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Fair point, but this doesn't really answer the question. Also, following this tangent, would it be reasonable to attempt to decrease the transaction costs to d
by pdelbarba 9y ago
Fair point, but this doesn't really answer the question. Also, following this tangent, would it be reasonable to attempt to decrease the transaction costs to drive up inventory (carrot vs stick)?
- loeg 9y agoTo answer the question: landlording does provide a service. You can afford a place to live without having a down payment's worth of assets. This is useful for a big chunk of the population. If you make landlording not profitable or too risky, rental stock decreases and rents rise on the remaining stock. I do think it would make sense to attempt to decrease transaction costs in order to increase market liquidity and efficiency. Unfortunately, there are some hard physical minimum costs in there that are pretty significant (evaluation, moving, legal stuff). But perhaps realtor premiums could be reduced. To actually get prices to come down, you need to increase supply. We're not getting any more land, but there's clearly plenty of space, at least in the US. But cities are popular right now and it's hard to imagine that changing soon. As far as housing stock, upzoning/increased density can contribute to supply and lower prices.