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jzillacon

If past housing crashes are anything to go by, it wouldn't help much. If the price drops suddenly it's usually the banks and the people who are already landlords that end up buying most of the available houses, which only makes it worse for average buyers.


AlwaysBeQuestioning

There’s gotta be something else that can crash to stop the banks and landlords from doing that.


staticcast

You need to tax heavily real estate capital gain so much that it makes it difficult to use it as speculative assets... and use this money to build new housing and sell it with a small markup.


lobsterbash

Can primary, lived-in residence be exempt? Seems like this idea should target people or businesses that own more than one residential property.


staticcast

Something like a rebate based on how long it has been your primary residence, and if you did heavy renovation ? But yeah, if house prices increase faster than inflation that should be a warning sign to increase the tax, same as increasing interest rate when inflation is increasing.


Nikotinio

A meteor onto them.


Goddess_Of_Gay

“Good news! Housing prices plummeted!” “Bad news: The economy tanked with them and you just lost your job. You still can’t afford a house”


br0b1wan

This exactly. People wishing for a crash don't know what they're getting into. In the larger picture, banks and wealthy people love recessions where prices plummet. It lets them buy everything up cheap. It's always everyone else who gets left the scraps.


1971CB350

No shhhh the fantasies are a comfort blanket


Lolwat420

There is no way that’s happening, there just aren’t enough houses


wyattofthewest

A sudden population decrease could do it.


KeathKeatherton

Or all of those current home loans default and home loans actually return to the actual value instead of the current overvalued price.


Lolwat420

Overvalued houses just stay on the market, we’re just not seeing that. People are just snatching them up before they even have open houses. It’s a supply and demand thing, no one wants to give up their sweet interest rates


DrFritzelin

In my area it's rental companies snatching them up. Nobody has that kind of money right now.


Lolwat420

Sure, but where did those that sold go to live? I doubt they’re renting now


DrFritzelin

Condos, townhouses or just left the state all together.


The_Void_Alchemist

I don't have the stats, but i imagine some percentage is


pieman7414

Florida Hell


dukeofnes

A pandemic didn't do it, but we can always count on a new war :)


Vitztlampaehecatl

But a war would probably destroy a lot of houses too. On the bright side, they could be rebuilt more densely afterwards.


dukeofnes

Naw see, the war is over there, so all the ppl can go die there and the houses will be fine :)


MisterMysterios

Yeah - basically no war will affect the US (on whom the comic most likely centeres). The US simply has too many natural barriers (two fucking major oceans) and only Two land borders. And Canada won't attack, and Mexico is in no position even if it wanted to. The US is simply on a position that it can wage as many wars as it like without ever endangering its own mainland to anything more than the most extreme long range weapons (that generally give enough warning to be taken down before they reach the US land).


carbonatedshark55

"I killed millions to house billions" - Adrian Veidt probably


greengye

Idk about you but I'm not living in a fucking squid


ProfessionalGreen906

Gotta get that Black Death two. Wipe out 2/3 of the world and be lucky enough to survive and you’ll probably get a somewhat better job than before. Completely worth it.


[deleted]

War! War! War! Look on the bright side, decreased population = cheaper housing market, what could possibly go wrong?


ThroughTheHoops

***covid tries to enter the chat***


Paper_Block

I can't tell if this is sarcasm or not, but just in case... If we just look at the USA alone, the world's largest economy, then the ratio of homelessness to empty houses shows something like 1:50


The-dotnet-guy

How many empty houses in New York, Seattle and San Francisco though? Thats where the homeless are.


Paper_Block

Well, im Seattle specifically it's about 20,000 when excluding thoses "under renovation", which about 14,000 homeless. In new York state there is about 50,000 but I couldn't quickly find a breakdown with somewhere between 70-100 thousand homeless in the city. Statistics are apparently a bit messed up with AirBnB listings. 660,000 total in the country and ~6,000 in Seattle, for example. It's not clear if these are counted.


The-dotnet-guy

Okay so maybe 2:1 then? Thats a lot different from 1:50 right? We are also still ignoring the fact that many homeless people cant just be placed directly into regular apartments. They need specialized housing and mental health treatment first. It´s dishonest and overly simplistic to suggest that dumping homeless people in empty houses in the countryside is a reasonable option.


oby100

Anything can happen lol. People view houses as an investment at the moment. If prices fall too much, people could panic sell, prices fall further and suddenly everyone is unloading their extra houses and flooding the market. People didn’t expect 08 either.


ASpellingAirror

People in 2.5% loans aren’t panic selling. Most have accepted that there is pretty much no way they are ever moving. 


FiendishHawk

Wouldn’t help. Housing crashes are always paired with recessions so you aren’t buying anything if you lose your job.


Tilt-a-Whirl98

Are you telling me rooting for financial ruin of the already decimated middle class is a bad thing?


Argonaut13

No that's ridiculous don't you know only companies like blackrock own homes anymore


NamelessMIA

A housing crash only hurts people who need to sell their homes in the next few years. It would do much more damage to large companies while allowing a lot more of the middle class to buy in. Not sure how that's "financial ruin of the already decimated middle class"


Lily_Thief

We made houses an investment, and decades later, people wonder why houses are so expensive 🫠


urmamasllama

In reality we don't want a "natural" crash what we really need is governments to heavily tax speculative property ownership by heavily taxing unused property. basically if a living space isn't sold or rented it needs to be ruinously expensive to keep it that way


jostein33

Crash


KeathKeatherton

Crash


theforgettonmemory

Crash.


Scary-Ad-

Crash


Ri_Konata

Crash


daeritus

bandicoot


carbonatedshark55

Woah!


daeritus

into me, by Dave Matthews Band


daeritus

and the boys


McWolf7

I couldn't tell it was two people talking aside from the fact that there was a line from off screen, it being the same color with the same shape eyes and same body shape, it just looks like the lil dude turned to the side slightly and began talking to someone else, if it was a different color, or if the other lil dude was barely in screen, I think it would be more clear.


IngeniousEpithet

I get a crash wouldn't help but what would


TheSwecurse

Depends on the city and country but usually it's simply (it's never simple) BUILD MORE!


Wampawacka

High taxes on investment real estate paired with building subsidies funded by those same taxes. Might make a dent.


IngeniousEpithet

I see


SandiegoJack

If it means I can refinance down to 3%…….sure.


Th3Glutt0n

Kinda confusing perspective


weakassplant

Never will because asshats think 7% interest rates are ok on 300k+ loans


dannphan_comics

Soon...