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I think they’re trying to say that “higher construction costs” is literally the “multi-million dollar bids” to own property without going through a HOA. For th

I think they’re trying to say that “higher construction costs” is literally the “multi-million dollar bids” to own property without going through a HOA. For the average person, this makes the land and construction costs unobtainable for the average person, effectively creating a monopoly for the builders and the HOA organizations with deep pockets to bid.

sokoloff 4y ago
Is monopoly the right word for a set of thousands of developers competing to develop land and build new neighborhoods?
- jtode 4y ago
  [flagged]
- imtringued 4y ago
  No, because the only monopolies in real estate are land and maybe grandfathered construction that would be illegal to build today. The construction industry might be considered a cartel though if they coordinate behind the scenes.
  - lazide 4y ago
    Knowing and working with a large number of custom home builders, a single ‘cartel’ is as far from the on the ground reality as you’re likely to get. In some areas, maybe more like ‘collection of competing cartels that hate each other’.
- softfalcon 4y ago
  Nah, we call it an oligopoly or a cartel. In my city, we actually have this. There are 3 main real estate developers who own or built approximately 80% of all the land and construction in the city. Housing prices are sky rocketing and if you want a new one built you practically HAVE to do it through them unless you’re in the upper 10% of wealth. I call that an unfair advantage at the very least. Based on what they’re saying about Las Vegas, it sounds like a similar arrangement has developed in their zoning and development contracts for their suburbia. Even if there are 1000 bidding players… that’s 1000 people out of the millions living in Las Vegas. Seems pretty unfair no matter how you spin it. There was a time people just bought land and built a house themselves. That time has largely passed.

sokoloff 4y ago

Is monopoly the right word for a set of thousands of developers competing to develop land and build new neighborhoods?

jtode 4y ago
[flagged]
imtringued 4y ago
No, because the only monopolies in real estate are land and maybe grandfathered construction that would be illegal to build today. The construction industry might be considered a cartel though if they coordinate behind the scenes.
- lazide 4y ago
  Knowing and working with a large number of custom home builders, a single ‘cartel’ is as far from the on the ground reality as you’re likely to get. In some areas, maybe more like ‘collection of competing cartels that hate each other’.
softfalcon 4y ago
Nah, we call it an oligopoly or a cartel. In my city, we actually have this. There are 3 main real estate developers who own or built approximately 80% of all the land and construction in the city. Housing prices are sky rocketing and if you want a new one built you practically HAVE to do it through them unless you’re in the upper 10% of wealth. I call that an unfair advantage at the very least. Based on what they’re saying about Las Vegas, it sounds like a similar arrangement has developed in their zoning and development contracts for their suburbia. Even if there are 1000 bidding players… that’s 1000 people out of the millions living in Las Vegas. Seems pretty unfair no matter how you spin it. There was a time people just bought land and built a house themselves. That time has largely passed.