Comment on Companies that buy up homes should be known as home scalpers

• FishFace@piefed.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  When people are forced to spend more on necessities, they don’t cut necessities. They can’t. They’re necessities.

  Well then, we’re back to some people cutting their costs by doing all the things I said above. You dismissed them all as if reasons why they’re not practical are reasons why they’re impossible.

  You’re saying if all rented properties were owned by single landlords who owned no other properties, rents today would still be just as high?

  All those landlords have the exact same incentives to charge as much as they can get away with, to subdivide properties and to exploit their renters as corporate landlords do. Consolidation can allow prices to increase - but it doesn’t always, and typically not by a lot, until consolidation reaches very high levels. 3-7% is what I’ve read for company mergers (note that the case studies include large market shares and companies dealing in necessities).

  So I propose that corporate landlords have manipulated the market by no more than 10%. So about 6 months of house price increases at current rates, or two years at less crazy rates. Everything else is caused by low supply and such.

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  • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Well then, we’re back to some people cutting their costs by doing all the things I said above. You dismissed them all as if reasons why they’re not practical are reasons why they’re impossible.

    No. I dismissed them as insufficient to show up in the stats.

    All those landlords have the exact same incentives to charge as much as they can get away with, to subdivide properties and to exploit their renters as corporate landlords do.

    Duh. But are you really going to claim single property owners competing with every other single property owner, wouldn’t have different results than duopolistic companies carving up sities and throwing their weight around in legislation?

    Have you considered that larger companies are also able to act to maintain the low supply?

    Real-estate and construction overlap a great deal, and that influence also grows with consolidation.

    And thanks for linking to a study that confirms what I’m trying to say? 3-7% of the largest bill most people have is not nothing.

    Does that percentage account for wage stagnation?

    Everything else is caused by low supply and such.

    A few comments ago you were clamining low supply is the only problem.

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    • FishFace@piefed.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      If people really thought that companies buying real estate might, at most, contribute a few percent of the price, while limited supply has led to price increases of hundreds of percent, then we’d be getting constant memes about insufficient house-building and pushes to change that, rather than this kind of thing.

      I want to change the narrative, because if all people hear is “COMPANIES ARE BUYING UP HOUSES AND JACKING UP RENTS” they won’t push for the policies which will have a bigger impact.

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      • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Did I at some point say we don’t need more housing?

        Protip: switch to “yes, and”.

        You won’t get a positive response by continuing with “no, actually”.

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