Do you think these investors just have magic unlimited funds to hoard vacant housing forever? No. They exist to make a profit, which means sooner or later they either have to get occupants into those units or sell them on to somebody who will. This “additional” demand from property hoarders who apparently (according to your logic) love vacant buildings because they’re fucking morons who hate money is, in the long run, fictional.
Look, if you want to do something about the investors because of inequality or unfairness or whatever, have at it. I’m just saying that if your goal is to fix housing prices, zoning reform would be vastly more effective as a strategy.
I did the math in another comment. The TL;DR is that the maximum benefit you could have by eliminating investors is limited to the amount they’re participating in the market in the first place (which is much less than 100%). Meanwhile, simple zoning reforms are capable of doubling, 10x-ing, or more the amount of supply.
You didn’t do any math, and your assertion that the change in pricing is proportional to the market share is completely wrong. That’s not how pricing in markets works.
Do you think these investors just have magic unlimited funds to hoard vacant housing forever? No. They exist to make a profit, which means sooner or later they either have to get occupants into those units or sell them on to somebody who will. This “additional” demand from property hoarders who apparently (according to your logic) love vacant buildings because they’re fucking morons who hate money is, in the long run, fictional.
That doesn’t matter! They are still inducing extra demand, which still raises prices for normal people trying to buy homes.
Look, if you want to do something about the investors because of inequality or unfairness or whatever, have at it. I’m just saying that if your goal is to fix housing prices, zoning reform would be vastly more effective as a strategy.
I did the math in another comment. The TL;DR is that the maximum benefit you could have by eliminating investors is limited to the amount they’re participating in the market in the first place (which is much less than 100%). Meanwhile, simple zoning reforms are capable of doubling, 10x-ing, or more the amount of supply.
You didn’t do any math, and your assertion that the change in pricing is proportional to the market share is completely wrong. That’s not how pricing in markets works.
That’s not at all what I said. If you’re going to claim that I’m wrong at least have the decency to not misrepresent my argument.