One fix that works everywhere would be increasing property taxes on any housing that isn’t occupied for more than 50% of the year. This is primarily aimed at landlords setting insane prices and allowing places to sit vacant for years at a time.
Place isn’t renting out at your price? It’s overpriced. Regardless of what you want to believe.
Taxes increase for every 6 months it’s unoccupied. Force the market pricing back down to what the market can actually bear. Invest the increased taxes into public housing and infrastructure.
Hell, do the same for commercial real estate. Deflate the real estate bubble slowly instead of waiting for it to explode like we always do historically.
infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 1 day ago
A NYTimes opinion piece, penned by an anonymous author on their editorial board, addressing housing costs? Let me guess, it’s going to be some abundance-brained take about deleting regulations and building new stuff, that ignores even consideration of the fact that shelter is a human need which shouldn’t be subject nakedly to the whims of market speculation in the first place?
Yeah
Juice@midwest.social 1 day ago
Exactly, the response to NIMBYism is not YIMBYism, it’s public housing.
In my city developers have rigged local government so that they can build anything they want, anywhere they want, and not pay any taxes on it for 20 years. They build luxury apartment buildings as rapid gentrification schemes, but dont worry, our city’s laws ensures about 20-30% of units must be made available to low income renters.
One of the latest projects will only charge $2500 per month for a family making up to $29k per year. This impossible standard eads to the units staying vacant, which works to keep vacancy at a level that sustains sky high rent across the city.