• ObamaBinLaden@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Building houses to solve the housing crisis implies that the crisis was caused by a lack of homes. Every single one of the 2 million houses would be picked up by a property firm or a Chinese millionaire just the way it has been happening for the last ten years. What you really need is legislation, but what you are getting is more food for the hounds.

    • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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      5 months ago

      Never before have I seen such a confluence of right comment and wrong username

      • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        OsamaBinLaden is right. Yup. That was weird to type.

        We need legislation to prevent REITs and holding companies from purchasing small and medium residential dwellings and properties. The problem that will create when it passes and they relinquish their sizable holdings, is that adjacent properties devalue causing mortgagers to go upside-down. It’s a simple problem to identify, but not an easy one to solve.

        • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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          5 months ago

          Read the username again, it’s much worse than that

          Be that as it may, Britain in the 1970s and before actually had a really good answer to this: The government just buys enough property and rents it out to people at reasonable rates, to puncture the bubble and make it unprofitable to be a landlord in the first place as a “job.” People have affordable places to live, we don’t have to have a fight about declaring it “illegal” to own or rent out property, and people with spare cash are motivated to invest it in businesses instead of in properties. Literally everyone wins. Which of course, means America will see it as communism and fight to the death to stop it from happening.

          Not saying you’re wrong in your solution either, just saying one other way which has a proven track record.

          • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            Oof. That is worse.

            My solution isn’t a solution. It’s just a new problem. Your suggestion has merit. Since Republicans would shoot that “anti-free market communist trash” down before it hit paper, we’d first need a Democratic majority in Congress to make it happen.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Supply and demand. Corporate interests will only buy homes when theres a profit incentive. A housing shortage makes great profit opportunities.

      If there are too many airbnbs so they don’t get rented, there’s no longer a profit. If there are enough houses that you can’t buy to flip at guaranteed markup, there goes the profit. If there’s enough houses that you’re not guaranteed a quick sale on your investment, there goes the profit. The point is there are limits on those ownership patterns so you can build your way out of it