3 ms·

To answer the title: They aren't make more land, but they are making more people. And people like to live where it's nice and they can get jobs. I don't think l

To answer the title: They aren't make more land, but they are making more people. And people like to live where it's nice and they can get jobs. I don't think land values are a Ponzi scheme. From a supply and demand perspective, it does seem like a good investment. The rest of the article is meh.

TeeMassive 5y ago
I don't remember a baby boom or a population increase of 500% in the last few years.
- sokoloff 5y ago
  Is there a housing market that has has 5x’d in the last few years?
  - TeeMassive 5y ago
    https://globalnews.ca/news/2531266/one-chart-shows-how-unprecedented-vancouvers-real-estate-situation-is/ https://globalnews.ca/news/2531266/one-chart-shows-how-unpre...
- Johnny555 5y ago
  It doesn't take a 500% increase in demand to result in a 500% increase in prices.
  - TeeMassive 5y ago
    Which is the point of the article, that it's not based on a simple increase in demand.
b212 5y ago
Unless: - you can work remotely, - it’s nice where there are no other people, - there’s really a lot of land, eg. if you split Europe into 1000 square meter parcels it will fit over 10 billion people, - the nicer the place the faster population declines (somehow).
Johnny555 5y ago
Not sure why you got downvoted -- land is cheap, you can easily find land for sale for $500 and acre or even less. But buildable land with utility access (whether municipal utilities or septic/well) that's in a place where people want to live is harder to find and that makes it valuable.
- AnimalMuppet 5y ago
  Hmm. What about buildable land without utility access? You need water, but you could have a purification system and a septic system. You need electricity, but you could have a solar system and a backup generator. You need heat, but it could be electric or propane. Seems to me someone could make a fair amount of money by creating the package to make it reasonable (not just possible) to live on "unusable" land. Oh, and this is a site that has a lot of people looking for startup ideas...
  - Johnny555 5y ago
    Electric seems like the easiest problem to solve, a solar+battery system will work pretty much anywhere. A purification system only helps if you have access to water somewhere. If you have to spend $30,000 drilling a well, and your poor soil means your septic system costs another $20,000, And you've got to build a $30,000 solar battery system on top of that, well then your "cheap" land is not so cheap and you could have just spent more money on the land in the first place. Even if you have groundwater on your property, don't assume that you'll be allowed to use it, the water rights may belong to someone downstream. In some areas, you can't even harvest rainwater on your own property. Lots of people solve these problems and live in undeveloped areas without utilities, but I'm not sure there's huge demand for living full time so far from civilization that there's not even electricity available. And many of the people that do live there, are happen doing the work themselves, and putting up with the limitations. The people that want to buy a package system are probably the people that want all the comforts of home in their off-grid cabin, which means it's going to be expensive, just getting a well driller to drive 10 miles up a curvy unpaved mountain road is going to be expensive if they can do it at all.
madengr 5y ago
Yep, if someone wants a house, go have one built. Oh wait, everyone wants a house in a developed area, then bitches and moans they can’t afford it.

TeeMassive 5y ago

I don't remember a baby boom or a population increase of 500% in the last few years.

sokoloff 5y ago
Is there a housing market that has has 5x’d in the last few years?
- TeeMassive 5y ago
  https://globalnews.ca/news/2531266/one-chart-shows-how-unprecedented-vancouvers-real-estate-situation-is/ https://globalnews.ca/news/2531266/one-chart-shows-how-unpre...
Johnny555 5y ago
It doesn't take a 500% increase in demand to result in a 500% increase in prices.
- TeeMassive 5y ago
  Which is the point of the article, that it's not based on a simple increase in demand.

b212 5y ago

Unless: - you can work remotely, - it’s nice where there are no other people, - there’s really a lot of land, eg. if you split Europe into 1000 square meter parcels it will fit over 10 billion people, - the nicer the place the faster population declines (somehow).

Johnny555 5y ago

Not sure why you got downvoted -- land is cheap, you can easily find land for sale for $500 and acre or even less. But buildable land with utility access (whether municipal utilities or septic/well) that's in a place where people want to live is harder to find and that makes it valuable.

AnimalMuppet 5y ago
Hmm. What about buildable land without utility access? You need water, but you could have a purification system and a septic system. You need electricity, but you could have a solar system and a backup generator. You need heat, but it could be electric or propane. Seems to me someone could make a fair amount of money by creating the package to make it reasonable (not just possible) to live on "unusable" land. Oh, and this is a site that has a lot of people looking for startup ideas...
- Johnny555 5y ago
  Electric seems like the easiest problem to solve, a solar+battery system will work pretty much anywhere. A purification system only helps if you have access to water somewhere. If you have to spend $30,000 drilling a well, and your poor soil means your septic system costs another $20,000, And you've got to build a $30,000 solar battery system on top of that, well then your "cheap" land is not so cheap and you could have just spent more money on the land in the first place. Even if you have groundwater on your property, don't assume that you'll be allowed to use it, the water rights may belong to someone downstream. In some areas, you can't even harvest rainwater on your own property. Lots of people solve these problems and live in undeveloped areas without utilities, but I'm not sure there's huge demand for living full time so far from civilization that there's not even electricity available. And many of the people that do live there, are happen doing the work themselves, and putting up with the limitations. The people that want to buy a package system are probably the people that want all the comforts of home in their off-grid cabin, which means it's going to be expensive, just getting a well driller to drive 10 miles up a curvy unpaved mountain road is going to be expensive if they can do it at all.

madengr 5y ago

Yep, if someone wants a house, go have one built. Oh wait, everyone wants a house in a developed area, then bitches and moans they can’t afford it.