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"Would you say that there isn't a housing shortage? Only a shortage of people willing to pay up for it?" There are more houses empty than homeless people. So,
by k__ 5y ago
"Would you say that there isn't a housing shortage? Only a shortage of people willing to pay up for it?"
There are more houses empty than homeless people.
So, there seems to be a bunch of people willing to pay for houses and no living in them.
- bfdm 5y agoYes, we have not correctly priced (taxed) empty property yet. If municipal government would charge say 100% value as property tax when mostly empty (as a starting point, say it is the primary residence of nobody for 180 days in the last 360), then it would be treated very differently.
- k__ 5y agoInteresting idea, actually! In some cities we already have second home taxes of about 20%. So why not empty home taxes too?
- erehweb 5y agoWhile it's true that there are more houses empty than homeless people, many of the empty houses are in disrepair, vacation homes, or just temporarily vacant between owners / renters. See https://someunpleasant.substack.com/p/three-factoids-that-arent-quite-right https://someunpleasant.substack.com/p/three-factoids-that-ar... for some more details.
- throwaway2048 5y agoI mean yes, presumably the houses aren't empty for absolutely no reason whatsoever
- missedthecue 5y agoIf it's not possible to house homeless people in them, the factoid is completely uninsightful
- throwaway2048 5y agoIts only not possible because the system prevents it, which is exactly the point being made.
- barry-cotter 5y ago> So, there seems to be a bunch of people willing to pay for houses and no living in them. I’m willing to pay $1 for a kilogram of gold. That doesn’t mean anyone’s interested in selling it to me.
- k__ 5y agoIs selling gold equivalent to renting out flats?
- barry-cotter 5y agoYes. Someone is selling and someone is buying. There’s a price where the market clears such that supply equals demand. You can’t change that price by taking people’s stuff. If you increase supply the price will drop. If you increase demand the price will rise.