141
Why are there so many expensive homes?
(lemmy.world)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2023
141 points (96.7% liked)
No Stupid Questions
35843 readers
1264 users here now
No such thing. Ask away!
!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.
The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:
Rules (interactive)
Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.
All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.
Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.
Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.
Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.
Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.
Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.
That's it.
Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.
Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.
Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.
Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.
On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.
If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.
Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.
If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.
Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.
Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.
Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.
Let everyone have their own content.
Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.
Credits
Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!
The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
With respect, you're missing the point.
Sellers don't determine price. Buyers do. "Investors" (big, small, whatever) are selling homes at those prices (or renting, or VRBOing) because there are customers ready to buy the next available unit. If customers aren't willing to buy at that price, then the seller will lower the price. Or never build the big house in the first place. Or never renovate. Who would spend money on an investment when nobody will buy it?
They can only sell for those prices because buyers are ready to buy.
Economists have a concept of "economic value". Regardless of price, "economic value" it what the next buyer is willing to pay for an item RIGHT NOW. People have a lot of weird ideas about what the "value" of something is, and they'll include all sorts of non-monetary factors because they think value is a feeling or concept of utility that particularly applies to them. They value "walkability" or "views" or "quaint antique design", or whatever.
But inasmuch as "value" has any objective meaning, the best one economists have managed to come up with is economic value -- the price that a unit of something will sell for at this very moment. And I humbly suggest that the economic value of housing in your area something is determined entirely by the buyer: the person or entity that is willing to buy the next available unit of housing.
If those buyers can't outbid all the other buyers, then they weren't going to get a home anyway. This has nothing to do with the seller.
Because the alternative is to be homeless.
Or leave the area for lower prices somewhere else.
So quit your job and pay hundreds, maybe even thousands, of dollars to move somewhere different where you no longer have a source of income and don't know anyone?
I'm not saying I like it, that's just how it is. As a consumer of housing, like anything else, when you can't afford what you want you have to get something less.
No, this is not how it is. In order to rent an apartment you have to show proof of income, and people who can't afford a studio apartment where they live also cannot afford to move. What you are suggesting is literally not possible. You might as well tell someone to grow wings and make a nest in the clouds.
You can't afford steak, you eat chicken, you can't afford that, you eat beans. You can't afford that, you're in trouble.
I didn't create the system, man. I get it, it's hell to be poor. But corporations buying and flipping homes doesn't have much to do with the plight of people who can't afford studio apartments. If somebody else is ready to pay a higher rent than you are for the same apartment, they're gonna get it. Doesn't matter whether the landlord is a friendly grandma or a faceless megacorp, nobody is gonna willingly sell something for less.