this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2024
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Housing Bubble 2: Return of the Ugly

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A community for discussing and documenting the second great housing bubble.

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[–] Pohl 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

But you can still build your way out of that supply problem. The demand for lodging is eating into housing… so what? build more housing until the demand for shelter of all sorts is satisfied. Is there a reason that you cannot build? Yeah it’s nimbys.

[–] Bonskreeskreeskree 5 points 6 months ago (2 children)

I'm beyond sick of hearing this shit repeated. Zoning is not the main issue. Labor prices have skyrocketed. Material priced have hardly come back down from covid highs. Builders are afraid to build because they don't want to be caught holding the bag if the market tanks. A lot of new builds are going into build to rent portfolios. Single family rental institutions have driven prices through the roof and further limited supply. Its an accumulation of a lot of different things and denser multifamily is not a plug and play solution to every, let alone majority of markets.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

A contractor friend of mine was saying that if he was going to build a house for himself, the building alone would cost at least $600,000 Canadian. A plot of land is typically more than $200,000.

[–] SeattleRain -1 points 6 months ago

In the US at least we know how many hours it takes to build a home and it's around 300. The average 375k asking price is in no way justified by labor and especially materials which have been crashing.

Mass produced track homes are simple and cheap to build. It is 100% tax breaks, speculation and collusion as to why homes are so expensive.

[–] ASeriesOfPoorChoices 1 points 6 months ago

yep. where I am, materials+labor are up about 30% -50% since 2019/2020, which has really hurt local government too. All those basic plans for a new local sports centre? local roadworks and improvements? Now local taxes/rates have to go up AND we get less for our money.

Plus, thanks to people paying up front / fixed contract amounts for building, with materials increasing so much, thousands of building companies have collapsed, meaning tens of thousands of houses aren't being built, meaning the housing crisis gets worse! yay!

[–] SeattleRain 0 points 6 months ago (1 children)

No you can't because whatever supply you build can be warehoused by landlords.

[–] Pohl 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Housing is pretty expensive to own if nobody needs it. The fun part of building your way out of the problem is that it bankrupts greedy idiots who try to keep the supply “warehoused”.

Increase supply, prices go down. Nobody wants to lose their ass just so your rent is too high. They will move there money someplace else as soon as the supply constraint bonanza is ended.

[–] SeattleRain -1 points 6 months ago

No because collusion makes housing appreciation more than worth it to keep units off the market. Plus appriasers are so corrupt and buyers so desperate you often don't pay anything for neglecting an empty home.