https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-08-16/taxing-the-rich-do-housing-prices-fall-when-empty-second-homes-are-taxed https://www.bloomberg.com/news/featu

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-08-16/taxing-the-rich-do-housing-prices-fall-when-empty-second-homes-are-taxed https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-08-16/taxing-th... - the wealthy can afford lots of houses. They buy them or even build them (midwest, lots of empty multi-million dollar homes are still appearing). I mean, there are multiple multi-billion dollar companies who haven't let go of their office spaces when there's no hope that people were going to return to work anytime soon. One of the many simple reasons, they can afford to burn the cash and it's a drop in the bucket. I don't think you are grasping what kind of wealth buys up houses. > It's easy to see how it doesn't add up. > Why would some wealthy foreign investor want to buy a house and then lose a bunch of money by not renting it out? In the late 2010s, the primary reason was as a protective measure/taxation avoidance. In China, the wealthy are always at a danger of being on the wrong side of the government and having your wealth confiscated. In Bellevue (the wealthy eastside of the Seattle area) had a burgeoning industry of exotic car dealerships, luxury jewelry and housing prices soaring as Chinese money loaded up on housing. When Xi (and the PRC at large) decided to crack down https://www.jonesday.com/en/insights/2020/02/chinas-new-foreign-investment-law https://www.jonesday.com/en/insights/2020/02/chinas-new-fore..., by 2019 most of the luxury businesses evaporated and houses were being liquidated (most still made money because of decent US housing inflation) because of the taxation of foreign assets and the penalties for not disclosing them. So that's done. There's always oil money from the middle east which has ended up in California. My family sold off 2 properties to families from Quatar and Iran, who casually paid for east house up front. These were their "California" homes. Banks have been buying up houses for awhile now. Yes, it pains me to bring up FOX News. https://foxbaltimore.com/news/nation-world/major-wall-street-investment-firms-go-on-a-home-buying-sprees-amid-housing-boom https://foxbaltimore.com/news/nation-world/major-wall-street... - they are likely to rent out the homes. American banks who are looking to maximize value for something they don't intend to even live in (or run to), don't mind renting. This is a maximized investment that makes sense to you. Those do happen. My wife and I just bought a house next door to one of the MANY display houses of Todd Griffin (Windows Plus). The yard is a wreck but the interior furnishings (kitchen, windows, shelving, etc) are very nice, barring the bare slab concrete floor. Nobody has ever lived there.