Re:Home ownership is the West’s biggest economic-policy mistake
by teachingassist on Tuesday April 20, 2021 @05:32AM
(#26872506)
> If people didn't own houses then someone would, and that someone is still incentivized to constrain the supply.
This seems theoretically nice but is not in practice the case. Homeowners are immediately present, voting locally, political NIMBYs.
Homeowners who are ostensibly in favour of increasing the housing supply, still don't like it when it affects their own area (and know how to effectively campaign against it locally).
Landlords just don't care that much (in this instance) - an increasing local population heralds local economic growth and a potentially increased value of their property portfolio.
This seems theoretically nice but is not in practice the case. Homeowners are immediately present, voting locally, political NIMBYs.
Homeowners who are ostensibly in favour of increasing the housing supply, still don't like it when it affects their own area (and know how to effectively campaign against it locally).
Landlords just don't care that much (in this instance) - an increasing local population heralds local economic growth and a potentially increased value of their property portfolio.