Affordable being the key word here.

Something like half of Cleveland is just torn down empty houses. Why? Because they won’t sell them to buyers who want to buy. I have 28k in the bank, would qualify for the first time buyer programs, and another 10k in cash, and these banks deny me on a 90k loan.

So they deny me, and tear down ANOTHER old house. Go ahead and check Cleveland on Google maps. Try to get a nice aerial satellite view that encompasses the whole city. Yeah…look at all those grass lawns. Those are former houses that were torn down because banks owned them, because they wouldn’t sell them, and then thieves came in, and started stripping copper, and making drug dens. Then the properties became run down, and not maintained, and eventually the city came in and said they were condemned. Then they tore down what was at one time a perfectly livable house, because some CEO has decided it’s more profitable if the city decays. He’d rather sell one mortgage with a big sellers bonus, than sell 100 houses to average people, looking to spend a fair price for a fair home. People who don’t view houses as investments, but rather as homes. Places to live. They’d rather sell to these assholes who buy houses, cheaply fix them, and then rent them out for 10x what they should be worth. But since it’s all you can find in any city, it’s what the public has to deal with.

THIS is why people cheered Luigi Mangione. Because certain people in this country don’t see the rest of us as people. They see people as investments. They see people as dollar signs. They see people as their own personal paychecks, and if they can’t afford to pay than suffering is deserved. It’s suffering for profit.

We don’t have a housing shorting issue in this country. We have an asshole surplus.