Noah smith, liar or dumbass?

[wetwillie]

Why bother chasing pennies when you can snatch up all the prime real estate? (Plus, bonus! The artificial scarcity allows you to drive the price up even more)

Don't those idiots know we can just build more houses and erode the price of their investments?

[Trim]

What's the solution to reducing housing cost to income ratios?

Less people.

[BIG APPLE CAT]

Why bother chasing pennies when you can snatch up all the prime real estate? (Plus, bonus! The artificial scarcity allows you to drive the price up even more)

Don't those idiots know we can just build more houses and erode the price of their investments?

I’m trying to follow your logic but I need some help. Ok, let’s build those affordable houses. Where should we build them? I suppose you could build them in Norton Kansas but Norton Kansas doesn’t have a housing shortage, not to mention there probably isn’t a lot of industry to sustain it. Besides those poors need to live reasonable close to where they work/grocery shop/can get to the doctor/generally participate in the human experience bc they probably don’t have the luxury of being able to manage a long commute. Well crap, all those locations that are even reasonably close to where they need to live are all kinda….snatched up, and expensive as crap. I suppose there might be a few vacant crack dens but that might be a tough sell.
Good thing these benevolent builders will go build some developments in locations where they will never recoup those costs I guess just out of the goodness of their hearts?
And in the (highly unlikely) event they don’t have “build a development” walkin around money, they might need to get financing from a bank. Good thing banks will see this 50+ year ROI scheme and jump at the opportunity

[wetwillie]

Looks like less people it is

[Rage Against the McKee]

What's the solution to reducing housing cost to income ratios?

Build more housing?

What's preventing us from doing that right now?

I'm sure there are manifold causes. Nimbyism? Relatedly, zoning restrictions? Interest rates? Cost of materials? Greed? Cost of/supply of labor? Private investment groups snatching up a pretty good amount (16%?) of single-family homes? I don't know, but it seems pretty straight forward that building more housing would ease the supply-side issues we've seen for the past many years.

Better immigration policy and eliminating tariffs would also help.

[DQ12]

Seems like we need to do a better job of incentivizing the development of cheap housing.  Would be totally on board with that.

[Spracne]

What's the solution to reducing housing cost to income ratios?

Less people.

Fewer. Fewer people.

[wetwillie]

Seems like we need to do a better job of incentivizing the development of cheap housing.  Would be totally on board with that.

If you have only one or fewer children you get a house subsidy?

[Rage Against the McKee]

Illegalize zoning restrictions that reduce housing.

[Katpappy]

What's the solution to reducing housing cost to income ratios?

Less people.

Yes, we need a war to destroy crap and kill Gen Z. 

[michigancat]

This illustrates a big part of the problem

[kim carnes]

People that hate zoning are so weird

[wetwillie]

The problem is even the filthy capitalists ITT already agreed we need more regulation

[DQ12]

The problem is even the filthy capitalists ITT already agreed we need more regulation

I don’t think anyone anywhere* thinks we shouldn’t have regulation. I think everyone acknowledges that capitalism requires some guardrails and certainly manipulation sometimes in the form of carrots and sticks. My confusion was BAC pointing to the current housing situation in some areas as proof that capitalism is bad and has lowered the standard of living. 

*The “should I have to get a license to operate my damn toaster” guy meme notwithstanding.

[wetwillie]

The solution is high density housing but nobody wants it, kind of a pickle. Guess we will find out what the breaking point is on housing cost / income ratio before a societal change occurs.  Maybe someone will figure out how to mass produce / 3D print houses that people actually do want for significantly cheaper than it costs today.

[Stevesie60]

Is there a way to limit all the conglomerates/rich people from buying up a bunch of housing to use for rental properties? Like a cap on the number of properties? Or would it be super easy to get around?

I'm pretty sure this would just screw over rental agencies, and somehow drive up prices on rent. But that's brain storming, baby.

[star seed 7]

Related, have you guys heard about the rent price fixing lawsuits going on? Apparently there is an algo consultant that is fixing all their clients at the same (higher) rate and the contract states that the landlord has to use their price. The area I remember is Phoenix, but it was metros all over the US.

[Stevesie60]

As in, the algo consultant is unaffiliated with any rental properties?

[star seed 7]

Yes, but it's essentially a bunch of different owners having their prices set by a single company.

[Spracne]

Related, have you guys heard about the rent price fixing lawsuits going on? Apparently there is an algo consultant that is fixing all their clients at the same (higher) rate and the contract states that the landlord has to use their price. The area I remember is Phoenix, but it was metros all over the US.

Further reading for those so inclined: https://www.propublica.org/article/doj-backs-tenants-price-fixing-case-big-landlords-real-estate-tech

[Spracne]

Further Googling shows that my property managers (the agent) use RealPage's services and are defendants in several of these lawsuits. I'm unsure if I can join as a Plaintiff, since I've represented the actual property owner (the principal). DickStone?

[star seed 7]

90% of properties over 50 units in DC use the service