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> 59% of respondents (and 58% of Republicans) blame landlords and banks more than government regulation for the high cost of housing. I know it's popular to bl

> 59% of respondents (and 58% of Republicans) blame landlords and banks more than government regulation for the high cost of housing. I know it's popular to blame landlords, but this isn't a serious take. Landlords are operating in a market of artificially constrained supply, so of course prices are going to rise! The issue, IMO, is on three groups: NIMBY homeowners, voting landlords, and local government officials because they all propose/support policies that make it harder to build homes in their locality. Someone wanting even more government involvement in housing at this point would be quite surprising.

jmclnx 1y ago
>I know it's popular to blame landlords Depends, if a person owing 1 or 2 properties, probably correct. If a large company with multiple units, yes 100% that companies fault.
- appreciatorBus 1y ago
  Individuals who own one or two properties are just as capable of exploiting scarcity for maximum rent as companies. What’s important is whether you care about resolving the scarcity so that neither has the power to exploit it, or whether you’re OK with scarcity just so long as your preferred party is the one benefitting from it.
JohnTHaller 1y ago
They're also operating in an environment where the commercial loans they have on the buildings essentially prevent them from lowering the rent. The building is valued at a multiple of the monthly revenue. If they were to lower the rent to get a new tenant, the monthly revenue of the building would decrease, and the owner would have to give the bank additional collateral in the form of cash. So, they leave it empty, which prevents the building value from decreasing. And the mortgage payments are suspended while the building is empty with the payments and additional interest tacked onto the end of the mortgage. This is specifically about commercial buildings in NYC and will vary for residential and other areas.
- MentatOnMelange 1y ago
  What you're describing is a system thats producing bad outcomes while working as intended.
delichon 1y ago
> Someone wanting even more government involvement in housing at this point would be quite surprising. Zohran Mamdani supports a new Social Housing Development Authority. https://citylimits.org/proposed-state-social-housing-authority-would-build-affordable-homes-outside-the-private-market/ https://citylimits.org/proposed-state-social-housing-authori...
- hypeatei 1y ago
  > The state-run public authority would act as an alternative to private sector development, which the bill’s sponsors say has failed to create enough affordable homes to keep up with the state’s growth, citing the current housing shortage, rising rents and surging homelessness Hmm, that seems a bit contradictory and circular: government makes it hard to build --> market reacts to that with higher prices --> government blames private sector --> government decides public housing with a bunch of regulations needs to be built? Obviously there are certain localities like NYC that probably require something like this due to limited physical space but the bill[0] is at the state level. It seems like it'd be better to focus on de-regulation rather than something like this state-wide. 0: https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2023/S8494 https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2023/S8494
  - mcv 1y ago
    Only when your assumption is that the government wants to make it hard to build houses, but why would the government want that? That's the part that makes no sense.
    - appreciatorBus 1y ago
      The government does the things that organized voters care about. And the most organized voters are homeowners afraid of living next to someone poorer than they are, or a building taller than theirs. So they lobby the government, as they have for the last 100 years, to implement a raft of land used laws that make it all that impossible to do anything but sprawl on the edge of the city, or demolishing & evicting apartments and to build slightly taller apartment buildings. Wherever you live, I guarantee the largest bylaw in your municipality is the one that is composed of the government listing the residential buildings you aren’t allowed to build on most of the land in the municipality.
bryanlarsen 1y ago
Developers and landlords generally have a lot of influence over local government officials, so blaming them for that could be fair. But I doubt most of the people answering the polls have that second order effect in mind.
rufus_foreman 1y ago
>> I know it's popular to blame landlords, but this isn't a serious take Guys, I found the landlord.

jmclnx 1y ago

>I know it's popular to blame landlords Depends, if a person owing 1 or 2 properties, probably correct. If a large company with multiple units, yes 100% that companies fault.

appreciatorBus 1y ago
Individuals who own one or two properties are just as capable of exploiting scarcity for maximum rent as companies. What’s important is whether you care about resolving the scarcity so that neither has the power to exploit it, or whether you’re OK with scarcity just so long as your preferred party is the one benefitting from it.

JohnTHaller 1y ago

They're also operating in an environment where the commercial loans they have on the buildings essentially prevent them from lowering the rent. The building is valued at a multiple of the monthly revenue. If they were to lower the rent to get a new tenant, the monthly revenue of the building would decrease, and the owner would have to give the bank additional collateral in the form of cash. So, they leave it empty, which prevents the building value from decreasing. And the mortgage payments are suspended while the building is empty with the payments and additional interest tacked onto the end of the mortgage. This is specifically about commercial buildings in NYC and will vary for residential and other areas.

MentatOnMelange 1y ago
What you're describing is a system thats producing bad outcomes while working as intended.

delichon 1y ago

> Someone wanting even more government involvement in housing at this point would be quite surprising. Zohran Mamdani supports a new Social Housing Development Authority. https://citylimits.org/proposed-state-social-housing-authority-would-build-affordable-homes-outside-the-private-market/ https://citylimits.org/proposed-state-social-housing-authori...

hypeatei 1y ago
> The state-run public authority would act as an alternative to private sector development, which the bill’s sponsors say has failed to create enough affordable homes to keep up with the state’s growth, citing the current housing shortage, rising rents and surging homelessness Hmm, that seems a bit contradictory and circular: government makes it hard to build --> market reacts to that with higher prices --> government blames private sector --> government decides public housing with a bunch of regulations needs to be built? Obviously there are certain localities like NYC that probably require something like this due to limited physical space but the bill[0] is at the state level. It seems like it'd be better to focus on de-regulation rather than something like this state-wide. 0: https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2023/S8494 https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2023/S8494
- mcv 1y ago
  Only when your assumption is that the government wants to make it hard to build houses, but why would the government want that? That's the part that makes no sense.
  - appreciatorBus 1y ago
    The government does the things that organized voters care about. And the most organized voters are homeowners afraid of living next to someone poorer than they are, or a building taller than theirs. So they lobby the government, as they have for the last 100 years, to implement a raft of land used laws that make it all that impossible to do anything but sprawl on the edge of the city, or demolishing & evicting apartments and to build slightly taller apartment buildings. Wherever you live, I guarantee the largest bylaw in your municipality is the one that is composed of the government listing the residential buildings you aren’t allowed to build on most of the land in the municipality.

bryanlarsen 1y ago

Developers and landlords generally have a lot of influence over local government officials, so blaming them for that could be fair. But I doubt most of the people answering the polls have that second order effect in mind.

rufus_foreman 1y ago

>> I know it's popular to blame landlords, but this isn't a serious take Guys, I found the landlord.