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Re:US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-fami... by tshaddox on Wednesday January 07, 2026 @05:14PM (#46533860)
I don't think that's quite what the comment is claiming. They're not saying that some small portion of homeowners are working together to raise prices. I think they're more talking about the concept of "marginal buyers." It's the marginal buyer that sets prices, not the average buyer. And particularly when supply is heavily restricted, the marginal buyers can be a very tiny portion of all buyers, and can look very different from the average buyer.
Re:US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-fami... by xvedejas on Wednesday January 07, 2026 @05:26PM (#46534019)
Marginal buyers have a big impact by adding a lot of liquidity, but I'm not sure they manipulate prices that much, given that if they ever tried to move prices far from the margin they would cease to be marginal buyers.
Re:US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-fami... by tshaddox on Wednesday January 07, 2026 @05:54PM (#46534394)
But again, I don't think we're talking about a concerted effort to manipulate prices. We're talking about the effect that particular marginal buyers just so happen to cause.