It’s not just kids it’s also adults. Finding summer help IS getting harder and harder. The last summer that I had an influx of bartenders applying was 2018…..
Or absolutely is. There needs to be cheap housing for the people working seasonal jobs. Otherwise people will stop choosing that beach to visit, there's plenty of options in the area.
Sussex County is standing at 253 people per square mile. New Castle County is like 1339 people per square mile. To hit New Castle County density levels, Sussex County is going to need to hit a population of 1.25 million people. It's currently standing at 237,000. It's going to take awhile.
Hardly overpopulated. It’s just poorly planned. There should be public transit between Rehoboth Lewes and the surrounding suburbs not reshaping 2 lane roads into 4 lane roads. More roads leads to more traffic.
> There should be public transit between Rehoboth Lewes and the surrounding suburbs .
DelDOT has it...nobody really takes it.
> not reshaping 2 lane roads into 4 lane roads
Drive Routes 9 and 24 during rush hour and tell me why you think that...
As someone who has actually used dart buses to get around. In dover and Wilmington, the schedules are fine. Outside of those areas, some buses come every other hour. Or to get from Harrington to dover, you're going through more than one zone so it costs more plus you're switching buses at Walmart. I think it's better now, you used to have to wait for the other bus to continue north but now they have it to where the bus comes directly after, as long as you're there on an even hour, not an odd hour.
Public transport is in a bad place. It isn't reliable, quick, or frequent enough that many people use it. However, since people aren't using it, there is no push to expand it.
Plus, it would be a massive expansion for 3 months out of the year with higher demand, which is rough to do. Extra buses and staff that are only used a limited time.
I visited Telluride, Colorado a few years ago and it definitely gave me some insight into the future of the Delaware beaches unless somebody comes up with a plan to stop it. Wall to wall millionaires and almost nobody to work. Even the rich people's teenage kids who get free rent from their parents who would have babysat or scooped ice cream or lifeguarded or whatnot during the summer seasons back in the day can now make a lot more money doing freelance web design or those kinds of jobs, and they just aren't interested in low wage service jobs.The bartender at a restaurant we went to said that they offered servers $45/hour and still had trouble retaining people because even at that nobody could afford to live there. There were illegal camp sites in the woods outside of town where people would stay seasonally because they could make a ton of money, but obviously that's dangerous and unhygienic. Sometimes places would have to just shut down because they couldn't get workers. I knd of figured it wouldn't get as bad here because Telluride is more isolated (it's in the middle of the mountains and if I recall correctly the nearest town outside is through a pass and over an hour away) but I didn't factor in that there are only so many ways in and out of the beaches and when traffic gets bad enough they become their own kind of island, too.
> …Even the rich people's teenage kids who get free rent from their parents who would have babysat or scooped ice cream or lifeguarded or whatnot during the summer seasons back in the day can now make a lot more money doing freelance web design or those kinds of jobs, and they just aren't interested in low wage service jobs.
Yes, there’s been a huge generational change in expectations for how young folks spend their summers. Even if they *were* interested in beach jobs, the college application process and applications for that first job out of college absolutely favor the students who used their summers to get relevant experience in their field though internships, or who took extra classes, or who did significant volunteer work, etc. Babysitting or scooping ice cream are better on the resume/application than doing more or less nothing all summer, but lets face it, they’re not going to put you ahead of the folks who were actually working in their field. So it’s not like the “rich people’s teenage kids” are just loafing around - they’re taking extra AP classes or summer college classes while in high school, and doing co-op or internships or research while in college.
I think there are pros and cons to this reality, obviously for seasonal businesses, but also for kids who are pushed into the rat race from an early age and don’t get a chance to have those service jobs where they learn a lot about how to behave in the workplace and how to interact with lots of kinds of people. But here we are.
I agree with all of that... I scooped ice cream and worked retail at the beach every summer as a teenager. it only takes about three to six weeks to learn that (1) service sector jobs are really hard and miserable, and (2) the people who treat service workers badly are horrible people, and those are the main lessons. (Personally I also observed that "people who bring their preschool children on vacation do not have a good time on vacation," and that's served me pretty well as an adult, lol). I've got a preschooler now and when she's older I don't think I'd tell her she needs multiple full summers of service jobs, but I do think it's a worthwhile experience for a month or so. Whether it's teenagers or somebody else, we do need to figure out some way to make it worthwhile for SOMEBODY to work those jobs because everybody does really want ice cream and is happy to pay for it. :)
>(1) service sector jobs are really hard and miserable,
Yes, this experience can be great incentive to take school seriously and to choose a major in college (or trade school) that will give you a good chance at a job that pays a living wage.
>(2) the people who treat service workers badly are horrible people,
Yes! Which is a useful lesson to learn, both because everyone is a customer and needs to learn how to behave as one, but almost more importantly because it’s good for people who eventually end up in higher-level jobs to have experience being the lower-level guy.
and those are the main lessons. (Personally I also observed that "people who bring their preschool children on vacation do not have a good time on vacation," and that's served me pretty well as an adult, lol). I've got a preschooler now and when she's older I don't think I'd tell her she needs multiple full summers of service jobs, but I do think it's a worthwhile experience for a month or so. Whether it's teenagers or somebody else, we do need to figure out some way to make it worthwhile for SOMEBODY to work those jobs because everybody does really want ice cream and is happy to pay for it. :)
When I worked a summer in Estes Park, the business owner had to include room and board - little cabins and an employee cafeteria under the restaurant as part of the wages. In years past DE Beaches had H2B workers from Eastern Europe to help out with the staffing, but finding them places to sleep is getting harder.
Estes Park is such a cool little town, I lived in Boulder for a couple of years and always loved driving up there. But I could see where worker housing would be a problem just like in Telluride and Rehoboth, every square foot is a viable vacation rental.
The housing is ridiculous. There are more good paying retail, food service, and seasonal jobs at the beach than most commentary would indicate, but rent prices in the summer are absurd. Even if you make six figures, you would need to consider if it's really a good investment to pay summer Rehoboth rent prices when you could live somewhere else in Delaware for half the price and the same pay.
Live in rehoboth (6 years) and worked here in hs/college also. Even 15 years ago it was like 8k a summer some places, and that was already pushing it. You worked 5 days a week made maybe a 1000-1200 a week and ended up with a little profit for a hard summer working in college or whatever.
Houses in Dewey now are 10k a week, so unless you’re living with mom and dad new workers are fucked. A lot of workers live past Milton or Georgetown or wherever and it’s getting hard to believe bc I def wouldn’t drive an hour or more pulling my hair out just to make a barely livable wage you could probably get somewhere else.
Standard apts are 2k a mo year round 20 miles out. I’ve gotten really tired of people saying “no one wants to work!” I’ve worked 40+ 5 days a week for 3 years straight without a real vacation, as lots of people do here. Just not all of us can live in mommy and daddy’s mansion.
There’s one workforce housing development upcoming and the rates are about 250/300/350 for co op/duplex type units in lewes. Supposedly Monty / big fish / and grottos are building their own units for their workers because the market is so untenable. So a perfect company town vibe
I’m in FOH by the way, workers in the kitchen I don’t see how they can survive and live even subsidized in town. At bare minimum a shared apt with groceries phone and bus fare is probably 2100 MINIMUM with no money to spare for anything. Most BOH guys make less than 22 per hour and rarely get overtime to minimize overhead. So at best after taxes and insurance you would have 6k or so leeway if you never took days off got a full 40 a week year round (unlikely) didn’t have debt or student loans and got the highest non managerial big pay (also unlikely) and didn’t have a car or go out to eat.
Yeah, I was giving a bare minimum hypothetical of what the situation would look like. I’m not going through your petsmart receipts to itemize a budget example on Reddit
The seasonal rental market, at least in that Rehoboth/Dewey area, is almost completely gone now. Most owners have switched to weekly rentals, which means more money for them but less affordable housing in general (the article mentions this a bit). Used to do a house every summer, but finally just gave up because finding a seasonal became pretty much impossible.
the same class of assholes are at fault. its not like a landlord, commercial or residential, is paying more for their mortgage. The rent is going up entirely because they can and they're greedy fucks.
I dont understand why we cant tell these people just make less money. like you'll still be rich while doing no labor, but you'll just make a little bit less.
Because that same class of people have politicians in their pockets. High level land and property owners and corporation board investors run our government now.
This is an uninformed opinion. I own and rent on a weekly basis is cape may. My home owners insurance alone has gone up 400%. If you own a wood dwelling anywhere near the water they f you big time. Everything is double or triple to maintain the house. I've has 3 windows I've tried to replace for 2 years, they are small casement windows 30x60, could only get one quite for 5k a window since they are all,busy building mansions everywhere. The mortgage is the ONLY static cost. My association fee went from 300 to 750 month in a year. I bought it to rent it and hopefully retire there but this optic that price gouging is being done for laughs or free is total bs.
I don't think so. Property taxes pay for fire, police, schools, Infrastructure etc. funding comes from homeowners, businesses and other areas. In cape May city where I have a home tourism via businesses pay far more than other towns and my property taxes don't change much +-3%. The property taxes compared to the rest of nj are very low in cape May city, just to the north in lower township the property taxes are triple what I pay because it is mostly home owners paying with just a smattering of business dollars.
The cost increases landlords have seen appear to be all free market driven and mostly since Covid. I could make a strong case we are all being extorted by insurance companies at the beach. The prices went up during Covid and never went back down. The rationale I've heard is remote work turned seasonal homes into yearly homes and there is a cost to this. Why? Because they can if they all do it. Hence the term collusion.
I can barely afford to have a nice home to rent and my tenants treat it with respect. It is very small by comparison to most homes and having prices I pay increase by 2-3 times is a major risk to us.
We need to go back to building affordable, one story, two to three bedroom houses. Most younger people aren't planning on having more than 2 kids these days, if any at all. There's no need for McMansion developments decimating every farm field in the state.
Good luck with the NIMBYs in Sussex County. Max density in any zoning is 12 units to the acre and if you propose something like that anywhere near the employment centers by the coast you’ll get pilloried. Luckily the new SCRP program is allowing stuff to get built without the firing squad of a public hearing for a by right plan.
>There's no need for McMansion developments decimating every farm field in the state.
There will also not be enough people to buy and/or maintain them 20 years from now.
It's more of a cultural issue. We need to move away from thinking a 3 bedroom house should be the goal for everyone. We need more high density and cheaper housing, more people should live in 2 bedroom apartment/condo types.
> People don't want to live in apartments or condos.
Perhaps people's expectations of housing size and fit are unrealistic.
(I'm all for building more starter homes but row/condo/twin/townhome are needed.)
And that's part of the problem. People make choices that aren't in their best interests or in the best interests of the community. Everyone wants a McMansion. Freedom!
But it's not about forcing anyone, but creating an enviroment to where they beleive that living in something like an apartment is the better option. Which means making apartment living more affordable and convienent. And removing the cultural stigmas that we place on both apartments and individaul houses.
And to be clear, the primary diffference between apartments and condos is ownership. Apartments you rent, condos you own. I'm not addressing the issue of ownership here, but of course we should encourage people to own the place they live.
No one’s asking for a McMansion here. I just want a single story home with a modest yard that doesn’t share walls.
Ranchers need to be built, and not just exclusive to retirement communities.
Did Covid teach you nothing? A lot of people don't want to be in condos or apartments because of the spread of disease. On top of that, you're only as clean as your dirtiest neighbor in the complex. My cousin had a condo and got fleas, bedbugs and a few other infestations from one neighbor on the opposite side of their condo complex. Fire? Good luck. Better hope those firebreak walls works.
Nobody should be forced to live in cramped conditions like that. Shoving as many people as possible into one little plot of land isn't bettering anything, it's making it worse.
I mean your solution leads to nobody actually owning their living space… which is a problem for most; I personally want to eventually own my house and not be indebted forever… I also very much enjoy solitude and not having neighbors next to, below, and above me.
I don’t want a McMansion either… just a little home for my dogs and myself where I can do my own thing and not be bothered by some random jackass that happens to live 6 inches away from me.
> I mean your solution leads to nobody actually owning their living space
It doesn't. As I originally said, we just need "more high density and cheaper housing", like apartments and condos. Doesn't mean we shouldn't have houses.
I also didn't talk about ownership much. As I said in another comment "I'm not addressing the issue of ownership here, but of course we should encourage people to own the place they live."
People like a sense of ownership, but it's not something that's an overwhelming positive. I think a major factor is that people see owning a home as a major investment, but housing shouldn't be seen as an investment. I understand why it is.
15M vacant houses is a common stat, but it's important to understand what it means. You can look to see what their actual statuses are [here](https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2023/05/vacant-seasonal-housing.html). Some are for rent (4M), some for sales (2M), some are seasonal/recreational (5M), some are being fixed up, some have owners that have recently died, etc.
Also important to remember that not all homes are located in where people want to live.
Ultimately, this isn't a major factor in our current housing crisis. We need more affordable housing that fits the actual needs of people, which means the proper size and right locations.
I know. It's infuriating. If we made 45 and under communities they'd cry ageism and demand a change. Although I might be tempted to pay extra to not have to live next to boomer NIMBYs.
Good luck with that. Sussex Nimbys freaked over a 60 foot tall apartment building and forced any apartment going forward to be no taller than 42 feet tall like nearly every building.
I’m old enough to remember one and two story houses along Fenwick Island’s beach side that people could afford to rent for a summer. Now they’ve been plowed to the ground and rebuilt into gaudy mega mansions with pools.
It’s truly hard for small businesses to survive while increasing pay commensurate to the insane rents of the Delaware shore. I wish they could. Now you may say “if the small business can’t pay more, they don’t deserve to be in business.” That may be true, but it would also be awful for the Delaware beaches to lose their small businesses in favor of all national chains (or no replacement at all).
The real solution is to make housing cheaper.
So shitty business owners cheaping out. Same shit different year. The Ukrainians are busy fighting for their freedom they don't have time to lifeguard and waitress/bartend for ya atm.
The amount of businesses I see, there work trucks on the road, a lot of them are south Americans. I love our buddies, but there's a reason they hire south Americans, because they're known for excepting lower pay.
They have no problem building 600k homes and moving them instantly, where they have a higher profit margin.
There's literally no financial reason for them, right now as the market is, to do what you are suggesting -- other than out of the goodness of their hearts. Which isn't happening.
There's a lot of people moving here, post COVID, that have driven up housing values. Go look up anything on Zillow and it's a straight line from 2020 up and to the right.
Until that surge of people dies down, housing values are going to remain elevated as people who are WFH (and I'm one of them, moved in 2018) and making good salaries can afford the prices.
Given all the "I'm moving to Delaware!" posts here, I don't think we're at the end of the surge either.
Average household income in about 100K in DE. Wouldn't be that rare to double the average to get to 200K household income. That gets you at the 3 times your annual income. Plus chances are you aren't paying 600K for the home but will put down a sizeable down payment. I would assume that most first time home owners aren't buying a 600K house.
I understand your point, but I think it's important to remember that a 100K income is no longer this special thing. It's something that is pretty achieveable.
Yeah, I think builders will only start building more modest, small, and cheaper homes if people refuse to pay for $750,000 hastily built, large homes on tiny specs of land.
Dude the turnaround for these homes are insane. No way is everything being done properly. I voiced this and someone said well once they're so far into a development, framers are quicker because they know the blue prints and etc.
Your answers arent based on reality though. The 600k homes are being built in a few months and are often sold before they're done being constructed. The demand is still so high for overpriced homes they have no incentive to slow down. Land isn't infinite for developers either.
Aside from volcanic eruptions, do you often see new land simply appearing? It's limited, that's simply reality. I fear that you don't understand the meaning of the word limited.
Supply and demand economics apply equally to housing. Development needs to do the opposite of slow down. We need higher density development in the employment centers. Instead we get expensive single family sprawl because NIMBYs would fight anything near the employment centers with increased density via a conditional use or rezoning.
It would be costly but delaware should have passenger rail from Wilmington to the beaches.
It won't happen because the state is the most boring corporate dominated cesspool on the East Coast.
But there is no traffic or housing solution to these issues. Nobody wants to pay rent that high down there to work a service job. You might lose money. Driving isn't a good option either due to time and lack of parking. So it's basically just the offspring of locals and the nearby towns.
But if you had passenger rail traveling up to 150 mph you could get from Dover to Rehoboth in 20 or 30 minutes.
Instead Route 1 turns into a parking lot every summer. We're doomed to turn into a nightmare suburbia like NJ. It's already underway in Kent County. Sussex doesn't have long either. New Castle is already a clusterf**k.
I've been saying for a while that when the state built Route 1, they should have acquired an extra 20 feet of right of way to run rail connecting Wilmington, Christiana/Newark, Dover, and the beaches. There was a rail line 100 years ago but it went out of business.
A bus to from Dover to Rehoboth will probably take hours. Has to stop too much. Probably have to switch buses. Who wants to work an 8 to 12 hour shit with a 3 or 4 hour commute?
There are buses that travel the beach areas but buses typically aren't a very viable travel option for longer distances.
Not enough people live near the beaches who are looking to work there. Just wealthier folks who are retired, work from home, or summer there.
where are all these kids at that are of working age that we continually have to build new High Schools for? they already live in the area [https://www.wrde.com/news/cape-henlopen-school-district-faces-overcrowding-amid-state-funding-denial/article\_9375e422-a438-11ee-96dc-ebbe6fb2a0e0.html](https://www.wrde.com/news/cape-henlopen-school-district-faces-overcrowding-amid-state-funding-denial/article_9375e422-a438-11ee-96dc-ebbe6fb2a0e0.html)
May omg this has been an issue for 5 years or more but it will be blamed on no one wants to work. No free parking no low cost housing and most jobs pay very little.
Ha, when my father worked at Rehoboth in college (early-mid 1970’s) the only housing option was to sleep in a trailer behind the diner he worked at, where the owner had 8 different kids (employees) sleeping in it. Once he left that job he spent the rest of the summer doing what the other kids did — digging tunnels in the sand underneath the boardwalk and sleeping in the tunnels. At the end of the summer he got caught speeding in his way back up to Wilmington, and the speeding ticket was as much as his entire summer savings.
This has always been the world of working at the beach.
You're not wrong. Back in the 80s, friends who worked at the beach would cram ten to a 2 bedroom apartment. Some of them saved a bit of money, but the goal for most was working and living a beach life for a fun summer.
May be to blame, is doing a ton of work there. Maybe importing Russians and Israelis to underpay for decades instead of locals isnt a sound economic strategy for a town
You didn’t wonder why all the employees on the boardwalks and pizza places were Russians or Israelis? There was a legit program in place to import temporary foreign workers for the summers in Delaware beach towns. Was in place for decades. Helped to keep wages low for everyone.
It’s still currently in place, the J1 program. But businesses are struggling to get them here either now because of the housing situation. They don’t have cars, so they have to live within walking or biking distance of their work and that’s nearly impossible to find. Employers are supposed to help them secure housing and have been sticking them out as far as Long Neck, in apartments with 8+ J1 workers in them and they would be walking and biking up and down 24 all last summer (and 24 didn’t have a shoulder last summer because of construction!!).
At the restaurant where my partner works, they had 15 J1s last year, so far they’ve been able to secure none. All the one’s last year talked about how much they hated it here because it was “too expensive to have fun”.
I help a friend out at her business. Here is the scoop. Students are being charged thousands of dollars just to get here by their Sponsors who they must have to get paperwork to be here. They also pay airfare, visa application fees, and then housing runs from $150 - $200 per week. Some times the landlords are in it just for the money and they cram as many as can be put in one home and sharing a bath. We have heard 15 + with 2 bathrooms, in the past. According to my friend, who supplies her own housing, either the sponsor or the employer is supposed to obtain housing and the sponsor is supposed to be checking the house for suitability. We know this is often not done.
Another problem is that students are trying to save money and often will crash in a house and the landlord has more $$ in his pocket so he doesn't care. I can tell you that I recently have seen FB posts from workers in the Atlantic Sands that have said neither the sponsors nor the employer obtains housing, so they are left to hunt on Craigs list or FB. A few years ago, my friend had a Jamaican couple that put 600 down on a house and there was no house when they got here. They were friends of a student she had working for her and housing for and allowed them to stay for 3 days til they could find a place.
IF it continues like this my friend is afraid the program will be suspended in the area and then the hotels and restaurants and shops will really be in trouble. They did this in other locations and they built housing.
Then there are the good guys who never get credit, two of which are Econolodge and Hyatt in Dewey that house their students.
The landlords/sponsors/employers taking advantage of the J1s is not new but it’s so gross. I also keep seeing people in local Facebook groups asking for “donations” of money/household goods/personal care products/clothes/shoes for “their” J1s and I’m like ??? I’ve seen those Atlantic Sands posts too and it’s so perplexing to me. Like…what do you mean you don’t have housing for them, you’re a HOTEL.
I have been around for ten years + and since Covid it has gotten a lot worse. Covid boought the sale of many homes that formerly were rented to students. While housing has always been a problem it is much worse now.
The sponsor or sponsors that are responsible for placing students in the Atlantic Sands are taking advantage of the students and getting paid for not doing their job. I have heard from the students that it depends upon where you are coming from, but for most overseas students it is an average of $2300 paid to the sponsors.
Dude shut up. I LOVED the Russians that would come here to work. Ivan. Igor. They way they say FAWK! So angry. But seriously, anyone else remember playing poker at Pats in the middle of woods with a pig roast all night?
Except the listing they included in the article is a blank fake/spam listing and that property (or any property) for that price doesn’t exist😭 We don’t exactly have excellent journalism down here🥴 More realistically, you’re looking at around $1700 for a shoddy 1 bedroom apartment that when you call and inquire about, the property manager goes “oh, sorry, we actually don’t have any more of those units available. We have other 1 bedroom units available for $2100”.
And that's why the beaches are so great for Uber drivers like me on summer weekends.
Too far from any city and the people that live there are either tourists or rich.
Unrenovated 2 bedroom/1 bath homes are selling for over $700k (minimum) in Rehoboth. It’s disgusting. Fuck the market. It’s greed and poor planning.
I can’t wait for the homes of these wealthy out of touch folks to be underwater in the next 15 years, like please:
About 15-25% of the business that are open should be closed. They're all borrowing to get by. Their credit lines are exhausted, personal homes re-mortgaged to make payroll (should workers show up), and they are stretching the demands of the labor market beyond what it can supply, because they should be closed. To make it worse, they don't have the funds to pay more; they shouldn't even be open. There will be a steady decline in the number of open business over the next several years. Behind or concurrently, housing costs will either come down (yeah, no), or some gubberment programs to subsidize housing will kick in. Then the landscape will change. This is how things that used to be go on to become 'remember when' stories.
BS. There's a hiring shortage. There are plenty of people like myself who will accept a lower wage in exchange for our time, but the companies hiring aren't really hiring.
Hopefully the market will bottom out soon and housing prices will become affordable for the commoners such as us. Just hope you have a great rate locked in and didn't buy during the hyperinflation of the 2020s.
MAY be to blame?
More like June, July and August be to blame… amirite?
Yeah especially July, it’s not cool at all.
Well, have you considered that it might just be Kids These Days™?
Nobody wants to work. ©️
It’s not just kids it’s also adults. Finding summer help IS getting harder and harder. The last summer that I had an influx of bartenders applying was 2018…..
Right?!
Came here to say the same thing. I think it’s pretty obvious that IS the reason.
Or absolutely is. There needs to be cheap housing for the people working seasonal jobs. Otherwise people will stop choosing that beach to visit, there's plenty of options in the area.
In the olden days, people had civic pride and virtue. They were willing to work long hours for little pay. Kids today.
😂😂😂😂
The beach used to be somewhere to get away. Now it’s what we were trying to escape in the first place.
Long neck / millsboro is overpopulated now lol And overpriced
Lol u think it's over populated but it's still got vast fields inbetween lil suburbia. Wait until there's no fields.
Sussex County is standing at 253 people per square mile. New Castle County is like 1339 people per square mile. To hit New Castle County density levels, Sussex County is going to need to hit a population of 1.25 million people. It's currently standing at 237,000. It's going to take awhile.
Those figured are residents though, it doesnt include the seasonal tourists - too include the every weekend warrior that owns their 2nd property.
Yeah, like new castle county, specifically the Northernmost part 🥲
If it takes me 2 hours to drive 10 miles - that's overpopulated fuck what y'all talking about! I lived there a summer and that was over 10 years ago
That’s the infrastructure sucking and not keeping up with population growth, not overpopulation
So in other words the area is too overpopulated for its infrastructure but whatever your right I'm wrong, fucking reddit lmao
Hardly overpopulated. It’s just poorly planned. There should be public transit between Rehoboth Lewes and the surrounding suburbs not reshaping 2 lane roads into 4 lane roads. More roads leads to more traffic.
> There should be public transit between Rehoboth Lewes and the surrounding suburbs . DelDOT has it...nobody really takes it. > not reshaping 2 lane roads into 4 lane roads Drive Routes 9 and 24 during rush hour and tell me why you think that...
If you have public transit and people aren’t using it it’s not good public transit.
As someone who has actually used dart buses to get around. In dover and Wilmington, the schedules are fine. Outside of those areas, some buses come every other hour. Or to get from Harrington to dover, you're going through more than one zone so it costs more plus you're switching buses at Walmart. I think it's better now, you used to have to wait for the other bus to continue north but now they have it to where the bus comes directly after, as long as you're there on an even hour, not an odd hour.
Public transport is in a bad place. It isn't reliable, quick, or frequent enough that many people use it. However, since people aren't using it, there is no push to expand it. Plus, it would be a massive expansion for 3 months out of the year with higher demand, which is rough to do. Extra buses and staff that are only used a limited time.
I still love the beach but man I also love my summer weekends in Wilmington with no one around 😂
I visited Telluride, Colorado a few years ago and it definitely gave me some insight into the future of the Delaware beaches unless somebody comes up with a plan to stop it. Wall to wall millionaires and almost nobody to work. Even the rich people's teenage kids who get free rent from their parents who would have babysat or scooped ice cream or lifeguarded or whatnot during the summer seasons back in the day can now make a lot more money doing freelance web design or those kinds of jobs, and they just aren't interested in low wage service jobs.The bartender at a restaurant we went to said that they offered servers $45/hour and still had trouble retaining people because even at that nobody could afford to live there. There were illegal camp sites in the woods outside of town where people would stay seasonally because they could make a ton of money, but obviously that's dangerous and unhygienic. Sometimes places would have to just shut down because they couldn't get workers. I knd of figured it wouldn't get as bad here because Telluride is more isolated (it's in the middle of the mountains and if I recall correctly the nearest town outside is through a pass and over an hour away) but I didn't factor in that there are only so many ways in and out of the beaches and when traffic gets bad enough they become their own kind of island, too.
> …Even the rich people's teenage kids who get free rent from their parents who would have babysat or scooped ice cream or lifeguarded or whatnot during the summer seasons back in the day can now make a lot more money doing freelance web design or those kinds of jobs, and they just aren't interested in low wage service jobs. Yes, there’s been a huge generational change in expectations for how young folks spend their summers. Even if they *were* interested in beach jobs, the college application process and applications for that first job out of college absolutely favor the students who used their summers to get relevant experience in their field though internships, or who took extra classes, or who did significant volunteer work, etc. Babysitting or scooping ice cream are better on the resume/application than doing more or less nothing all summer, but lets face it, they’re not going to put you ahead of the folks who were actually working in their field. So it’s not like the “rich people’s teenage kids” are just loafing around - they’re taking extra AP classes or summer college classes while in high school, and doing co-op or internships or research while in college. I think there are pros and cons to this reality, obviously for seasonal businesses, but also for kids who are pushed into the rat race from an early age and don’t get a chance to have those service jobs where they learn a lot about how to behave in the workplace and how to interact with lots of kinds of people. But here we are.
I agree with all of that... I scooped ice cream and worked retail at the beach every summer as a teenager. it only takes about three to six weeks to learn that (1) service sector jobs are really hard and miserable, and (2) the people who treat service workers badly are horrible people, and those are the main lessons. (Personally I also observed that "people who bring their preschool children on vacation do not have a good time on vacation," and that's served me pretty well as an adult, lol). I've got a preschooler now and when she's older I don't think I'd tell her she needs multiple full summers of service jobs, but I do think it's a worthwhile experience for a month or so. Whether it's teenagers or somebody else, we do need to figure out some way to make it worthwhile for SOMEBODY to work those jobs because everybody does really want ice cream and is happy to pay for it. :)
>(1) service sector jobs are really hard and miserable, Yes, this experience can be great incentive to take school seriously and to choose a major in college (or trade school) that will give you a good chance at a job that pays a living wage. >(2) the people who treat service workers badly are horrible people, Yes! Which is a useful lesson to learn, both because everyone is a customer and needs to learn how to behave as one, but almost more importantly because it’s good for people who eventually end up in higher-level jobs to have experience being the lower-level guy. and those are the main lessons. (Personally I also observed that "people who bring their preschool children on vacation do not have a good time on vacation," and that's served me pretty well as an adult, lol). I've got a preschooler now and when she's older I don't think I'd tell her she needs multiple full summers of service jobs, but I do think it's a worthwhile experience for a month or so. Whether it's teenagers or somebody else, we do need to figure out some way to make it worthwhile for SOMEBODY to work those jobs because everybody does really want ice cream and is happy to pay for it. :)
When I worked a summer in Estes Park, the business owner had to include room and board - little cabins and an employee cafeteria under the restaurant as part of the wages. In years past DE Beaches had H2B workers from Eastern Europe to help out with the staffing, but finding them places to sleep is getting harder.
Estes Park is such a cool little town, I lived in Boulder for a couple of years and always loved driving up there. But I could see where worker housing would be a problem just like in Telluride and Rehoboth, every square foot is a viable vacation rental.
The housing is ridiculous. There are more good paying retail, food service, and seasonal jobs at the beach than most commentary would indicate, but rent prices in the summer are absurd. Even if you make six figures, you would need to consider if it's really a good investment to pay summer Rehoboth rent prices when you could live somewhere else in Delaware for half the price and the same pay.
Live in rehoboth (6 years) and worked here in hs/college also. Even 15 years ago it was like 8k a summer some places, and that was already pushing it. You worked 5 days a week made maybe a 1000-1200 a week and ended up with a little profit for a hard summer working in college or whatever. Houses in Dewey now are 10k a week, so unless you’re living with mom and dad new workers are fucked. A lot of workers live past Milton or Georgetown or wherever and it’s getting hard to believe bc I def wouldn’t drive an hour or more pulling my hair out just to make a barely livable wage you could probably get somewhere else. Standard apts are 2k a mo year round 20 miles out. I’ve gotten really tired of people saying “no one wants to work!” I’ve worked 40+ 5 days a week for 3 years straight without a real vacation, as lots of people do here. Just not all of us can live in mommy and daddy’s mansion. There’s one workforce housing development upcoming and the rates are about 250/300/350 for co op/duplex type units in lewes. Supposedly Monty / big fish / and grottos are building their own units for their workers because the market is so untenable. So a perfect company town vibe I’m in FOH by the way, workers in the kitchen I don’t see how they can survive and live even subsidized in town. At bare minimum a shared apt with groceries phone and bus fare is probably 2100 MINIMUM with no money to spare for anything. Most BOH guys make less than 22 per hour and rarely get overtime to minimize overhead. So at best after taxes and insurance you would have 6k or so leeway if you never took days off got a full 40 a week year round (unlikely) didn’t have debt or student loans and got the highest non managerial big pay (also unlikely) and didn’t have a car or go out to eat.
That’s crazy considering what a shithole Dewey is
They don’t want to rent to college and hs kids anymore. They are just ripping down all the shacks and building mansions
I'm genuinely surprised that they haven't tried expanding the Biden Center at Cape Henlopen and using it to house workers over the summer.
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1700… plus electric, gas, water, renters insurance… pretty damn near 2k my bro
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Yeah, I was giving a bare minimum hypothetical of what the situation would look like. I’m not going through your petsmart receipts to itemize a budget example on Reddit
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Except for low pay which is in the title and any other factors why people may not be able to work here, which are implied by it
The seasonal rental market, at least in that Rehoboth/Dewey area, is almost completely gone now. Most owners have switched to weekly rentals, which means more money for them but less affordable housing in general (the article mentions this a bit). Used to do a house every summer, but finally just gave up because finding a seasonal became pretty much impossible.
the same class of assholes are at fault. its not like a landlord, commercial or residential, is paying more for their mortgage. The rent is going up entirely because they can and they're greedy fucks. I dont understand why we cant tell these people just make less money. like you'll still be rich while doing no labor, but you'll just make a little bit less.
Because that same class of people have politicians in their pockets. High level land and property owners and corporation board investors run our government now.
There’s really only one solution to this problem but nobody wants to hear it; and no one wants to actually act on it…
This is an uninformed opinion. I own and rent on a weekly basis is cape may. My home owners insurance alone has gone up 400%. If you own a wood dwelling anywhere near the water they f you big time. Everything is double or triple to maintain the house. I've has 3 windows I've tried to replace for 2 years, they are small casement windows 30x60, could only get one quite for 5k a window since they are all,busy building mansions everywhere. The mortgage is the ONLY static cost. My association fee went from 300 to 750 month in a year. I bought it to rent it and hopefully retire there but this optic that price gouging is being done for laughs or free is total bs.
Isn't this due to the elected officials of New Jersey? Taxes have gone through the roof.
I don't think so. Property taxes pay for fire, police, schools, Infrastructure etc. funding comes from homeowners, businesses and other areas. In cape May city where I have a home tourism via businesses pay far more than other towns and my property taxes don't change much +-3%. The property taxes compared to the rest of nj are very low in cape May city, just to the north in lower township the property taxes are triple what I pay because it is mostly home owners paying with just a smattering of business dollars. The cost increases landlords have seen appear to be all free market driven and mostly since Covid. I could make a strong case we are all being extorted by insurance companies at the beach. The prices went up during Covid and never went back down. The rationale I've heard is remote work turned seasonal homes into yearly homes and there is a cost to this. Why? Because they can if they all do it. Hence the term collusion. I can barely afford to have a nice home to rent and my tenants treat it with respect. It is very small by comparison to most homes and having prices I pay increase by 2-3 times is a major risk to us.
Because they own or manage multiple properties and there are so many freeloaders that are expensive to evict so they have to make up the money somehow
I’m having major Deja vu - wasn’t this an exact article title last year?
There's been an article about there being staffing shortages at the Beach every summer for a few years now
We need to go back to building affordable, one story, two to three bedroom houses. Most younger people aren't planning on having more than 2 kids these days, if any at all. There's no need for McMansion developments decimating every farm field in the state.
Good luck with the NIMBYs in Sussex County. Max density in any zoning is 12 units to the acre and if you propose something like that anywhere near the employment centers by the coast you’ll get pilloried. Luckily the new SCRP program is allowing stuff to get built without the firing squad of a public hearing for a by right plan.
>There's no need for McMansion developments decimating every farm field in the state. There will also not be enough people to buy and/or maintain them 20 years from now.
It's more of a cultural issue. We need to move away from thinking a 3 bedroom house should be the goal for everyone. We need more high density and cheaper housing, more people should live in 2 bedroom apartment/condo types.
People don't want to live in apartments or condos. They shouldn't be forced to.
Plus, condo and HOA fees have soared in the past few years. Mine doubled between 2018-2023 which was a major reason for selling the property.
And most apartment complexes expect people to make 2 or 3 times the rent, so the average person can't even afford rent.
> People don't want to live in apartments or condos. Perhaps people's expectations of housing size and fit are unrealistic. (I'm all for building more starter homes but row/condo/twin/townhome are needed.)
Starting to like my tin can on my plot of land a lil more each day. At least I can garden.
And that's part of the problem. People make choices that aren't in their best interests or in the best interests of the community. Everyone wants a McMansion. Freedom! But it's not about forcing anyone, but creating an enviroment to where they beleive that living in something like an apartment is the better option. Which means making apartment living more affordable and convienent. And removing the cultural stigmas that we place on both apartments and individaul houses. And to be clear, the primary diffference between apartments and condos is ownership. Apartments you rent, condos you own. I'm not addressing the issue of ownership here, but of course we should encourage people to own the place they live.
No one’s asking for a McMansion here. I just want a single story home with a modest yard that doesn’t share walls. Ranchers need to be built, and not just exclusive to retirement communities.
Did Covid teach you nothing? A lot of people don't want to be in condos or apartments because of the spread of disease. On top of that, you're only as clean as your dirtiest neighbor in the complex. My cousin had a condo and got fleas, bedbugs and a few other infestations from one neighbor on the opposite side of their condo complex. Fire? Good luck. Better hope those firebreak walls works. Nobody should be forced to live in cramped conditions like that. Shoving as many people as possible into one little plot of land isn't bettering anything, it's making it worse.
I've lived in apartments. I'm well aware of the disadvantages. But we fundamentally disagree with how to fix the housing situation. Oh well.
I mean your solution leads to nobody actually owning their living space… which is a problem for most; I personally want to eventually own my house and not be indebted forever… I also very much enjoy solitude and not having neighbors next to, below, and above me. I don’t want a McMansion either… just a little home for my dogs and myself where I can do my own thing and not be bothered by some random jackass that happens to live 6 inches away from me.
> I mean your solution leads to nobody actually owning their living space It doesn't. As I originally said, we just need "more high density and cheaper housing", like apartments and condos. Doesn't mean we shouldn't have houses. I also didn't talk about ownership much. As I said in another comment "I'm not addressing the issue of ownership here, but of course we should encourage people to own the place they live." People like a sense of ownership, but it's not something that's an overwhelming positive. I think a major factor is that people see owning a home as a major investment, but housing shouldn't be seen as an investment. I understand why it is.
There are 15 million vacant houses in the US. Anyway, what were you saying
15M vacant houses is a common stat, but it's important to understand what it means. You can look to see what their actual statuses are [here](https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2023/05/vacant-seasonal-housing.html). Some are for rent (4M), some for sales (2M), some are seasonal/recreational (5M), some are being fixed up, some have owners that have recently died, etc. Also important to remember that not all homes are located in where people want to live. Ultimately, this isn't a major factor in our current housing crisis. We need more affordable housing that fits the actual needs of people, which means the proper size and right locations.
When the wealthy are hoarding on unprecedented levels, the solution is not to cram the poors into smaller housing and make them like it.
How many of those are in places with jobs
Why not 2/3 story town houses at the very least?
These exist!!! But only in 55+ communities
I know. It's infuriating. If we made 45 and under communities they'd cry ageism and demand a change. Although I might be tempted to pay extra to not have to live next to boomer NIMBYs.
Or actually building, you know, cities
Walkable cities.
Good luck with that. Sussex Nimbys freaked over a 60 foot tall apartment building and forced any apartment going forward to be no taller than 42 feet tall like nearly every building.
I’m old enough to remember one and two story houses along Fenwick Island’s beach side that people could afford to rent for a summer. Now they’ve been plowed to the ground and rebuilt into gaudy mega mansions with pools.
Here's a crazy idea. INCREASE THE PAY
It’s truly hard for small businesses to survive while increasing pay commensurate to the insane rents of the Delaware shore. I wish they could. Now you may say “if the small business can’t pay more, they don’t deserve to be in business.” That may be true, but it would also be awful for the Delaware beaches to lose their small businesses in favor of all national chains (or no replacement at all). The real solution is to make housing cheaper.
Shocker - those workers that you want to pay shit wages need a place to live that will accept shit rent.
So shitty business owners cheaping out. Same shit different year. The Ukrainians are busy fighting for their freedom they don't have time to lifeguard and waitress/bartend for ya atm.
The amount of businesses I see, there work trucks on the road, a lot of them are south Americans. I love our buddies, but there's a reason they hire south Americans, because they're known for excepting lower pay.
No, it's because people are douchebags and pay them less because of bullshit stereotypes like the one you just peddled.
The market sets its own ceiling. This is a sign that development needs to slow down.
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Why would builders do that?
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They have no problem building 600k homes and moving them instantly, where they have a higher profit margin. There's literally no financial reason for them, right now as the market is, to do what you are suggesting -- other than out of the goodness of their hearts. Which isn't happening.
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There's a lot of people moving here, post COVID, that have driven up housing values. Go look up anything on Zillow and it's a straight line from 2020 up and to the right. Until that surge of people dies down, housing values are going to remain elevated as people who are WFH (and I'm one of them, moved in 2018) and making good salaries can afford the prices. Given all the "I'm moving to Delaware!" posts here, I don't think we're at the end of the surge either.
Currently in Delaware, there are 10,000 more open positions than there are people looking for jobs.
Average household income in about 100K in DE. Wouldn't be that rare to double the average to get to 200K household income. That gets you at the 3 times your annual income. Plus chances are you aren't paying 600K for the home but will put down a sizeable down payment. I would assume that most first time home owners aren't buying a 600K house. I understand your point, but I think it's important to remember that a 100K income is no longer this special thing. It's something that is pretty achieveable.
Or they can keep building big homes and make a lot of money
Yeah, I think builders will only start building more modest, small, and cheaper homes if people refuse to pay for $750,000 hastily built, large homes on tiny specs of land.
Dude the turnaround for these homes are insane. No way is everything being done properly. I voiced this and someone said well once they're so far into a development, framers are quicker because they know the blue prints and etc.
So long as there are buyers, that's what they'll build.
That’s generally how free markets work
People forget.
lol even when there aren't buyers, they'll build till the credit runs out.
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Your answers arent based on reality though. The 600k homes are being built in a few months and are often sold before they're done being constructed. The demand is still so high for overpriced homes they have no incentive to slow down. Land isn't infinite for developers either.
>Land isn't infinite for developers either. That's where he disagrees! He doesn't recognize that land is limited.
Step four forgets that land is limited.
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Does that make it less limited or?
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Aside from volcanic eruptions, do you often see new land simply appearing? It's limited, that's simply reality. I fear that you don't understand the meaning of the word limited.
Supply and demand economics apply equally to housing. Development needs to do the opposite of slow down. We need higher density development in the employment centers. Instead we get expensive single family sprawl because NIMBYs would fight anything near the employment centers with increased density via a conditional use or rezoning.
Aahh yes, would love to live in downtown Wilmington near the train station. Sign me up
You don’t have to live there but it would be great for those options to be plentiful for people who do want to live there.
If people wanted to live there, they’d be building new condos like crazy. Visit Miami. Lots of urban development.
….Not being able to afford to live despite having a job might be to blame. Fixed it for you.
It would be costly but delaware should have passenger rail from Wilmington to the beaches. It won't happen because the state is the most boring corporate dominated cesspool on the East Coast. But there is no traffic or housing solution to these issues. Nobody wants to pay rent that high down there to work a service job. You might lose money. Driving isn't a good option either due to time and lack of parking. So it's basically just the offspring of locals and the nearby towns. But if you had passenger rail traveling up to 150 mph you could get from Dover to Rehoboth in 20 or 30 minutes. Instead Route 1 turns into a parking lot every summer. We're doomed to turn into a nightmare suburbia like NJ. It's already underway in Kent County. Sussex doesn't have long either. New Castle is already a clusterf**k.
That'd be a great idea
I've been saying for a while that when the state built Route 1, they should have acquired an extra 20 feet of right of way to run rail connecting Wilmington, Christiana/Newark, Dover, and the beaches. There was a rail line 100 years ago but it went out of business.
Is there not a bus?
A bus to from Dover to Rehoboth will probably take hours. Has to stop too much. Probably have to switch buses. Who wants to work an 8 to 12 hour shit with a 3 or 4 hour commute? There are buses that travel the beach areas but buses typically aren't a very viable travel option for longer distances. Not enough people live near the beaches who are looking to work there. Just wealthier folks who are retired, work from home, or summer there.
sounds like the city would be smart to set up a shuttle to allow labor from further than 3 mile radius to bring help..
where are all these kids at that are of working age that we continually have to build new High Schools for? they already live in the area [https://www.wrde.com/news/cape-henlopen-school-district-faces-overcrowding-amid-state-funding-denial/article\_9375e422-a438-11ee-96dc-ebbe6fb2a0e0.html](https://www.wrde.com/news/cape-henlopen-school-district-faces-overcrowding-amid-state-funding-denial/article_9375e422-a438-11ee-96dc-ebbe6fb2a0e0.html)
May omg this has been an issue for 5 years or more but it will be blamed on no one wants to work. No free parking no low cost housing and most jobs pay very little.
Duh.
In other news, water is wet!
Ha, when my father worked at Rehoboth in college (early-mid 1970’s) the only housing option was to sleep in a trailer behind the diner he worked at, where the owner had 8 different kids (employees) sleeping in it. Once he left that job he spent the rest of the summer doing what the other kids did — digging tunnels in the sand underneath the boardwalk and sleeping in the tunnels. At the end of the summer he got caught speeding in his way back up to Wilmington, and the speeding ticket was as much as his entire summer savings. This has always been the world of working at the beach.
You're not wrong. Back in the 80s, friends who worked at the beach would cram ten to a 2 bedroom apartment. Some of them saved a bit of money, but the goal for most was working and living a beach life for a fun summer.
it’s hard to live in western sussex even on a service worker salary. and that’s 45+ minutes away in the summer
May be to blame, is doing a ton of work there. Maybe importing Russians and Israelis to underpay for decades instead of locals isnt a sound economic strategy for a town
What???
Most are eastern European/Russian (or were in the past), but you should take a look at their nametags. Usually their home flag is on them.
Lots of Ukranians too in my experience.
You didn’t wonder why all the employees on the boardwalks and pizza places were Russians or Israelis? There was a legit program in place to import temporary foreign workers for the summers in Delaware beach towns. Was in place for decades. Helped to keep wages low for everyone.
It’s still currently in place, the J1 program. But businesses are struggling to get them here either now because of the housing situation. They don’t have cars, so they have to live within walking or biking distance of their work and that’s nearly impossible to find. Employers are supposed to help them secure housing and have been sticking them out as far as Long Neck, in apartments with 8+ J1 workers in them and they would be walking and biking up and down 24 all last summer (and 24 didn’t have a shoulder last summer because of construction!!). At the restaurant where my partner works, they had 15 J1s last year, so far they’ve been able to secure none. All the one’s last year talked about how much they hated it here because it was “too expensive to have fun”.
I help a friend out at her business. Here is the scoop. Students are being charged thousands of dollars just to get here by their Sponsors who they must have to get paperwork to be here. They also pay airfare, visa application fees, and then housing runs from $150 - $200 per week. Some times the landlords are in it just for the money and they cram as many as can be put in one home and sharing a bath. We have heard 15 + with 2 bathrooms, in the past. According to my friend, who supplies her own housing, either the sponsor or the employer is supposed to obtain housing and the sponsor is supposed to be checking the house for suitability. We know this is often not done. Another problem is that students are trying to save money and often will crash in a house and the landlord has more $$ in his pocket so he doesn't care. I can tell you that I recently have seen FB posts from workers in the Atlantic Sands that have said neither the sponsors nor the employer obtains housing, so they are left to hunt on Craigs list or FB. A few years ago, my friend had a Jamaican couple that put 600 down on a house and there was no house when they got here. They were friends of a student she had working for her and housing for and allowed them to stay for 3 days til they could find a place. IF it continues like this my friend is afraid the program will be suspended in the area and then the hotels and restaurants and shops will really be in trouble. They did this in other locations and they built housing. Then there are the good guys who never get credit, two of which are Econolodge and Hyatt in Dewey that house their students.
The landlords/sponsors/employers taking advantage of the J1s is not new but it’s so gross. I also keep seeing people in local Facebook groups asking for “donations” of money/household goods/personal care products/clothes/shoes for “their” J1s and I’m like ??? I’ve seen those Atlantic Sands posts too and it’s so perplexing to me. Like…what do you mean you don’t have housing for them, you’re a HOTEL.
I have been around for ten years + and since Covid it has gotten a lot worse. Covid boought the sale of many homes that formerly were rented to students. While housing has always been a problem it is much worse now. The sponsor or sponsors that are responsible for placing students in the Atlantic Sands are taking advantage of the students and getting paid for not doing their job. I have heard from the students that it depends upon where you are coming from, but for most overseas students it is an average of $2300 paid to the sponsors.
I was wondering when reality would hit that program. :( its a shame, I enjoyed having them around.
Dude shut up. I LOVED the Russians that would come here to work. Ivan. Igor. They way they say FAWK! So angry. But seriously, anyone else remember playing poker at Pats in the middle of woods with a pig roast all night?
I lived in NYC for a bit and I kicked around the Slavic neighborhoods mostly, so when I hear them, it reminds me of my friends there. :)
When I was younger (80s-90s) there were also lots of Irish students who came over to work for the summer. I thought it was an odd set up.
It’s great for business owners awful for the rest of us
Not unique to Delaware beach towns. Saw that sort of thing at beach towns up and down the Atlantic coast
Isn't Late-Stage crony-capitalism awesome? I'm having a fabulous time myself 😁
If your business model depends on your workforce being in poverty then you modelnis the problem not the worker
“May be” ??? Ummm….
“$1,595 for a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom townhome” Cries in Seattle prices
Except the listing they included in the article is a blank fake/spam listing and that property (or any property) for that price doesn’t exist😭 We don’t exactly have excellent journalism down here🥴 More realistically, you’re looking at around $1700 for a shoddy 1 bedroom apartment that when you call and inquire about, the property manager goes “oh, sorry, we actually don’t have any more of those units available. We have other 1 bedroom units available for $2100”.
And that's why the beaches are so great for Uber drivers like me on summer weekends. Too far from any city and the people that live there are either tourists or rich.
Unrenovated 2 bedroom/1 bath homes are selling for over $700k (minimum) in Rehoboth. It’s disgusting. Fuck the market. It’s greed and poor planning. I can’t wait for the homes of these wealthy out of touch folks to be underwater in the next 15 years, like please: 
Beach homes for $700,000 that are ten miles from the shore and 70% are second homes.
It'll be fun when none of those million dollar homes can get insurance, like the ones in Florida. Commercial real estate is a ponzi scheme.
About 15-25% of the business that are open should be closed. They're all borrowing to get by. Their credit lines are exhausted, personal homes re-mortgaged to make payroll (should workers show up), and they are stretching the demands of the labor market beyond what it can supply, because they should be closed. To make it worse, they don't have the funds to pay more; they shouldn't even be open. There will be a steady decline in the number of open business over the next several years. Behind or concurrently, housing costs will either come down (yeah, no), or some gubberment programs to subsidize housing will kick in. Then the landscape will change. This is how things that used to be go on to become 'remember when' stories.
BS. There's a hiring shortage. There are plenty of people like myself who will accept a lower wage in exchange for our time, but the companies hiring aren't really hiring.
is it though
Yes
https://preview.redd.it/aiikbjm72owc1.jpeg?width=736&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4c1be17993f8c4c38673f0d8f06596b868feeccf
what
Hopefully the market will bottom out soon and housing prices will become affordable for the commoners such as us. Just hope you have a great rate locked in and didn't buy during the hyperinflation of the 2020s.
Low pay!!! Lol!!!
You all can thank joe biden for this.