A two bedroom hovel in my city nets about $1200 section 8 voucher. A two bedroom in a nice development in the burbs is about $1300, and includes parking, pool and gym.

Landlords are like oil people, it’s all about extractive value. You want to pump the most cash possible with the minimum overhead possible. Building housing gets attractive only when the government subsidizes construction through low rates and rapid tax depreciation. A relative was the lead on development of a $18M hotel. He probably has $750k in. Most of the money is made with accelerated depreciation. The hotel itself is an afterthought, you couldn’t build it without the backend tax subsidy.