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I still don't see how building more homes would fix the housing crisis. Aren't there like millions of uninhabited homes? Isn't the problem that landlords are fr

I still don't see how building more homes would fix the housing crisis. Aren't there like millions of uninhabited homes? Isn't the problem that landlords are free to extract as much money as they want to provide a necessity without adding any value to it? Wouldn't any solution necessarily involve a massive direct or indirect devaluation of properties?

ta1243 2y ago
> Aren't there like millions of uninhabited homes? No. Certainly not in places where people want to live. Why would you think there are? Why would someone deliberately let their property deprecate while not earning an income, (setting aside the unearned speculation caused by land values increasing) LA has about 2-3% empty homes. Higher than some global cities, but still a very small number.
ianburrell 2y ago
You think that building housing for more people won’t help the people who are looking for housing. The vacant homes count any vacancy even if they are for sale or between tenants. It is impossible to use those for housing. And putting people in them means that normal buyer and tenants couldn’t live there. Rent is a market and landlords can only charge what people can pay. More cheaper housing will drive down rents, or more likely slow down rent growth since prices are sticky. Building more homes would make existing home less valuable but would make the land under the homes more valuable cause could be used for more valuable housing. I also think that remaining houses will be more valuable for people who want house over apartment.
- thrance 2y ago
  But if neither rent nor house price goes down, then we still have a crisis, don't we? I've never seen rent go down or slow down as a result of market forces, it must be forced by the local government. Why would building more homes drive price down? Why wouldn't the builders just sell it at market price?

ta1243 2y ago

> Aren't there like millions of uninhabited homes? No. Certainly not in places where people want to live. Why would you think there are? Why would someone deliberately let their property deprecate while not earning an income, (setting aside the unearned speculation caused by land values increasing) LA has about 2-3% empty homes. Higher than some global cities, but still a very small number.

ianburrell 2y ago

You think that building housing for more people won’t help the people who are looking for housing. The vacant homes count any vacancy even if they are for sale or between tenants. It is impossible to use those for housing. And putting people in them means that normal buyer and tenants couldn’t live there. Rent is a market and landlords can only charge what people can pay. More cheaper housing will drive down rents, or more likely slow down rent growth since prices are sticky. Building more homes would make existing home less valuable but would make the land under the homes more valuable cause could be used for more valuable housing. I also think that remaining houses will be more valuable for people who want house over apartment.

thrance 2y ago
But if neither rent nor house price goes down, then we still have a crisis, don't we? I've never seen rent go down or slow down as a result of market forces, it must be forced by the local government. Why would building more homes drive price down? Why wouldn't the builders just sell it at market price?