The biggest lie policy makers are telling us is that the reason people can’t afford a home is because their NIMBY neighbours are preventing homes from being built.
This person has been spamming me with this same nonsense for a week, so let’s explore it 1/
But if we don’t like the provincial example, one can also look at previous investor driven bubbles in cities with very elastic housing supply.
Somehow the ability to build more and to build rapidly did not prevent housing bubbles in Phoenix, Dubai & Las Vegas. 4/
And to say that strong investor demand is a “symptom” of inelastic housing supply is also a bit parochial.
If that’s the case, why did this symptom only appear suddenly?
Why were investors the smallest buyer segment 10 years ago? 5/
Has supply become far more inelastic in Toronto over the past ten years to explain the surge in this “symptom”, rising investor demand?
Of course it hasn’t
The problem is that this argument is nonsense 6/
For clarity, I’m all for policies that improve the supply of homes including putting an end to exclusionary single-family zoning.
But I’m also not drinking the Kool-Aid dreaming that this along will make housing affordable again. 7/
That said, I’ll make a deal with the planning types who have been spamming me with these same views on the market.
Send me the book or academic paper that makes the case that elastic housing supply can prevent an investor driven housing bubble, I’ll read it 8/
In the meantime, maybe invest a few minutes to study other housing markets and previous housing bubbles to see that the world does not revolve around zoning alone./
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Rob was friendly and did his best to convince me that my understanding of their business wasn’t accurate
He even offered to share more info including video testimonials of their happy “owner-residents” with the hope I might change my mind and see what they are doing is great 2/
I gave it some thought.
Researching Key’s business model is not a top priority for me right now but I did figure Poloz deserves a fair shake.
So I followed up with them to say I only needed one thing, the contract owner-residents sign with Key. 3/
"our analysis finds that many Canadians are buying homes as investment properties—that is, in addition to their principal residence—and the importance of this phenomenon has grown.
Expectations of a capital gain can make homes a very attractive asset for investors." 2/
"A sudden influx of investors in the housing market likely contributed to the rapid price increases we saw earlier this year.
In such a case, expectations of future price increases can become self-fulfilling, at least for a while." 3/
The duplicitous money hungry realtor is of course an easy target, but I feel @cbcmarketplace didn’t ask any agents what it’s like working with FSBO sellers to get a different perspective.
Since defending realtors will lead to some trolling, I’ll start with a reminder that I was one of few people in my industry who supported FSBOs being listed on the MLS back in 2010 and fought with the @CompBureau to make sold data public 2/
Now, I’ll offer you my experience dealing with For Sale By Owner (FSBO) sellers from when I was selling more actively.
The first and biggest problem was that it was incredibly hard to schedule an appointment to see FSBO properties. 3/
A 🧵 on how real estate investors impact the housing market and why policy makers should be more concerned.
While there is no single cause for high house prices, real estate investors can have an outsized impact on the way up and down….1/ movesmartly.com/articles/are-i…
Avg home buyers & real estate investors have very different (heterogeneous) beliefs about the future direction of the housing market which affects their behaviours and leads to very different market outcomes
When prices are rising, real estate investors are more optimistic that prices will keep rising rapidly in the future which is why investors are typically willing to pay more for a property than an end user. 3/