Re:How to make housing more affordable
by jimbob45 on Saturday September 25, 2021 @06:52PM
(#28656870)
Alright, let’s agree to disagree on whether or not supply should be increased.
Would you at least agree in a hypothetical US in which it is not possible to build further supply that banning renters would be the next logical step? Again, this is not to say or not say that supply should not be further built.
Re:How to make housing more affordable
by civilized on Saturday September 25, 2021 @07:00PM
(#28656906)
I don't see the argument? Some people like renting. Landlord profit margins mostly depend on supply and demand, just like home prices do. Enough supply will bring their margins down to grocery store levels, and renters won't be at much of a disadvantage compared to owners.
Owning means saving a lot of money and accepting a lot of price risk and transaction costs. I own a house and like it, but I know for a fact that it's not for everyone.
If there was one monopolist landlord who charged through the nose, that could be a problem, but I don't know of any housing markets like that. Landlords keep raising their prices because demand outpaces supply and they can get away with it.
So no, if one side of this is more like BTC scammers, it isn't mine. It is the guarantee of scarcity that underwrites the entire BTC enterprise, even for the miners who are today wasting electricity on generating more of them.
Renting has absolutely nothing with our housing problems. There are majority-renter housing markets that have nowhere near the affordability problems we have. Supply is far more important than who has the deed.
If you want rich developers to make less money, unleashing supply is the way to do that. Automakers and grocery stores have relatively low profit margins because there are no government-imposed supply constraints on them.
Frankly, though, I think it's more admirable to help the poor than merely make a doomed attempt to punish the rich.