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This depends on a very liberal interpretation of what "displacement" means.

ironmagma 6y ago
Disagree, I think the opposite interpretation is very conservative. If a tech bro moves in to a house that was just vacated voluntarily by someone who had lived in the city for twenty years, have they not displaced anyone, since that house would be vacant anyway? What if they moved to a nicer place in the same city, and the tech bro is taking their old residence? What if the last tenant passed away instead? You can split hairs all you want, but anything that causes even a perceived (by the landlord) increase in demand contributes to keeping that price from going any lower. In an extreme case, that could be data from the housing data broker saying that the average apartment in their zip code goes for $X. In an even more extreme case, maybe their proxy for a data broker is the weekly number of Craigslist views for an ad they put up. Sometimes landlords keep vacancies open for multiple months or even years on end, hoping to get someone who will pay their asking price. Either way, the perceived demand is the thing keeping it up, and someone buying a house as opposed to them not being able to sell the house is also what stops them from renting it out to Joe Schmoe who can only pay $900/mo in the meantime.
- shuckles 6y ago
  I'm not sure what you're trying to say. Is it that buying a house from an owner occupier at high market rates displaces the person who couldn't bid market rate for the property?
  - ironmagma 6y ago
    Exactly; buying the house contributes to the displacement in the sense that if they weren't buying the house, someone of less means could buy it instead.
    - shuckles 6y ago
      Displacement the word means moving something out of a place it currently occupies. You should find a better word.
      - ironmagma 6y ago
        Displacement is constantly occurring because people can't find an apartment they can afford, so they leave the City. Why can't they find an apartment they can afford? Because the apartments they would have been able to get have been taken by people richer than they are, some of whom could buy a house. Why can't those people just buy a house and stop taking up the rental units? Because almost all the houses are spoken for by people who not only can pay market price but do so comfortably, including you. So, it is displacement, it's just so after a lot more levels of indirection than most people think about the problem with.
      - shuckles 6y ago
        I described a situation where an owner occupier was selling their home. You are describing being priced out. The concepts overlap, but what I described is certainly not displacement.
        ironmagma 6y ago
        If someone says you are contributing to the mistreatment of animals by buying fur coats, they are not implying that you personally skinned a beaver/fox/what-have-you. Although your purchase of a house does not necessarily directly cause someone else to get ousted, it is still contributing to the problem of displacement, because through a sequence of events it does cause someone to get displaced when their landlord says, "I can rent this place out for 4 times the amount you're paying, so get out."

Disagree, I think the opposite interpretation is very conservative. If a tech bro moves in to a house that was just vacated voluntarily by someone who had lived in the city for twenty years, have they not displaced anyone, since that house would be vacant anyway? What if they moved to a nicer place in the same city, and the tech bro is taking their old residence? What if the last tenant passed away instead? You can split hairs all you want, but anything that causes even a perceived (by the landlord) increase in demand contributes to keeping that price from going any lower. In an extreme case, that could be data from the housing data broker saying that the average apartment in their zip code goes for $X. In an even more extreme case, maybe their proxy for a data broker is the weekly number of Craigslist views for an ad they put up. Sometimes landlords keep vacancies open for multiple months or even years on end, hoping to get someone who will pay their asking price. Either way, the perceived demand is the thing keeping it up, and someone buying a house as opposed to them not being able to sell the house is also what stops them from renting it out to Joe Schmoe who can only pay $900/mo in the meantime.

shuckles 6y ago
I'm not sure what you're trying to say. Is it that buying a house from an owner occupier at high market rates displaces the person who couldn't bid market rate for the property?
- ironmagma 6y ago
  Exactly; buying the house contributes to the displacement in the sense that if they weren't buying the house, someone of less means could buy it instead.
  - shuckles 6y ago
    Displacement the word means moving something out of a place it currently occupies. You should find a better word.
    - ironmagma 6y ago
      Displacement is constantly occurring because people can't find an apartment they can afford, so they leave the City. Why can't they find an apartment they can afford? Because the apartments they would have been able to get have been taken by people richer than they are, some of whom could buy a house. Why can't those people just buy a house and stop taking up the rental units? Because almost all the houses are spoken for by people who not only can pay market price but do so comfortably, including you. So, it is displacement, it's just so after a lot more levels of indirection than most people think about the problem with.
    - shuckles 6y ago
      I described a situation where an owner occupier was selling their home. You are describing being priced out. The concepts overlap, but what I described is certainly not displacement.
      - ironmagma 6y ago
        If someone says you are contributing to the mistreatment of animals by buying fur coats, they are not implying that you personally skinned a beaver/fox/what-have-you. Although your purchase of a house does not necessarily directly cause someone else to get ousted, it is still contributing to the problem of displacement, because through a sequence of events it does cause someone to get displaced when their landlord says, "I can rent this place out for 4 times the amount you're paying, so get out."