why is my brain so broken that I read this post (which I agree with) and it says back "reverse georgism" - ThreadSky

steveklabnik.com • 11 days ago

why is my brain so broken that I read this post (which I agree with) and it says back "reverse georgism"

the strangest common idea on the left is that you can make more money by buying real estate and leaving it empty than by renting it out

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pfish.zone•10 days ago

msigroeg. awaiting further orders, sir

beatrix.bsky.social•11 days ago

what, like a direct subsidy for unused property? that does seem to be the economic description of the phenomenon in OP.

arrdem.com•11 days ago

The argument mostly goes that there exist cases where it’s cheaper to sit on something and let it appreciate than deal with the high cost downsides of maintenance or evictions and that as a result there exists unused but off market inventory. Undersupply seems like the more useful theory.

beatrix.bsky.social•11 days ago

yeah this phenomenon definitely exists but it’s not the primary driver of high housing costs. vacancy rate in Massachusetts has been under 5% for over ten years and it just keeps dropping.

arrdem.com•11 days ago

I do also think that voluntary price inelasticity is a major factor. Nobody wants to be the first to break price so you get holding out. “No lowballs I know what I got”

steveklabnik.com•11 days ago

yeah, this certainly probably exists in some small form in some places, but the overwhelming evidence is undersupply

(hello it's me who *technically* isn't underwater on my house but just barely, thanks to austin's recent building + reform)

arrdem.com•11 days ago

Hi under water I’m maybe going to break even (which I planned for am and fine with because it means supply is going up)

steveklabnik.com•11 days ago

yeah i've been joking "bad for me, good for austin, im fine with it"

broodingbroodling.bsky.social•11 days ago

I heard it explained that having 1 of each style of unit empty in a large complex allows you to collect application fees, plus you have a unit that doesnt need to be prepared before a showing. I still dont know if its true, but it makes sense to me.

moll.dev•11 days ago

A friend who worked as a property manager for a 20 unit building said they basically had their worst unit as the “representative floor plan” it essentially got no sunlight and had leaking problems. So they’d keep it empty but clean enough to show what an empty unit looked like. Gotta love cali lol

steveklabnik.com•11 days ago

people do do some scummy stuff with application fees, but one of each style of a unit does not a housing shortage make

broodingbroodling.bsky.social•11 days ago

I do believe that airbnb is a serious issue, but thats also just a gut feeling. I have no numbers to back it up lol.

steveklabnik.com•11 days ago

yeah, it's a thing people like to scapegoat, and i'm not a fan of airbnb either, but like, the answer to it is to build more. you can't hoard something if there's too much of it, and the market won't support infinity airbnbs

mcy.gay•11 days ago

we can do both. we can destroy airbnb AND build 50-story high density residential

steveklabnik.com•11 days ago

Hell yeah

broodingbroodling.bsky.social•11 days ago

Yeah agreed. Hell, the last complex we were at had 6 to 10 apartments open at any given time (out of about 100) just because the turn over was so high.

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