Reason I’m asking is because I have an aunt that owns like maybe 3 - 5 (not sure the exact amount) small townhouses around the city (well, when I say “city” think of like the areas around a city where theres no tall buildings, but only small 2-3 stories single family homes in the neighborhood) and have these houses up for rent, and honestly, my aunt and her husband doesn’t seem like a terrible people. They still work a normal job, and have to pay taxes like everyone else have to. They still have their own debts to pay. I’m not sure exactly how, but my parents say they did a combination of saving up money and taking loans from banks to be able to buy these properties, fix them, then put them up for rent. They don’t overcharge, and usually charge slightly below the market to retain tenants, and fix things (or hire people to fix things) when their tenants request them.
I mean, they are just trying to survive in this capitalistic world. They wanna save up for retirement, and fund their kids to college, and leave something for their kids, so they have less of stress in life. I don’t see them as bad people. I mean, its not like they own multiple apartment buildings, or doing excessive wealth hoarding.
Do leftists mean people like my aunt too? Or are they an exception to the “landlords are bad” sentinment?
So your issue is that owning a house is too expensive because housing is artificially scarce but you don’t think that privately owned investment properties is the fault of that? Renting will always cost more than the upkeep of a house because otherwise nobody would lease. The only reasons housing prices changing is a worry to homeowners is because housing is artificially scarce and the artificial scarcity changes based on how much of the artificially scarce housing investors decide to put on the market. All your issues with personal ownership of a house stem from other people treating housing as private property that can be invested in.
Housing is not artificially scarce, because land is naturally scarce.
On average yes, but you also do not need to account for variability in price due to for example, having to replace the plumbing every 20 years or so.
This addresses none of the things I listed.