A lot of houses are empty simply because they are for sale. It's not unusual to take 6 months to sell.
Nobody is going to want homeless people living in it in the meantime.
Houses are also "empty" while they are undergoing renovation.
Nobody is going to want homeless people living in it in the meantime.
Houses are also "empty" while they are undergoing renovation.
A thought: Disincentivize having them for sale for too long, tax a % of the listing price every year it's on the market. That way gougers get penalized for crazy asking prices and there's some additional negative price pressure.
Most houses are listed publicly, require it for all of them. Transparency issue solved.
> Or worse people would just hang onto properties and not sell them at all, biasing towards turning houses into rentals.
This is done already? Still an improvement over leaving them empty indefinitley.
How will you do that. Remember: "I wasn't planning to sell my old house at all, but when I got this offer out of the blue I decided to take it".
I'd argue it's not expensive enough since it's frequently done.
EDIT: This has already become a common issue in locations like NYC, big money parked into properties with many commercial and residential units vacant. Better to pass those fees and borrow against artificially inflated value than it is to realize a loss.
EDIT2: I typo'd and meant to say 'pay', not pass those fees. (as a cost of doing business)
Commenting on Walter's comment below:
> I've sold houses before. I hated every day it was sitting there sucking up money.
I understand, my problems are with institutional/large wealth artificially constraining supply.
> As for artificially inflated values, bank lenders are not stupid and are not going to loan against a phony value.
Do correct me if I'm wrong but is it really their problem if they can sell that risk or the gov bails the whole sector out when there's a panic?
> Better to pass those fees
to whom?
> and borrow against artifically inflated value than it is to realize a loss.
Borrowing does nothing to stop one from losing money.
As for artificially inflated values, bank lenders are not stupid and are not going to loan against a phony value.