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Hot housing markets are extremely high risk high reward investments. Buying NYC real estate for example, it is practically impossible to use a traditional "buy

Hot housing markets are extremely high risk high reward investments. Buying NYC real estate for example, it is practically impossible to use a traditional "buy and hold" strategy and have the rents cover the cost of investment (typically rent covers more like 50% of operating costs in NYC). You pretty much only make money in NYC REI via speculation (ie the property goes up in value) not from paying down the mortgage with rents. The solution to high pricing is to increase supply of housing. Mind you _this_ is an area where landlords do have high rent-seeking behavior in the political sense. Landlords are incentivized to push for increased regulation that limits new development whenever possible. As much as I hate to use him as an example due to his "lightning rod effect," Trump, for example would see his net worth plummet if NYC development regulations were relaxed.

pjmorris 9y ago
> The solution to high pricing is to increase supply of housing. ... for a given amount of money. However, money is easier to create than houses.
makomk 9y ago
Last I heard, NYC is literally running out of pavement space for pedestrians, let alone vehicles, and increasing the supply of housing still hasn't brought prices down.
- billmalarky 9y ago
  NYC has tons of regulations that _drastically_ limit the supply of new housing. New supply hasn't even come close to keeping up with new growth. New supply is a drop in the bucket. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/05/19/upshot/forty-percent-of-manhattans-buildings-could-not-be-built-today.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/05/19/upshot/forty-...
- chimeracoder 9y ago
  > Last I heard, NYC is literally running out of pavement space for pedestrians, let alone vehicles That's news to me, as someone who lives and works in the two busiest and most crowded neighborhoods in the city > and increasing the supply of housing still hasn't brought prices down. Yes, but that's because of the way new housing has been constructed (skewed towards luxury buildings, which are purchased by foreign speculators as ways to park money essentially tax-free). That means that many of these new units that are constructed don't actually increase the supply of housing, because speculative purchasers tend not to rent out the units (it's not worth it, given their goals).
  - maxsilver 9y ago
    > (NYC running out of space for pedestrians) is news to me, as someone who lives and works in the two busiest and most crowded neighborhoods in the city I assume that's a reference to this - https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/01/nyregion/new-york-city-overcrowded-sidewalks.html https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/01/nyregion/new-york-city-ov...
- notyourday 9y ago
  It is not. Brooklyn, Queens and Bronx are littered two story houses.

pjmorris 9y ago

> The solution to high pricing is to increase supply of housing. ... for a given amount of money. However, money is easier to create than houses.

makomk 9y ago

Last I heard, NYC is literally running out of pavement space for pedestrians, let alone vehicles, and increasing the supply of housing still hasn't brought prices down.

billmalarky 9y ago
NYC has tons of regulations that _drastically_ limit the supply of new housing. New supply hasn't even come close to keeping up with new growth. New supply is a drop in the bucket. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/05/19/upshot/forty-percent-of-manhattans-buildings-could-not-be-built-today.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/05/19/upshot/forty-...
chimeracoder 9y ago
> Last I heard, NYC is literally running out of pavement space for pedestrians, let alone vehicles That's news to me, as someone who lives and works in the two busiest and most crowded neighborhoods in the city > and increasing the supply of housing still hasn't brought prices down. Yes, but that's because of the way new housing has been constructed (skewed towards luxury buildings, which are purchased by foreign speculators as ways to park money essentially tax-free). That means that many of these new units that are constructed don't actually increase the supply of housing, because speculative purchasers tend not to rent out the units (it's not worth it, given their goals).
- maxsilver 9y ago
  > (NYC running out of space for pedestrians) is news to me, as someone who lives and works in the two busiest and most crowded neighborhoods in the city I assume that's a reference to this - https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/01/nyregion/new-york-city-overcrowded-sidewalks.html https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/01/nyregion/new-york-city-ov...
notyourday 9y ago
It is not. Brooklyn, Queens and Bronx are littered two story houses.