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Blaming corporations is a cute meme, but it's not the problem. Corporations in this market are NOT monopolistic price-setters, they do not have remarkable marke

Blaming corporations is a cute meme, but it's not the problem. Corporations in this market are NOT monopolistic price-setters, they do not have remarkable market-concentration, and they are not colluding with each other to limit supply. They are competitive price-takers. If you want to fix housing prices (or if you just want to screw over these corporations for funsies, which is fine) then you want to increase the supply of homes: that is, you want homebuilders to build, build, build, build, build, build, build — and where necessary, you want to drive the political reforms that make this possible. All the evilcorps™ are betting that you won't — and I'd bet that too, given where you're focusing your attention and efforts.

rockbruno 5y ago
This can improve the situation, but I'm not sure if it would truly solve it. I believe the proper solution is to simply ban buying non-commercial buildings as an investment. If you're not living on it, you can't own it. I can't see why one would be against this aside from greediness.
- fennecfoxen 5y ago
  I guess single-family housing will be a privilege reserved to the people who can afford a down payment! That's a pretty sneaky way to do class warfare: cloaking it in the language of justice. I'm almost impressed! We have a history of similar measures to draw from. In the 1950s lots of people believed that banning single-room occupancy buildings was the proper solution to a lot of problems - they were small! they were inhumane! they are associated with crime! New York City lost about 100,000 units, mostly converted into two-bedroom apartments, occupied by good people™ who belonged in families. "Consequently," said activist George McDonald in the wake of this policy, "people sleep on grates outside." Maybe your laws won't quite achieve this! But to the extent they enjoy success in influencing housing prices, they will be harming those who cannot afford homes.
- FredPret 5y ago
  Great, so every poor person or student or new worker will have to come up with downpayments and bank loans, or be homeless. Brilliant solution.
  - fennecfoxen 5y ago
    I think grandparent is not quite so cruel! If apartment buildings count as "commercial" (which they would in the industry lingo, which differs from the SimCity lingo) then we can just quarantine the undesirables away into a bad part of town using our Zoning laws!
  - Drew_ 5y ago
    Stop zoning out multi-family homes and apartment buildings and this wouldn't be a problem. Believe it or not, there are many low-income people living in cities where these things are allowed, and they're not all renting single family homes.

rockbruno 5y ago

This can improve the situation, but I'm not sure if it would truly solve it. I believe the proper solution is to simply ban buying non-commercial buildings as an investment. If you're not living on it, you can't own it. I can't see why one would be against this aside from greediness.

fennecfoxen 5y ago
I guess single-family housing will be a privilege reserved to the people who can afford a down payment! That's a pretty sneaky way to do class warfare: cloaking it in the language of justice. I'm almost impressed! We have a history of similar measures to draw from. In the 1950s lots of people believed that banning single-room occupancy buildings was the proper solution to a lot of problems - they were small! they were inhumane! they are associated with crime! New York City lost about 100,000 units, mostly converted into two-bedroom apartments, occupied by good people™ who belonged in families. "Consequently," said activist George McDonald in the wake of this policy, "people sleep on grates outside." Maybe your laws won't quite achieve this! But to the extent they enjoy success in influencing housing prices, they will be harming those who cannot afford homes.
FredPret 5y ago
Great, so every poor person or student or new worker will have to come up with downpayments and bank loans, or be homeless. Brilliant solution.
- fennecfoxen 5y ago
  I think grandparent is not quite so cruel! If apartment buildings count as "commercial" (which they would in the industry lingo, which differs from the SimCity lingo) then we can just quarantine the undesirables away into a bad part of town using our Zoning laws!
- Drew_ 5y ago
  Stop zoning out multi-family homes and apartment buildings and this wouldn't be a problem. Believe it or not, there are many low-income people living in cities where these things are allowed, and they're not all renting single family homes.