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Thanks to zipcar, uber, postmates etc it's becoming easier than ever to survive without a car. That's traditionally been a huge expense. Now those dollars can

Thanks to zipcar, uber, postmates etc it's becoming easier than ever to survive without a car. That's traditionally been a huge expense. Now those dollars can be redirected to housing instead.

sliverstorm 11y ago
To what end though? Housing prices are just a bidding war to allocate desirable real estate. More and more wealth becomes trapped in real estate. It's an effective market-based method for allocating scarce resources- a classic tactic. But I'm beginning to wonder. America's real estate is worth ~$25T. Suppose property was simply assigned. An unfair system, probably vulnerable to corruption and nepotism and such, but on the other hand that's $25T that can be invested in other pursuits. What might that additional liquid $25T do for us? A gross oversimplification to be sure, and perhaps completely wrong-headed. But it seems like the key difference from many other bidding wars is the money doesn't leave the system. When I sell my house, I probably take the proceeds to buy another house. The seller of that house takes his proceeds, to buy another house, and so on. It seems rare that anyone downsizes houses, and takes the proceeds out of the market.
- hardcandy 11y ago
  In my experience people will spend as much money as they can to get into desirable real estate. So if demand exceeds supply then prices rise to a high % of income. This is why I don't believe in minimum wage increases in HCOL urban areas. Real estate prices just rise to adjust. One way to hack the system is to have LCOL in a HCOL area, like living in a van in SF. But few people have the fortitude (or whatever) to do this.