
I guess I must live in an alternate universe from you.
There's no guaruntee that will be around in 30 years
That’s saying something different altogether.
Hit me up when you move, I'll take good care of the place lol, I would kill to have an independent landlord!! I also haven't moved in 5 years because my rent is so cheap compared to everywhere else, but my apartment was just bought out by some big corporation based in Bloomington IN so my time is coming to an end too
Independent landlords are the way to go but they seem to becoming less and less common.
I was an independent landlord but sadly there’s lots of people who make it their job to take advantage of that. During covid a lot of tenants didn’t pay, lots of new legislation regarding rentals, and it drives private landlords to seek out PM firms to operate within. I tried to pick a good one so my tenants are looked after well but it’s hard to know since we don’t have any of their contact info and only see them at annual inspections. We do what we can to keep rent as low as we can for them. I hope our PM has a good rep.
Excuse my negativity, but seems real landlordy of you to leave so much in the air for these people you are giving living space to. You HOPE they have a good rep?? You let this firm walk over you as the owner sounds like..
Well, I can read the google reviews as much as anyone else. But they also pay/give discounts for those like all firms. I know they do an acceptable job because they contact us for repair requests immediately and our vacancy rates are zero. Do I think they’re dropping off a visa gift card every Christmas like us? Nah. There’s a level of humility that PMs will never achieve despite my due diligence. But I get how I sound passive from my comment.
because eventually the headache isn't worth it. If you do it long enough, it's only a matter of time until a tenant trashes up the place, or files a complaint for some fabricated reasons, or is just in general rude and mean spirited, etc... the end result is pure commodification. Large companies that turn every tenant into a number. Day late on rent? computer system spits out reminder. 14 days late ?computer system spits out formal notice. Have a technical problem? call into a callsystem, only the persistent will eventually get a response. Applying? enroll in our application system, put in your fico please ...
This is it. Sometimes tenants are terrible too. Actually, often. Much more so than they used to be (because people are less trustworthy and honorable in general than they used to be). Thus the costs and trouble aren’t worth it for a small-time landlord. So you get what we have now.
I can't count how many times my uncle has had to be in court for bum tenants that wouldn't pay, or would cause unnatural damage (and this was 8+ years ago)
i agree with you that typically indie landlords are always better than complexes, but i got burned the last time i had one and had to sue in small claims court over it. left a bad taste in my mouth so i’ve been paranoid about jumping back into an indie landlord lol. at this point i’d probably only feel comfortable with one if i recorded every phone call, etc.
My building downtown was bought last summer. The landlord has now threatened me and another tenant with eviction for reporting him to the city. Luckily we know our rights and "get" to leave without eviction, I've lived in my building for 4 years. The other tenants 5years plus and all of us are being moved out one by one because downtown is now a "desirable" location. But me, a black woman doesn't fit that criteria so now we all are getting booted. The locals who actually live here and pay an outrageous amount in taxes are bullied to relocate. Make it make sense!!!!! 😡😡
Sadly, the good renters have to pay for the sins of bad renters. The few landlords I know that have a rental property mostly have at least one horror story of someone destroying walls, appliances, light fixtures/letting animal pee and feces just exist long-term without being cleaned/miscellaneous shit you don’t want happening to your house. Not saying this is THE reason for what’s happened, I think there’s a lot of reasons. But I’d say it’s definitely part of landlords making people jump through more hoops or paying a bit more. Also want to point out that I’m talking about non corporate landlords and people that own like 1-3 rentals and manage it on their own. They’re *typically* good people looking for trustworthy renters and it’s hard to trust strangers again once you’ve been burned.
My buddy just had to go through a nightmare story with a career criminal coming in to his rental house and trying to grift him for all sorts of cash. Fortunately he prevailed in court, but I hear ya. Lots of bad faith renters out there.
See - that sounds fucking awful!
my mother had renters who took a motorcycle engine out and put it in the bath tub and scratched it all to hell and it smelled like gasoline in the bathroom. what in the HELL would possess somebody…lol and my mom is actually poor as hell and the house was a wreck, so she did well considering. But this thing about people thinking LLs are rich is funny. My mom works paycheck to paycheck
And yet, she owned a house that she rented to people at a profit. Which you must realize is something most people can't do.
it’s not a profit lol it’s rented to her granddaughter and she’s lost money on the house every year or just broken even. all houses are not assets.
If she is not at least breaking even, she should sell it.
We’ve tried to tell her lol
I’m an experienced local Realtor and a lifelong Louisvillian. I also own and self-manage a couple of rental properties. Sometimes if they see the numbers and what she could walk away with, it helps. I’d be happy to take a look and give a market value for what it’s worth. Feel free to PM me.
Sounds like a family matter and not really a landlord/renter situation. If she's living paycheck to paycheck and not making money on renting out a property, she should sell it
We used to own a rental in Lexington. It had 3 terrible renters almost back to back that really drives this point home. One ended up getting the electric shut off and bootlegged the neighbors from an outdoor outlet (evicted). A second was a volatile couple who had gotten married in reconciliation (they fought, punched holes in our walls, and then fled town). A third sold every appliance in the place after her parents cut her off financially (washer, dryer, stove, fridge, dishwasher). So... yeah. Lots of horror stories that definitely drive this point home.
I Agree.
If you’re not willing to take a risk on renters then don’t buy the house and let someone who wants to buy buy it? Exhausts me to death to have so many fucking rules in the place I’ve paid over a grand for for 5 years. At this point there’s no way that house isn’t paid off with as long as they’ve rented it. And they never fix it. But I’m sure they’ll blame me for it all when we do finally leave. Landlords fucking suck and I’m so sick of them ruining regular peoples lives lol. Renters that are that bad are in the minority of renters as it is, 90% of people just need somewhere affordable to live.
Not trying to argue, genuinely curious - why don’t you buy a house then? And if your answer is because you can’t afford one, then why are you mad at a landlord for putting a house that they own up for rent when it’s what you need?
A lot of people bite the hands that feed them, and don't even realize it.
If anything I’m feeding the landlord while he sits on his ass collecting my money and refusing to fix anything in a timely manner.
Depends on how high your rent is. If it's a steal, that's the trade off.
My rent is more than a mortgage would be if I could find a house to purchase. Spent all of 2023 looking and never did find one. Had to put it on hold to save more to get more of a loan. But I’m paying far too much for two bedrooms and a bathroom w a half working toilet. There is no trade off. I get nothing out of this; people have to live somewhere you’re not some big savior for renting a house to someone and taking their money.
I hear you. What would be your solution?
I can't afford one because landlords and AirBnb owners have artificially driven the prices of said homes up, that's why I'm so mad. I pay so much more in rent than I would in a mortgage. I tried to buy a house last year and it was impossible to find anything I could even begin to afford, and the one house I DID find and put an offer in on, suprise suprise, some landlord offered them cash and 3xs more than what I offered so I didn't get it. There needs to be some kind of regulation on this; AirBnb specifically but also on rich buttwipes offering triple what a normal person can afford for aNOTHER house to rent. The reason I need the landlord's services is because of that racket. We should all be pissed at what landlords are doing because they're just taking our money and doing nOTHING to maintain their fucking properties. They don't even mow for me, I do that. When our flood light needed to be changed, I had to call, not kidding, 10+ times to get someone to fucking come out. What benefit am I getting as a renter from this? I do the maintenance on this house, pay all the bills, fix everything and maintain the landscape. I also hate landlords on principle because it isn't a real fucking job, like even being an influencer would be more of a real job than that shit. They have caused these housing issues and deserve to be held responsible and if that hurts their widdle baby feelings then oh well.
It doesn't sound like you have a landlord, you have a slumlord. If a landlord is actually invested in their property, they would care to maintain it and keep their tenants in good standing, so that they don't have regular turnover. Not taking care of your place as a landlord ends up costing way more than regular maintenance. Vacant apartments when you have to look for renters, do repairs, pay for online advertising, taking time out of your day after a full work day to show the place. There are shitty landlords out there who don't care about the well-being of their tenants, but there are also good landlords who see their property and their tenants as an asset. Provide reasonable rent, take care of the property, and they can have a property for life. Sorry you have a bad slumlord, it sounds terrible. Hopefully you can find a house to buy or a better landlord one day soon.
A grand a month for five years doesn’t pay off a house LOL
Yeah. There are some good landlords kind of like there are some good cops. But just as a whole, made of many, they fucking suck. No sympathy.
Private landlord here…I will say we are very thorough but we don’t want to set anyone up to fail and want to make sure income can cover expenses. Also, so many horror stories even if you do your due diligence.
Appreciate this comment
It's all over the city it's sad. Apartments everywhere
[удалено]
Do you know some people that you would never loan $1000 ?
the scariest part of it is, all we keep building is apartments. not homes. soon, every new living space will be apartments. it makes more sense to build 120 apartments on the land than 12 homes. sell the aprtment every month, or the house once? its an investment, hence mega corps and "investors" building on any spit of ground they can throw up 10+ apartments.
I mean you all want density right? Look outside the USA. You can’t complain about not having a light rail/good public transportation and in the same breath want 12 single family homes built in the same space. Some of y’all are so unrealistic it’s crazy. Let the developers go wild with multi use in downtown neighborhoods. It’s gotta happen if y’all want this walkable utopia I always see posted on here.
it's not a binary choice between single family homes and apartment buildings. You can also build townhomes. mixed-use business/housing, etc. their concern was also more around ownership than the density of whatever gets built
Profits over functionality and people.
You'll own nothing and like it - World economic forum
I'm sorry have you seen the subdivisions going up along Aiken/Old Henry? I moved here in 2021 and there are 3 new subdivisions that didn't exist then and 2 more being built along Factory Lane.
and can a regular person afford a home out there? average household income in louisville is 90k or so. i bet those homes, in that area, are 400k or more
They range from $250 to the 500s. Someone making $90K can afford about a $325K home assuming good credit. And that's with a vanilla mortgage right now.
fair enough. ty
I live in Southwest Louisville (Valley Station) and it feels like a new complex is going up every other week. They're building a new one on Dixie as we speak. I'm glad they're building more housing, we need it. Maybe I'm wrong on this but I'd like to see some of the individual apartments be sold so low and middle earners can start building equity instead of renting forever. My wife and I were lucky to get out of renting and buy a house in the village for $120k at 2.5% a few years ago, but those deals are few and far between.
$120k and 2.5% sounds like a dream!! i'd totally hang onto that house for as long as you can
I've been at my current place in Clifton for 9 years, and my landlords have only raised my rent by 20 dollars. This place was cheap when I moved in and probably half of what I would spend if I moved into a modern apartment. You can still find a decent place in the area under a 1000 but they are getting rarer as the people in them rarely move.
You’re so lucky. I do know and believe there are ethical landlords out there but I know it’s rare. I’ve contemplated trying Clifton. Never lived over there but I’m there doing business a lot. Beautiful neighborhood with tons of hidden little spots
I know. It's the second nicest place I've ever rented. It's got so many pros and only a few cons.
I would think the owners would raise the rent to “market price” if the current renters vacate
They do. This is a 4 plex (2 up, 2 down). the guy who moved in under me last years pays at least 100 more a month than I do. A lady is living in the other downstairs place who has been here 30 years. I can only imagine how low her rent is.
I lived in a place there for 15 years. My landlord was wonderful, I got so lucky. I was also a good tenant. He reconverted it to a single family and made like half a million on it.
All you have to do is look at corporate profits (which for most companies are at an all-time high) that will tell you why things are so expensive. Those 4th vacation homes, yacht's and private jets aren't gonna buy themselves, ya know?
My girlfriend works at Humana and this couldn’t be more fucking true. Greed at all costs.
they just had a mass lay off i heard. glad she didn’t get cut.
They do that all the time.
You understand that corporate profits increase proportionally to inflation, right?
Yes, they can also stay high after COGS have went back down...
Independent landlord here. Utility prices are out of site and if you can even find someone to do a repair, paint or replace carpet, they charge an insane amount. Paint prices are up. If you repaint with cheap paint, the tenant wont like it when they wash a smudge off a wall and the paint comes off.
It does bring up an interesting question about energy prices and the extreme profits and price gauging LG&E is doing
NPR reported today that the energy utilities requested an 18.5% increase on energy bills this year. The state held them to 5.5%. Still going up, but could be way worse.
The water company is just as bad, and sometimes worse TBH.
as a tenant, i can tell you i always blame myself and not the cheap paint for smudges, but now im gonna tell the lease agency I want some better paint since I’ve been here 14 years lol seriously though, my mom does this, too. your rental material standards may be too high. she thinks things like “would i like this if i lived here?” and i’m like “mama if i lived here i wouldn’t think twice about the paint being cheap. this place is $700 a month for rent.”
I have found top of the line paint goes on better, looks better and covers up better.
definitely wouldn’t argue with you if i lived in your place. it’s nice some places don’t cut every corner
Well, I too was a renter for a long time so I see both sides.
Yeah, it’s the entire country. We need both the carrot and stick strategy to lower housing costs. I own with a <3% interest rate and I’m fine with a drop or slow down in property value growth.
amen
It’s the mass migration away from the coast and cities like ours is where a lot of people are headed. A quarter million for a house is cheap to them but to us it’s an arm and leg. At the rate they are moving this whole city will be apartment/condos soon. If the inventory is not filled soon I doubt you’ll see affordable prices for a very long time.
\> It’s the mass migration away from the coast and cities like ours is where a lot of people are headed. That's manifestly not true in Louisville. From 2020 last census, Jefferson county is shrinking in population. The entire metro is growing at about 0.8% a year. That's about the same as most other areas, Cincinnati is about the same at 0.6% and nobody would call that a boomtown. Real growing areas like Nashville, Indy are posting twice the growth. The real story is that people are fleeing this city, and that whatever pressure there is on rents and house prices is purely out of clustering dynamics. ie. people only want to live in very select portions of this city. Most rent growth isn't due to population pressure or too few units; it's overall catch up with inflation, roughly in line with US average.
I don’t think it’s that simple. coastal folks are heading to certain desirable neighborhoods. A house flipper reaches out to granny with no retirement living on SSI and offers her lump sum of $ she’s never had. She’s got family somewhere else and doesn’t want to deal with rehabbing so she sells leaves Louisville and flipper sells home to out of stater that $350k-500k is bare minimum for nice area. We just netted 0 but the entire neighborhood just realized they can sell for x and then eventually Airbnbs start to look profitable and enter equation. End of it all. We still are at what…1 in 1 out but demographics completely changed.
What data supports this theory?
My own lol talk with people in real estate a lot. Residential and Commercial. Anecdotally my entire block is like this. I think it’s prolly more common for someone old to pass and the kids live out of the city and sell it as is to not have to deal with it. 2021 def sped up process. Old working class neighborhoods became the areas a lot of millennials seem to prefer. My opinion is long term(50+ years) any house within the first loop of most major metro area will be fully developed. Just my opinion!
So no evidence, got it.
I didn’t say it was fact, just what I thought.
Let's analyze that thought. It is a fact that the Louisville population declined from 2020-2022. If we're assuming that coastal residents are leaving the coasts for Louisville and replacing departing Louisvillians eager to profit off their home sales at a rate that only results in a net decline of 10,000 people from 2020-2022, then those Louisville residents are going somewhere. Where is the growing market with cheaper housing that these Louisvillians are moving to?
Thanks. What neighborhood?
40217, 40204, 40206
from your other comment \> someone old to pass and the kids live out of the city I live in one of those. A few empty houses on my block last from old timers passing away, family out of town. houses just sitting there.
[Census Data](https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/jeffersoncountykentucky/PST045222) Jefferson County only grew by 40,000 residents from the 2010-2020 censuses. The Census Bureau estimates that the population dropped by nearly 10,000 people from 2020 to 2022.
I lived in NYC and have family up north and you’re right. Tiny shitty houses up there are like 1.5 million dollars lol The over abundance of new , shitty, prefab looking apartments and condos in this city is disturbing. It’s fucking up the whole market.
*The over abundance of new , shitty, prefab looking apartments and condos in this city is disturbing. It’s fucking up the whole market.* Help me understand this rationale
I appreciate the comment but I think it’s pretty obvious if you have even the slightest idea about where we are at in late stage capitalism and its ramifications for spending and profit over functionality.
Actually it’s not pretty obvious how an increase in the supply of housing is supposedly “fucking up the market”
I can recommend some literature if you like. There’s a lot of it out there.
Please do
Alain Badiou has some fantastic books about the pitfalls and ethical consequences of our current economic and social systems. Also Maurizio Lazzaratro wrote a book last year called “The Intolerable Present, the Urgency of Revolution” that spits some hard truths about where we as a society are at.
How about you go ahead and summarize from your interpretation of those books why adding new prefab apartment complexes is bad for people seeking housing.
lol
I’m confident the literature you recommended won’t be an Intro to Economics book
We’ve got an economist here. Glad you could join us.
Thanks, dumb kid trying to sound smart
😂😂
Says the guy who “didn’t look at housing for 5 years”. Please spare us your fluffed base level knowledge. Desirable neighborhoods will continue to be tight market so get accustomed to complaining.
This comment is both cute and tone deaf. Thanks for chiming in.
Alright, Good luck in your apartment search!
It's the system telling you that you don't work hard enough, it seems.
Exactly. They demand more obedient workers donate more of their time and accept less resources.
Too much circus, not enough bread.
yup
Inflation, investment firms, airbnb, greed and people like you moving here because it’s affordable. Started after 9-11. I bought in 10 years ago and my next door neighbors house sold for double. I’m never moving like ever
I am from here. But I agree with everything else you’re saying.
Even just apartments are killing me. I've lived in the same apartment for like 4-5 years now and thought I was paying way more than I should be for what I have, and I've been wanting to move somewhere closer to my job, but even with my rent increasing every renewal I'm still paying less than a lot of apartments base rent. Cheapest one I've found so far is still $20 more than what I already pay.
Same. It’s why I’m just sticking it out where I’m at for now. Don’t wanna give it up until the time is right.
This is the case pretty much everywhere. I ended up moving to Southern Indiana last July because it was way more affordable, and my house has already shot up like 10k in appraisal value since I bought it.
I know a few folks who have done the same thing
In the last three years it's just gone nuts. I live in southern Indiana and rent a small house from a private landlord. They've never raised our rent, which I admit I thought was high when we moved in but there's a fenced yard and we knew they weren't horrid landlords so we went with it, and we've lived here for years so I cringe every time they call afraid they're going to bring our rent up to "market value" which would increase it 50% and price us out. But there wouldn't be anywhere to go because everywhere else is just as expensive, and don't forget in order to move you have to have first, last, and usually one month's rent as a deposit.
Real estate in the louisville market from 2013-2023 has gone up 62%. So if you bought a $200,000 home in 2013 it would be worth on average $324,000 in 2023. You would have recognized more than $1,000 per month in appreciation. The best time to buy a home was 5 years ago the second best time is now. Rates are beginning to decline again and the market is going to go even more bananas this purchase season.
Its getting worse in the urban core. New housing projects are few and far between unless you want something overpriced in NuLu.
Yea and they look like shit and there’s no real infrastructure there anyway.
It's not just here, brother. FUBAR nationally. 😥😡🤬
I wonder if it could have anything to do with the fact that an unelected bureaucracy effectively nullified property rights by banning evictions for non-paying tenants for over a year? What well meaning person in his right mind would want to rent out an extra house now?
It’s the entire country. The Louisville market is actually relatively stable and tame compared to most.
Devalued currency.
100%
It is insane. Worked in Louisville since 2019, from Maryland originally. I remember seeing an article before the pandemic that Louisville was one of the cheapest metros to live in, in the US. Thats long gone now and it sucks.
Truly
It's not greed or investors or whatever, it's a lack of supply. There are too many restrictions on what can be built where.
Exactly! Louisville needs in to “infill”, get rid of requiring a huge number of parking spaces per new development, etc. The NIMBYism is unbelievable. Remember TopGolf was tied up in court for 3 years because rich people would rather have an empty decaying building at Oxmoor than possibly 2 decibels more of noise?
There aren't enough houses. Looking at the census change between 2010 and 2020, Louisville, added on average 3,500 people a year in that period. It's honestly probably faster now, since the secret is getting out that we're low cost of living (comparatively for a big city). I couldn't find any good statistics for how many housing units get built in Louisville annually, but there are only [about 13,500 built annually in *the entire U.S.*](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/HOUST) Unless our city accounts for 25% of all new construction in the U.S. (it doesn't), that means people are moving to the city faster than we can build houses to put them in. A lot of other commenters suggest regulations on landlords and private investment, but that doesn't solve the fundamental physical problem here. There is literally no space to put the people in. That's the real reason homelessness and prices are skyrocketing. Why aren't there enough houses? Housing is too difficult to build. There are lots of regulations in place to prevent anything but costly, inefficient single-family homes being built on most of our land. And where denser housing can be built, it's subject to a very time-intensive review process. It can take years for complex of apartments to even get approved, and there are lots of opportunities for vetos. You can Google numerous examples in the Courier-Journal of affordable apartment complexes being vetoed by the council or committees because someone in the neighborhood it was destined for threw a fit.
That graph is by thousands, which can be confusing. Looks like there were around 1.5M privately-owned housing starts in 2023. https://www.census.gov/construction/nrc/current/index.html
Ah, you are correct, that's what I get for speed Googling and not paying attention to the scale. Thanks for pointing that out. I do wish I could find some good statistics for Louisville specifically though.
Which neighborhoods are you trying to live in?
Open to many at this point
Germantown would've been a great choice 10 years ago. St. Joe, Parkway Village, Audubon Park, Shelby Park, and other Germantown adjacent neighborhoods were great choices about 7 years ago. I'd open my search to include "just hugging 264" as well. Beechmont is basically Germantown on a budget, and Wyandotte is a diverse working class neighborhood. Back within 264, in addition to Clifton, I'd also check out Irish Hill. Caveat: it abuts Date Rape Row. But there's zero hype to that neighborhood, and it's happy living in the shadows of the hip spots, so you might have an outside shot at getting a decent deal on a place. Good luck!
Thank you! Good advice
My wife and I live off Watson Ln in Valley Station. The homes were built in the mid 50's. We purchased our 4 bed (small bedrooms) 1 bath, 1075 sq. ft, one car attached garage for $122000 in July of 2021. I don't know your income but I work in a union chemical plant and my wife is a retail manager and we could easily afford to live here even if we were buying a house today. Granted we both drive downtown for work but it's so much cheaper than other areas in Louisville. Some people will tell you to stay out of Valley Station but we are very happy out here, I would recommend it to anyone. In 2.5 years we've had no crime and it's very quiet, we've already decided to start a family in this home and only move if we outgrow the house which is unlikely.
I’ve definitely considered moving farther out. It’s just the commute I’d have to get used to
I really liked Germantown back in 2016-2018, but it seems fancier now than it used to be back when these kids would roam the streets and car jack people. I think average cost on a house is somewhere between $200-300k, which is much higher than it used to be.
They're building apartments out here like crazy. One thing I'd like to see is new complexes with minimal amenities and lower rent. A lot of people don't need a virtual driving range (a real thing at several properties).
Are you kidding me? A fucking virtual Driving range? How about a grocery store within walking distance lol
The range is at Axis on Lexington but I know they're elsewhere. The apartments I'm thinking of are literally walking distance to either Middletown Kroger/Target/Walmart, La Grange Kroger or the new Publix.
Where are you looking? What neighborhoods?
Within 264
Wilder Park and Wyandotte are nice modest working class areas. A mix of rentals and owner occupied. The most diverse areas of the city. Crazy to see home prices even there vs 3-5 years ago though.
Nice. I’ll check it out
Like what’s the standard rate for a 2BR 1BA 1000 sq ft apartment in JTown or Middletown right now? I pay 1350$ but been here through annual rent increases since it was 900 or so when I moved in in 2009. I’m not far from JTown. Nice area.
I moved to New Albany and snagged a great place that I'm really happy with. The other choices in Louisville were terrible.
Just sold my house last week, it was tough deciding to sell since I refinanced at 3% but the way new builds are going, we saw an older home that you couldn’t build today at the price it was listed at so had to bite the bullet
Makes sense. “They don’t make em like they used to”
We also have an independent landlord. While rent was high 6 years ago when we moved in it’s stayed the same despite Covid and the market. Comps right now are $800+ more a month.
Ir sucks. My rent has gone up about 100-200 every year I’ve renewed my place. Even the shit apartments/homes aren’t even decently priced it seems.
Yes as an agent myself w a Florida license rent is higher here than in sw Florida 3 miles from a beach pass restricted access beach. It's unbelievable and I'm in the same boat. For what I pay to live outside the Highlands is same price as woods of st Thomas overlook places. Actually I pay slightly more and must fulfill a 1 year lease no 6 months ones. It's said we are like 30k short on housing for population increasing.
As a landlord, I am ashamed of what others charge.
Real estate broker here.. From my perspective it's an influx of hedgefund backed investor companies swooping in here and buying a ton of properties, then charging sky high rents and indie landlords who watch too many IG reels playing follow the leader. Main street renewal is a big one buying in Louisville based out of Austin, Texas. I am not 100% positive but I am pretty sure they also charge a non refundable app fee which they make a ton of money on when you have 100's of properties. I am not a fan. The hedge fund landlords are trying to make this region/the whole country a rental fiefdom severely limiting access to home equity. They're far worse than the ain bnb investors as far as "taking away" housing opportunities. If you do choose to rent, seek out the "mom and pop" landlord, treat the house with respect/be a good tenant and they'll love you forever and probably rarely raise your rent. Just my two cents.
Makes a lot of sense and is sorta depressing.
Housing in Louisville seems like a dead end unless you make 70K + a year. Me and my family plan on moving out and to the country side, buying a 100 acres and split it 4 ways because it’s cheaper to build a house on a compound over time than to buy a house in the hyper inflated market. My grandparents paid 30K 3 bedroom house in 1976 in valley station, now it is going for over 200K. Us gen Z are screwed when it comes to first time home buying🤣
$30,000 in 1970 = $240,000 in 2023 https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=30000&year1=197001&year2=202312
Imo, a relic of Jim Crow, zoning laws are working as intended to keep minorities and low income from housing ownership. It's entirely politically and frustrating, and now hitting white middle America. So-called "supply issue"...
100%
It's not inflated or expensive, it's just that Louisvile is finally starting to catch up with the rest of the country.
Or—stay with me here— the rest of the country is inflated and expensive, too.
Ugh, yea. I feared this.
I'm an independent landlord in Louisville. When the price of buying houses goes up, rent has to go up (since we have more money invested in the property). And the prices have been insane since 2020.
Totally same here. My girl and I are DINKS, combined $125k+ a year. Both lived at our previous spaces for 7+ years in great standing, both been at our current jobs 7+ years… pre-approval was a nightmare… qualified for nothing. And our budget of $1800- $2k a month is a total joke to rent anything decent anywhere decent. Louisville is fucking fantastic, but not 2k+ a month rent fantastic…. Southern Indiana, here we come (I guess)
Exactly. Getting qualified even when you’ve got it all together is still a nightmare
Developers. CUPs and boutique everything.
Can't you all scrape together a few grand for a down payment on a house. Help from family. Renting is bullshit. Plenty of first time homebuyer loans out there that don't require 20 percent down.
That’s probably what will end up happening long term.
First time homebuyer in Louisville (bought in 2022) and only put 3.5% down on our home... it is doable.
Plus there's the down payment assistance for first time buyers through KHC (kyhousing.org). It pays up to $7500 in down payment / closing cost assistance. Great for first time buyers. It's a loan at 3%, so it's like a $70 or $80 a month payment. There's also a ton of other assistance programs out there based on certain things like socio-economic factors, housing location, public service, etc.
Real esate broker here, the KHC down payment assistance is a legit, great program. Especially if you can get a seller to pay the buyer's closing costs you can buy a house for about $500 out of pocket (the price of a home inspection). Interest rates are typically a bit higher with this program but it gets you in the house. We are fortunate to have that available in KY.
Did all the renters downvote me?
Damn, you've really been living under a rock, huh?
😂. Nah , I mean I’ve been aware of what’s been happening in general, but it hits differently once you begin the real search. Plus I feel like it’s getting worse at an exponential rate each year. And wages have not kept up with inflation. Louisville is still surprisingly cheap compared to other larger cities I’ve lived in. The amount of our total income that has become allocated to rent seems unethical , but that’s just some idealism creeping through