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0 pointsbombcar2mo ago0 comments

Simply greatly reducing loans available to small investors for non-built rental properties would do that.

The key is increasing supply, and we should directly target that issue (or decrease demand, but people don't like that side).

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pianopatrick2mo ago

"The key is increasing supply" assumes the goal of new housing laws should be to increase supply and bring house prices down. But a lot of people do not agree with that goal. Many people are homeowners who will get tens of thousands of dollars richer if there is less supply and prices rise. And in America at least, homeowners have more votes than renters or builders or landlords or the homeless or other groups. So new housing law tends to favor the goals of homeowners, not the goals of other groups who want more supply.

JoeAltmaier2mo ago

It's more complex than that. When I'm not looking to sell, I certainly don't want the assessed value of my house to increase. That just means, higher property tax bill for me.

Also, houses get older every day. Tastes change - ranch, open-plan, multi-story, multi family get more or less valued as time goes on. Not just 'fewer houses means better resale value'. In fact, a shortage may not change housing prices at all - sometimes it just makes them sell faster.

It's easy to take a complex picture, connect a dot or two and draw a line from someplace to some conclusion. But it's always a trickier picture than that. You gotta consider more dots and connect them all.

bombcarOP2mo ago

I think too many people jump to the easy-to-understand "owners want to get richer" conclusion without actually engaging with what people are saying and voting for. Often the results of the voting may be related to property staying somewhat scarce, but (in my experience) the vast majority of people don't really care about the value of their house as long as it doesn't go substantially down.

Assessed value raises (and drops) shouldn't directly affect property tax assuming the whole area raises and falls (in most areas) because of how the tax is apportioned.

The reality that people don't want to deal with is that it's personal and it is slow - there is no SimCity-style bulldozing and redeveloping without pouring in tremendous amounts of money, because people like living where they do and it's hard to get them to move involuntarily.

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