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I lived by the beach outside Silicon Valley. My neighborhood gradually became more and more deserted. Executives would buy houses in the neighborhood, and just
by MrTonyD 8y ago
I lived by the beach outside Silicon Valley. My neighborhood gradually became more and more deserted. Executives would buy houses in the neighborhood, and just stop by once or twice a year to use it. At some houses I never saw anyone ever - over many years.
I think the real issue is that we let market forces determine housing prices and housing strategy. Housing is, like medicine, something that is poorly served by markets - since markets distort basic resources away from the common good.
- wpasc 8y agowhat do you believe is a better alternative? in your specific case, must one live in a house full time to maintain ownership?
- kharms 8y agoAn approach that's being tried elsewhere is a vacancy tax. This encourages either private use or leasing of the properties.
- WillPostForFood 8y agoOr you could allow more houses to be built. The market can’t work if building is restricted.
- snovv_crash 8y agoUnfortunately there isn't unlimited land with a good location.
- dsfyu404ed 8y agoSo let people build up like every sane city does.
- IWeldMelons 8y ago...and then have them taken over by absentee investors.
- general8bitso 8y agoManhattan?
- simple_phrases 8y agoThen investors will buy the new apartments/properties and leave them vacant. It happens in cities all over the US and Canada.
- mitgraduate 8y agoNot possible in high earthquake risk areas
- ashelmire 8y agoReassess and tax property as the primary means of funding the city. That will almost completely eliminate the problem very quickly.
- TheCoelacanth 8y agoUnfortunately Prop 13 would make that pretty much impossible to pull off without changes at the state level.
- TheBeardKing 8y agoI think enough people are waking up to the idiocy of Prop 13 now that it has a good chance of being repealed. It's being voted on in November 2020.
- MrTonyD 8y agoI remember reading that Sweden didn't want retirees to be subject to random market forces for housing. So they subsidized housing and in exchange restricted the profit when sold. So, really, the point is that we could set up systems to do whatever we want. Those who say "it can't be done" are expressing a philosophical position - while falsely claiming that they are just stating facts.