4 ms·

How about "yes, the housing market should deprioritize making rich people even richer off the backs of renters"

• mikeash 8y ago
  By ensuring renters have an inferior selection.
  • hannasanarion 8y ago
    Why do renters need to live in brand new houses?
    • mikeash 8y ago
      They don’t need to. But it seems rather unfair to say that people with decent income but who can’t (or don’t want to) access large amounts of capital must have an artificially reduced selection. Imagine if it was flipped around: new houses cannot be sold, and can only be rented out. Would that be reasonable? I totally understand why people dislike speculators who buy houses and let them sit empty. I get why they dislike investors who buy properties and put them out for short-term rentals like AirBnB. But getting upset at long-term rentals? Why? Lots of people rent, for many good reasons. Especially poorer people. What’s so terrible about serving that market? If you think the landlords are making too much money, bring prices down by increasing the supply i.e. the exact opposite of this plan.