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captainlondonman · 8 days

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Skin or not Skin

Jake remembered exactly the first day he got off on Skinheads. The day when Skins started to infiltrate his brain. He was walking down the High Street when he saw in front of him 3 Skinheads from the rear. Two were in tight bleachers which seemed moulded to their arses, the other was in camos. All had high boots with either red or white laces, the boots were highly polished. All wore Alpha bomber jackets. The taller was clearly powerfully built and his green jacket had the sleeves pushed up to show off all his tattoos and Jake could see the spider web tattoo all the way across his neck. The other two guys were smaller, the chubbier one’s arse really filled out his bleachers he wore a black alpha bomber and the third guy wore green to go with his camos. They walked together in a threatening way and Jake could see people turning round to stare. He heard the tall one shout out

‘What the fuck are you looking at. Never seen a Skin before. Quit the looking or I’ll punch the living daylight out of ya.’

‘Who the fuck’ he turned to his friend. ‘We’re skins we own this fucking place. I take no fucking prisoners.’

Jake’s cock was rigid, he looked down at his trackies and Christ it was making a huge bulge. He quickly wrapped his jacket over his trackies to conceal it but he felt so horny looking at these powerful gays with their shaved heads. They oozed power and aggression. He was under their spell.

They walked off in a different direction but as soon as Jake got inside his flat he had his cock down his trackies, still rigid and now a large wet patch of precum showing. He flipped his cock out and leant back against the wall with his eyes closed dreaming of especially the tall guy imagining what he looked like from the front, imagining that if his bleachers were tight on his arse then he would be showing a huge bulge inching its way down his leg. He wanted to be at the guy’s mercy on his knees ready to take the cock all the way down his throat. He wanted to feel part of the Skin. Jake’s decent sized prick was almost vertical it was so hard as he started to run his hand up and down the shaft his cock head glistening with precum. The more he rubbed he more he could almost feel himself under full control of the Skin, being a full sub to his top. He could see the full picture of the Skin and his mind was in overdrive as his wanking brought him to ejaculate. He threw his body outwards, shouting ‘fuck me Skin let me be your slave.’ His spunk lashed out, the biggest wank and most cum he had had in ages. He was hooked.

Jake could not get the ideas of Skinheads out of his mind and he started trawling the internet for photos. Once he got on to Tumblr, there were photos everywhere, not just normal pics but Skins fucking and sucking each other. Jake had never wanked as much in his life. The more he looked at these sites he suddenly one day decided he needed to have some of his own gear that he could wear around the flat. Nobody need know but at least he could feel more like a Skin. He went on to eBay to see what he might get and sure enough he bought the long white socks, the Lonsdale T shirt and red braces. He went on to the Doc Martens web site and found the high boots with red laces. Under bomber jackets he found the green Alpha jacket just like the tall skin who even though he had not seen the guys face was becoming his idol. Finally there was a bleachers site and he looked to see what was available. He hardly needed to decide it had to be ones with the rear zip. He was impatient to have them all and each day hoped the postman would deliver the clothes he craved for. They duly arrived and he was ready to wear for the first time but he also purchased two other items to complete his pleasure.

Jake laid all his new clothes out and stood back to admire. It was all Skin gear and he could wear the things that Skins wore and feel like one of them even if he wasn’t. It wasn’t as easy as he thought to put it all on especially lacing up the boots but before he managed to step into his bleachers his cock was so hard and pulsating with pleasure. Just like his hero they were so tight at the arse but his thick cock was stuffed down his right leg making a bulge that he never knew he had. There was the beginning of a precum stain showing. He put on the T shirt and then attached the braces to the jeans. At first he pulled them up but then remembered his idol let them hang down and so he did the same. He put on the green alpha bomber last and stood with his legs apart staring at his new look in the mirror. OK so he still had his head of dark wavy hair but he looked like a God, almost a Skin. So he could act out the part he took his new piece of clothing out. A full rubber hood with eye slits and another for his mouth. He pulled it down tight and it was pressed tight against his whole face all the way down to the base of his neck. He then looked at himself. Now he no longer looked like Jake but like a Skin. He let his arms swing wide and staring into the mirror he shouted

‘I’m a fucking Skin mate, I’ll fucking kill you. You want a fuck well I’m a skin fucker. I take no shit.’

His cock was bursting as he felt himself become a skin but he needed the one final thing. From his bed he took up the 9” black rubber dildo and let a few gobs of spit roll over the shaft. Easing the rear zip down he let himself go into the squat position and pushed the dildo up the crack of his arse. Watching his reflection he carried out shouting ‘I wanna be fucked by a skin. Skin to fucking skin. A good sized dick up my arse. Only a skin dick.’

He could feel the dildo moving up inside him until it was all the way up to the hilt. He felt as if his idol was inside him. His skin idol fucking the living daylights of him and he also a skin.

Using one hand to push and pull at the dildo he undid his front zip and yanked out his boner, taking it firmly in his other hand.

‘That’s it mate fuck me you skin and let me cum.’

The more he rammed the dildo in and out of his arse the more his hand gripped his shaft. He was hardly needing to wank such was his excitement at seeing himself almost a skin and with a black rubber dildo all the way up him.

‘Fuck me you fucking skin, take me, spunk all the way up me man.’

And with that he came his cum spraying across the mirror, running in thick globs down, white and thickly creamy.

That night Jake slept in his full skin gear feeling encased being a skin. He woke up every now and then to press his hand on his seemingly constant erect cock. He had never felt like this.

He had hoped to rush home from work the next day to get back into his gear but had to meet friends after work for a drink His mates asked him if he was Ok as he seemed on edge but it was only because he wanted to stand in front of the mirror and shout abuse at himself.

As he left the pub he suddenly caught sight of his Idol, again the rear view only. He was on his own and looked as if he was on a mission. This time Jake thought he did not want to let him out of his view so quietly managed to follow him. He went down the edge of the old railway sidings making it difficult for Jake to hide but he managed to keep on the other side of the old railway carriages. The Idol walked into the darkened tunnel and stood at the far end leaning against the wall. Jake could now see what he looked like and it was even better than he imagined with the shaved head, the cobweb tattoo and a scar on one of his cheeks. He had obviously been in many fights and his nose looked like a boxer’s having been broken several times. But to Jake he was all man and good looking. As Jake stared at him his cock was hard and he started stroking the trousers as his breathing increased. Suddenly he was aware of a noise on the other side of the carriages. Crouching he looked under the wheels and saw a pair of high Doc Martens with white laces moving towards the tunnel. The guy stopped at the tunnel opening. The Idol turned round to see who was approaching and put his hand to his crotch stroking the full length of his shaft and arching his back out so they could see the full thick outline. The new Skin stopped and also stroked his bleachers. He was a muscle guy with just bleachers and vest and Jake could see the tattoos all down both arms. The Idol unzipped his flies and brought out his cock. Christ it looked huge and was glistening in the night light. He then took his hand and started massaging the shaft. The other Skin started walking down the tunnel until he was facing the Idol who put one arm out grabbing the guys hand and placing it firmly on his cock, his other arm going round the Skin’s neck and pulling him in to tongue him. Jake thought he would cum without any wanking he was so excited.

Suddenly the Idol moved his arms and spun the Skin round so he was flattened against the wall of the tunnel. The guy put up his arms and moved his arse out into the Idol’s crotch

The Idol pulled down the rear zip of the guy’s bleachers and poked two finger into his crack, moving them around to widen the hole. Taking the finger out he let spit drop onto his prick and rubbed it gently up and down the shaft so his spit covered the full length of his tool. Placing one arm on the guys shoulder he used the other to guide his dick into the crack and slowly Jake could see him shoving it up the full length. The skins mouth opened in pain as he could feel the thick diameter force its way up. But he clearly loved it as he pushed his arse outwards so he could feel the Idol’s pubes rub against his bum. With his cock fully up, the Idol put both arms on the shoulders of the skin and started to push and pull sliding his cock almost the whole way out and then ramming it back in with greater force. The more he pushed the more the Skin shoved his arse backwards. The idol gripped hard the shoulder blades as his pleasure increased. Jake could make out that he was nearing his orgasm. Jakes cock was so hard it was painful and though he put his hand into trousers it was caught inside so he had to rub the denim. As the Idol shot his load so Jakes own cock exploded down inside some of the cum oozing out through the fabric the rest forming a long drip line. Jake was breathless. This was like a dream come true the only drawback was that it was not him with the Idol. The two skins zipped up and giving one another a good tonguing, went their separate ways. It was only raw sex they wanted and both had been satisfied.

For Jake this was almost a dream come true, seeing the Idol ‘s large prick and then seeing it ramming the other Skin. He hardly slept working out his next move but he knew what had to be done.

The next evening when it was dark he put on all his Skin gear apart from the mask and slipped out of his apartment with a long coat covering most of his gear up in case someone saw him. He drove down near the tunnel and parked up then got out to hide in the bushes. His heart was racing. Would the skin return looking for more sex. The mere possibility had his cock hard the bulge straining against his bleachers. He heard a noise and sure enough his idol walked past and into the tunnel loitering at the end where there was a glow of light.

Jake was terrified but he so wanted to have the Skins cock. He put on the rubber hood pulling it tightly down over his head and neck. No one would know he was not a skin as the hood was so tight. He moved out of the bushes and started to walk towards the tunnel, making sure he walked with a swagger just like a Skin his arms slightly out as though he might be ready for a fight.

The Skin saw him at the end of the tunnel and stubbed out the ciggie from his mouth to let his hand come down and stroke his bulge. In the dim light Jake could make out the long hard bulge. Jake let one of his hands rub his own dick in the hope the Skin could see that he was also well hung. Jake felt like a skin about to have a session with another real Skin.

Trying not to breathe too heavily he approached the skin and stood in front saying nothing but waiting.

‘Luv your fucking hood mate .It’s making me feel right horny. I’ve a boner and a half here and need a good blow job so quit the looking, get down in front of me mate.. I want to see you unzip me and get yer hand inside my sweaty crotch and pull me out. You’ll like what you see. I want you to take the full length.

Jake did as told and got down on his knees and put his hands up to unzip the bleachers. He opened the button so he could get his hand inside and pushed his hand down past the hairy balls. Shit it felt as if he had to put his hand all the way down the guys leg to pull it out.

‘Don’t yank at it mate it’s me fucking prick.’

As Jake pulled it out so he could see the large head glistening with precum. He lowered the bleachers more so he could also get the balls out, and they were well hung.

‘Glad you like the balls as well mate as you can pull them while you suck me off. Luv me balls being pulled. Now get some of yer spit onto me dick before you suck.’

Jake let a big gob of spit emerge through the slit in his hood. And putting one hand around the guys balls he took hold of the shaft with his other hand and moved it to his mouth. The Skin could see the cock head sliding past the rubber slit as it entered Jake’s mouth

‘I fucking love the hood mate. Luv seeing my dick going through the rubber.’

At first Jake thought he might gag but all he wanted was to have the full shaft slide down the back of his throat. As he grasped the Skin’s bleachers so the Skin let his hands slide over the hood.

‘Fucking love your rubber mate makes me even hornier. Almost as good as a fuck. Love me hands on the rubber pushing my dick further and further into yer throat. Shit man you love cock the way you’re gobbling me. Now pull on me balls, yank them down let me feel some pain.’

Jake grabbed the balls even tighter and pulled hard.

‘Fucking hell that’s sore mate but feels fucking great. Now suck.’

As Jake pulled so the Skin holding Jakes rubber clad head pushed his head in and out towards his pubes. Jake’s mouth was so full of cock. This was real.

‘Shit man I’m gonna come so get ready to take all me spunk and swallow it so you feel me going all the way down into you. I luv yer fucking rubber.’

And with that the Skin exploded his cum into Jake’s throat, so much cum that it started to ooze out the rubber slit and down the front.

‘Shit man what a fucking blow job, yeah man.’

Once he had come he pushed Jake’s head back and took his hand to wipe any left over cum off his dick before stuffing it back into his bleachers.

‘I need to see what you look like mate, you’re something else.’

As we went to put his hands on the hood Jake said

‘No man leave it as is you liked the hood so let’s leave it at that.’

‘Did you not hear me? I said I want to see what you look like. Do as I say or Ill fucking knock you.’

The Skin leant over Jake who was by now terrified and slowly grabbing the base of the neck the Skin pulled the mask up and over Jakes head.

Jake could not move. The Skin stared hard at him.

‘You’re not a fucking skin. All that clothing is just a joke. That fucking mass nof hair. You’re fucking pretending. Nobody but a Skin has sex with me. I fucking hate someone like you who thinks he is skin. It’s not just fucking clothes. It’s a way of life. You slimy little bastard.’

‘I’m sorry but I love skin clothing and I’ve seen you around and so wanted sex with you.’

‘I could fucking kill you trying it on with me and having me cum like this. Don’t think you are getting away with this so stand up, NOW.’

Jake was almost paralysed with fear and did as told. The Skin put Jake into a stranglehold, tightening his grip around the throat.

‘I’m sorry, I really am.’ Jake blurted out. ‘I just wanted to be like you.’

‘You don’t fucking piss with me mate. Fucking little bastard. I’ll teach you. I could fucking well strangle you now.’

Jake felt his breath was being squeezed out of him, was becoming more and more dizzy, the pain increasing as he tried to breathe. Suddenly it was too much and he passed out.

Little by little Jake could feel his eyesight returning. He was not dead. He was not standing and he could hardly move his head. He realized he was on his knees but his neck felt cold and it was as though his neck was in a brace. He had no idea where he was . It suddenly dawned on him that he was in a cage and his head was jammed into a hole in the cage but not just that as he brought his hands up to his neck he could feel a steel collar around his neck. As he managed to look in front him, unable to fully raise his head he saw a pair of bleachers in white laced Doc martens in front of him. The Skin was on a stool facing him.

‘Wondered when you’d fucking well come round. So how do you feel. You’re mine now and it’s up to me what to do with you. Only I can let you out. I see you pissed yerself when I choked you but at last it’s drying out. Anyway bleachers are best if they’ve got dried piss down them. Skins like their boots nice and shiy so you can start licking mine.’

The Skin put one of his boots up into Jake’s face.

‘Now let me see a few good gobs on them before you lick.’

Jake cleared his mouth and spat several times onto the boot.

‘Now let me see you fucking lick. Start with the sole until I tell you to do the caps.’

Jake could feel the dirt and mud from the boots come up into his mouth. He wanted to gag but knew he would be punished so he swallowed and got on while the Skin stared at him.

‘That’s right mate now get on with the cap.. Let me see your tongue go all over.. Stick your fucking tongue the whole way out so I can see.’

Jake extended his tongue and licked over the surface. Being in the cage and at the Skin’s total mercy, licking boots made his heart race and he could feel his cock inching down his bleachers.

‘Good boy, now lick me other boot but let me cover it with some of my spit so I can see you taking in all my gob.’

The Skin spat hard on the boots, thick slimy spit.

‘Bet you love me gob eh mate? That’s right really lick, let’s see whose spit is best.’

Jake wanted to swallow the Skin’s spit as though he was devouring the person and making him part of him. Jake let his tongue linger on the spit and slurped it on the toe.

‘Lovely stuff mate. You see you’re mine. So you thought you could get away being a skin with that fucking hair of yours did you. No Skin has any hair we shave every other day and make it nice a shiny. That way you know not to mess with us. We are hard men and that ain’t just our cocks. So you know what is coming next. That hair of yours is going and soon you can see it all piled up on the floor.’

The Skin got out a barber’s electric razor and started working it over Jakes head. Jake wanted to shout out to stop but he wanted his hair gone and the more hair that was shaved off the more aroused Jake became.

‘Bet you’ve got a fucking boner with all this mate. Once I’ve finished with the electric razor I need to take the hand razor to get it all off so will put some shaving foam over your head. It’s all coming off a fucking treat mate. Gone all that fuzz of yours.’

Once the skin had used the razor he took a wet towel and removed all the remaining foam off to reveal a nice shiny bald head.

‘OK mate you keep the steel collar on but I’m letting you out the cage so you can stand up. No funny stuff about escaping cause I fucking punch the living daylights out of you.’

The gate was released and Jake crawled out slowly standing up to his full height in front of the Skin.

‘Now let me see you proper. He took his large hand and slapped it over Jake’s face a couple of times.

‘A few bruises makes you look the real stuff boy.’

‘Shit man you sure look a fucking good skin. You looked a right pussy boy before but now scalped you look fucking great. And what did I say?’

With that the Skin took his hand and grabbed hold of the outline of Jakes stiff cock straining at his bleachers.

‘I said you had a boner and not a bad one at that. I like me skins with big dicks and you pass the test. Turn round.

Jake did as told and then felt the skins hands moving across his arse.

‘Those bleachers of yours sure give your bum a nice tight shape. I love a solid arse and you know what your arse is for eh boy.’

‘Yes sir to be fucked,’

‘Too fucking right. What with that arse of yours and yer erect pole I fucking wanting to shag you and get my dick all the way up that arse of yours. So bend over the cage but first get that cock of your out and lemme see. Jake stuffed his hand down his trousers leg and pulled out his dick.

‘Let me get my hand around that boy. A good thick one you’ve got there. Might need to feel that up me at some stage but for now you are mine.’

Jake almost shivered as he felt his cock being squeezed by the skin and feeling his beery breath on his face.

‘So you’ve seen mine but have another look now before I get it up you.’

He pulled out his cock, and he was clearly feeling so horny it was almost vertical.

‘I’ll need to push this one down boy to get it up you as you’re making me feel right horny. So before you bend over bend down and let some of your spit on my dick. That way it’ll go up easier for you.’

Jake let two big gobs on to the thick shaft and bent over, the Skin unzipping the rear of the bleachers.

I always fuck a guy in gear. Naked ain’t the same. I like my guys in full skin.’

The Skin got down behind Jake and put his face up against Jake’s arse using his tongue to lick and with his hands he could spread Jake’s cheeks wide to let his tongue get up the first part.

‘Lovely soft arse you’ve got there. No taste of shit. Now get ready to take this. Spread your legs and you’ll find it easier to take my thick tool Jut that arse out as well.’

Jake was almost gagging to be fucked by the Skin. This is what he had wanted since the first day he saw the guy. As he stuck his arse out so he felt the skins head burst through the opening. For someone who was so aggressive in his way of life he was gently taking Jake knowing that his tool would hurt unless Jake was ready receive it.

‘Like that boy?’

‘Its fucking great. A right monster you have there’

‘I like your use of the word “Fuck” boy as we skins use it all the time. Shows we mean business.’

‘Then fucking fuck me sir.’

‘Don’t worry once I get this up to the hilt in your arse don’t expect me to be gentle. Now that’s it in really push yourself up against me then you have all of me inside you. Shit man you’ve been fucked a few times before. That arse of yours has had a few cocks up them.’

‘Yeah but none like your cock.’

The Skin put his arms round Jakes thighs.

Now stand up so you can press your body against me.

As Jake stood up so the Ski put his arms around Jake holding him tight and then kissed his neck.

‘Shit man I want you and not just tonight. Seeing that neck of yours has decided me that tomorrow you’ll have a good tat put across the back. I wanna see “Skinhead” and in big letters and then on your shoulder you’ll have my name showing all the lads you belong to me. Now let me get my hand onto that cock of yours and we can both orgasm at the same time. You’d like that eh?’

Jake gulped as the Skin rammed his cock in and out as he let his body go from tight against the Skin and moving it slightly out until the thick head was almost ready to pop out but he knew exactly when to stop and then force himself back against the Skin.

‘Fuck, wank me man let me cum in your hand. I wanna have your hand covered in my spunk. Go on fuck me man, fuck me hard’, Jake shouted.

‘Take my fucking dick, feel me deep inside you sliding that massive shaft of mine up and down that juicy arse of yours. I can feel that dick of yours pulsating ready to erupt.’

‘Just fuck me, cum all the way inside me and get the spunk all the way up me.’

‘You’re about to get it I’m ready man. So you too man spunk away.’

‘I’m a fucking skin being fucked by a fucking great skin. Its fucking brill man that’s it fuck me unload that spunk now.’

And with one final push the Skin shot his load deep inside Jake’s arse and the Skins hand was covered with thick creamy spunk.

They sank back over the cage exhausted

‘That’s the fucking best shag I have ever had.’ Jake shouted.

‘You won’t get better than me.’

‘Here’s a towel, wipe yourself off and get that prick of yours back in your bleachers. I’ll zip up your rear. You’ll soon have a nice damp patch of my cum oozing out that crack of yours and everyone will know who done it. I’m taking you to the skin club to meet the lads but you keep that collar on for now. I want them all to know that you are mine and I ain’t sharing you out. They’ll all want a bit of that cock so get ready to be touched up but its only me that gets to use your arse.’

‘I don’t want anyone else. I am yours and only yours and I am a skin at last. No longer a dream thanks to you and the real thing. A skin and your skin.’

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mostlysignssomeportents · 2 years

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Shelter in place

Shelter is a human necessity and a human right. A successful society is one that safeguards our freedoms and our rights. The decision to turn housing into the major speculative asset class for retail investors and Wall Street has made housing a disaster for people with houses — and a catastrophe for those without.

America has a terrible, accelerating homelessness problem. Many of us share this problem — obviously, people without houses have the worst of it. But no one benefits from mass homelessness — it is a stain on the human soul to live among people who are unsheltered.

However, there is an answer to the problem of people lacking homes, one with a strong evidentiary basis, which costs significantly less than dealing with the crises of homelessness: give homes to people who don’t have them. It’s called Housing First, and it works:

https://endhomelessness.org/resource/housing-first/

But Housing First has a fatal flaw: it merely helps people without homes find them. It does not generate excess profits for a highly concentrated sector. No one profiteers off Housing First, and so there is no well-funded lobby to promote it.

However, there is a highly concentrated industry with sky-high profits and a powerful lobbying arm that has its own proposal for ending homelessness. It’s the private prison industry, and its proposal is to make homelessness illegal and then put all the homeless people in private prisons:

https://invisiblepeople.tv/private-prisons-for-homeless-criminalization/

A wave of laws criminalizing homelessness has come before American statehouses, and behind them is a deep-pocketed astroturf campaign run by The Cicero Institute, a “libertarian” think-tank that has widely shopped model legislation called the “Reducing Street Homelessness Act.”

Under the proposal, anyone caught sleeping on the streets would be liable to imprisonment. Further, homeless people judged to have mental health issues by police officers would be either imprisoned or locked up in mental heath facilities. As Kayla Robbins writes for Invisible People, such a law would substantially raise the stakes for any homeless person seeking help from police or other services — if they decide you look “mentally ill,” they could lock you up indefinitely.

Where will the money for all these new prison beds come from? By diverting budgets currently allocated for permanent housing.

It’s weird that the Cicero Institute would devote so much energy to discrediting Housing First and promoting criminalization (“libertarians” who want to throw millions of people, mostly Black and brown, into prison indefinitely have a highly selective definition of “liberty).

But there’s at least a circumstantial case for why they would undertake this project: their founder is Joe Lonsdale, the billionaire Palantir co-founder whose VC firm 8VC has made sizable investments in private prisons.

Americans without homes are in a terrible place. How about Americans with homes? Well, obviously they have it better — but it’s not as though they’re well-served by market-based housing, either.

Treating a human necessity as a speculative asset has all kinds of negative outcomes — for your house’s value to continue to rise, the plight of tenants has to steadily worsen. The resale price of your home will include the expected returns from renting it out (even if the new owner doesn’t become a landlord, they’re going to have to bid against someone who would), and rental returns go up when tenancy protections go down.

Meanwhile, the spiraling price of housing — driven by the policy requirement to drive up asset prices to please homeowning voters — means that your kids are going to end up (someone else’s) tenants, exposed to the cruelties you promoted to safeguard the family asset.

You’re not even going to be able to pass that asset onto your kids — focusing on asset appreciation, rather than public service provision, means that you will have to liquidate the family home to pay for your eldercare and your kid’s student debts.

Back in 2021, I wrote, “The Rent’s Too Damned High,” about the way that treating housing as an asset rather than a necessity has made everything else worse:

https://gen.medium.com/the-rents-too-damned-high-520f958d5ec5

But here it is, 2022, and it’s even worse. Writing for Bloomberg, Tracy Alloway and Joe Weisenthal describe the enweirdening of the housing market as interest rates rise.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-10/here-s-how-weird-things-are-getting-in-the-housing-market?leadSource=uverify%20wall

Housing is becoming less affordable: with interest rates going up, the cost of a new mortgage is unbearable for many working people. What’s more, banks are tightening up their lending criteria, making it harder to get a mortgage in the first place.

This may feel familiar — it certainly echoes the housing market after the Great Financial Crisis of 2008. But unlike 2008, the people who have houses aren’t losing them in walloping great numbers. Partly that’s because we’re not letting giant banks steal their houses with mortgage fraud:

https://web.archive.org/web/20171005131636/https://www.thenation.com/article/how-americas-biggest-bank-paid-its-fine-for-the-2008-mortgage-crisis-with-phony-mortgages/

But it’s also because banks started requiring larger downpayments after the GFC, so borrowers aren’t saddled with terrible debt-to-equity ratios, and many homeowners were able to refinance at rock-bottom prices during the lockdown. And, unlike 2008, most mortgages today are fixed rate — even though interest rates are rising, your mortgage rate is locked in.

That’s produced a very weird circumstance: no one can afford to buy a house, but prices aren’t going down. For prices to go down, we’d need to see more houses on the market, and no one wants to build a new house in this environment.

With no new houses going up, any additional supply would come from existing homeowners selling their homes. But when you sell your home, you usually have to buy another one, and that means swapping your 2% 2020 mortgage for a a 5% 2022 mortgage — which translates to a six- or seven-figure increase in the overall price of your home.

Has someone offered you a better job in another city or state? Great! Is it worth paying hundreds of thousands of dollars more for your mortgage over the next 20 years? No? Okay, I guess the answer is no.

To recap: treating shelter as a speculative asset means that we’re about to permanently imprison thousands of homeless people at enormous public expense. It means that your kids are doomed to being rent-burdened tenants with no legal rights for their rest of their lives. And it means that you are locked into the house you were in when the music stopped, no matter how many reasons there are to go somewhere else.

Turning housing into an asset doesn’t help you, the person looking for a place to live. But it’s great news for Wall Street and billionaires like Jeff Bezos, who are buying up whole neighborhoods and turning them into high-rent slums:

https://www.benzinga.com/real-estate/22/08/28685878/jeff-bezos-bet-on-housing-slide-his-single-family-rental-play-is-well-timed

sImage: in0_m0x0 (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/marineperez/4698707308/

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

[Image ID: A row of barred prison cells; superimposed over them, in needlepoint font, is the motto 'Home Sweet Home.']

#pluralistic

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