It causes weird effects. In my area -- and in a number of other more rural communities I've visited over the last year -- there are still tons and tons of empty commercial spaces, staying empty for months (or years), all with "For Lease" signs in the window ... and all of them with absurdly inflated asking rates. For those whose god is "the market", there's a failure happening here that's directly affecting the ability of smaller businesses to start up or grow.