Section 8

One of the interesting side effects of the crazy housing market is that speculators are actively recruiting Section 8 (low-income, subsidized rent) tenants in some places.

Here in California's Central Valley, speculators buy homes they intend to turn over in a few years for quick profit but can't find any one household willing or able to pay enough rent to cover the mortgage and taxes. So the speculators are renting them out to groups of unrelated people, and/or Section 8 tenants who don't have to pay the high market rent. As a result, Section 8 is moving out into the expanding exurbs, to the chagrin of folks who bought out there to get away from "those" kind of people.

I just love unintended consequences.