US states brace for ‘avalanche’ of evictions as federal moratorium ends

Re:US states brace for ‘avalanche’ of evictions as federal m... by ryandrake on Thursday July 29, 2021 @03:16PM (#28000237)

I'm sympathetic to the bad timing, but that's just part of business. If I decided to do a start-up in 2001, right when the market crashed and funding dried up, well, bad timing--that's unfortunately how it goes. Your family members started a business, and running a business comes with risk. COVID (and the resulting rent moratoriums) was a black-swan event as far as risks go, but black-swan events exist. I'm very risk-averse, which is why I don't hang my shingle out there and start a business. I was once a landlord too, and got kind of screwed so I definitely will steer clear of that risky business in the future.

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Re:US states brace for ‘avalanche’ of evictions as federal m... by throwaway98211 on Thursday July 29, 2021 @03:50PM (#28000605)

Black-swan events aren't just 'part of business' - they are generational events that upend the established norms of a market.

What happened here is that the government changed the rules (i.e. risk / reward profile) of a well-established market overnight with very little recourse for the players involved. It would be like the government removing FDIC insurance on savings accounts during a bank crisis.

Maybe necessary, but hard to argue it was fair.

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Re:US states brace for ‘avalanche’ of evictions as federal m... by hn_throwaway_99 on Thursday July 29, 2021 @07:51PM (#28002943)

> Your family members started a business, and running a business comes with risk.

My whole point is the government changed the rules in the middle of the game. Certainly bad tenants are always a risk, but not bad tenants that the government forces you to house for over a year.

What you're doing is like telling businesses that get nationalized by corrupt regimes "hey, business comes with risk". But my whole point is, eventually, nobody can accept those risks, so people choose not do to business, which actually makes things worse for everyone.

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Re:US states brace for ‘avalanche’ of evictions as federal m... by hansvm on Thursday July 29, 2021 @06:21PM (#28002188)

This seems to be countering the grandparent comment ("yes, but ..."), but I'm not seeing where you address the core point --- real estate has a known risk profile which the government has shown a willingness to upend without any stopgaps to help struggling landlords, and a natural consequence of that increased risk is that smaller landlords will be priced out.

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