They do, to varying degrees, just not enough to be noticable. Commodities traders buy and hold all the time. The thing about free markets is that you need a hel

They do, to varying degrees, just not enough to be noticable. Commodities traders buy and hold all the time. The thing about free markets is that you need a hell of a lot of collusion to do what you're suggesting because someone always stands to gain from misguided speculation. This is actually exactly the issue with housing. The market is controlled by municipalities who are elected by NIMBYs. The only reasonable thing to do in these conditions is to buy as much housing as you can, since your assets are protected from competition (local densification) by the government. We've literally regulated ourselves into this crisis. The solution can't be more regulation. Edit: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_middle_housing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_middle_housing