Increase supply if housing isn’t a commodity, reduce pricing if housing is no longer a vehicle for retirement, end housing as a vehicle for capital so there are far less empty homes doing nothing, etc
It doesn’t solve the problem overnight (zoning reform is a big issue to address, for one) but it would alleviate a lot of key issues
I’ve got a wild idea, maybe if there is demand we can increase supply.
Surely in this hypothetical communist world, we can also build some housing without every rich asshole trying to stop it in the name of maintaining their property value through scarcity.
We can’t solve that at a national level. That’s city (and state/province) government’s domain. City governments put roadblocks in the way of development because it’s popular with homeowners who want to see their investment grow.
A lot of countries are facing this issue, not just the US. I’m in Canada and in our big cities (especially Vancouver and Toronto) we arguably have it worse than the US. I don’t know how to solve it. It’s going to require convincing homeowners to let the value of their homes go down. Not exactly a winning political strategy!
Not sure how you get secure housing out of that. If everyone is in the market for housing then prices are going through the roof.
Increase supply if housing isn’t a commodity, reduce pricing if housing is no longer a vehicle for retirement, end housing as a vehicle for capital so there are far less empty homes doing nothing, etc
It doesn’t solve the problem overnight (zoning reform is a big issue to address, for one) but it would alleviate a lot of key issues
I’ve got a wild idea, maybe if there is demand we can increase supply. Surely in this hypothetical communist world, we can also build some housing without every rich asshole trying to stop it in the name of maintaining their property value through scarcity.
We can’t solve that at a national level. That’s city (and state/province) government’s domain. City governments put roadblocks in the way of development because it’s popular with homeowners who want to see their investment grow.
A lot of countries are facing this issue, not just the US. I’m in Canada and in our big cities (especially Vancouver and Toronto) we arguably have it worse than the US. I don’t know how to solve it. It’s going to require convincing homeowners to let the value of their homes go down. Not exactly a winning political strategy!