you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

there are many houses sitting empty as banks don't want to sell them unless prices go up.

This is not reality. Houses sit empty because nobody wants to buy them. Places built in the middle of nowhere that've fallen apart over the 10 years they've been listed, because people don't want to live in the country like that. People with university degrees have to live and work in cities. Traveling 50 miles to commute from a country estate isn't cheap nor is it good for the sanity.

The second thing that happens with overvalued properties is that, for banks, it can be more profitable not to sell them to inflate their total asset holdings. Hence NYC properties valued in multiple millions for empty lots, or asbestos ridden shitholes, because keeping those assets lets banks loan more money. But this is only true for urban shitholes, not the tons of empty houses dotting the country in the middle of nowhere.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

for a while people were moving back to cities instead of suburbs as cities had improved/gentrified and people wanted to save money on transportation, gas, upkeep of cars etc. That may reverse as cities have been getting looted and pillaged. But it's a fact there are thousands of houses not being sold and banks would rather let them sit and rot than sell them at a loss because they're worried it becomes a trend and housing prices go down. Just like how the fed tries to keep inflation high. We would have deflation in a normal market where prices go down because people's wages go down and there are less jobs than before.

Yeah that is why it is more profitable to not sell them. Asbestos, great point, this is what made the WTC buildings worth less and hard to sell. Of course asbestos is in shtty urban shitholes as well as the suburbs.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I don't think you're following. The reason they're not selling is not necessarily a cabal that keeps prices high, it's that holding assets counts toward their ability to lend money. In other words, banks holding onto these properties they they're mutually valuing beyond any sane persons desire to pay because it actively makes them more money by lending the value of those assets. A purely natural state of affairs thanks to what is frankly a gross oversight by the government in allowing banks to value assets beyond the money they hold.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

bad post. blocked.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 3 fun2 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

I'm sorry you're not mature enough to handle reasoned arguments. Maybe one day your balls will drop.