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If you make enough of them to go around, neither of those is a problem. The core issue is lack of supply of housing of all sorts.

quickthrower2 5y ago
Yeah you just use AirBnb as your landlord. Until the host says fuck it Ill just rent it out normally.
seanmcdirmid 5y ago
That’s the Chinese method and it doesn’t work. Investors just hold on to empty apartments as a way to capture and retain weld that in the face of other worse options. You’ve got whole districts with sold out apartments and almost no one living in any of them (to the point that the city doesn’t bother building any services near them). The lack of property taxes makes letting investment properties remain empty much more viable than in the states.
- presentation 5y ago
  Well in Japan it just ends up that housing isn’t generally a good investment so you don’t typically park your money there, and then this is a non-issue. If everyone expects their housing to appreciate forever it’s no surprise that their appreciated homes will become unaffordable to most people. Housing ought to be a utility not an investment IMO. A Georgist-style land tax would probably do a lot to tip the balance.
  - seanmcdirmid 5y ago
    Japan has a nice combination of “we already did mega property bubble and it didn’t work” and “population is falling.” Additionally, structure depreciate even if built on land that depreciates (almost no one wants to live in a used house). Perhaps that is the future of the rest of the developing world.
  - cehrlich 5y ago
    Yeah, this is the central thing that a lot of people don't seem to understand. Housing can either be a good investment that outpaces inflation, or affordable in the long run. Having both is not possible. Setting aside some amount of housing units to remain affordable is not a good long term solution - we have it here, and it's basically ended up as a lottery with a side dish of corruption. In order to really fix this, a lot of property investors will need to lost a lot of money on their investments. Problem is they tend to also be political donors, so not many politicians seem interested in doing this.
- andrewjl 5y ago
  That's not a strong argument because investment alternatives to real estate for many in China are limited and that isn't the case here.

quickthrower2 5y ago

Yeah you just use AirBnb as your landlord. Until the host says fuck it Ill just rent it out normally.

seanmcdirmid 5y ago

That’s the Chinese method and it doesn’t work. Investors just hold on to empty apartments as a way to capture and retain weld that in the face of other worse options. You’ve got whole districts with sold out apartments and almost no one living in any of them (to the point that the city doesn’t bother building any services near them). The lack of property taxes makes letting investment properties remain empty much more viable than in the states.

presentation 5y ago
Well in Japan it just ends up that housing isn’t generally a good investment so you don’t typically park your money there, and then this is a non-issue. If everyone expects their housing to appreciate forever it’s no surprise that their appreciated homes will become unaffordable to most people. Housing ought to be a utility not an investment IMO. A Georgist-style land tax would probably do a lot to tip the balance.
- seanmcdirmid 5y ago
  Japan has a nice combination of “we already did mega property bubble and it didn’t work” and “population is falling.” Additionally, structure depreciate even if built on land that depreciates (almost no one wants to live in a used house). Perhaps that is the future of the rest of the developing world.
- cehrlich 5y ago
  Yeah, this is the central thing that a lot of people don't seem to understand. Housing can either be a good investment that outpaces inflation, or affordable in the long run. Having both is not possible. Setting aside some amount of housing units to remain affordable is not a good long term solution - we have it here, and it's basically ended up as a lottery with a side dish of corruption. In order to really fix this, a lot of property investors will need to lost a lot of money on their investments. Problem is they tend to also be political donors, so not many politicians seem interested in doing this.
andrewjl 5y ago
That's not a strong argument because investment alternatives to real estate for many in China are limited and that isn't the case here.