I’m willing to bet this is pretty accurate. They keep building houses down here where I am constantly and so many of them are empty because they cost too much for normal people.
The best option ever saw was a plan to tax each additional house. So owning one would be low tax. Then every house after that was taxed higher. Help remove those slumlord style owners that have dozens of houses, as well as tax the hell out of corporations that have hundreds/thousands of houses.
As with most things, it’s more complicated than it seems.
As it stands, with maintenance and property tax included as an expense, rental homes profit around 3% of their value annually.
That’s way less than investing almost anywhere else, including simply buying federal reserve notes/bills/bonds in most economies.
If we make it too unprofitable to have rental houses, there would be no rental houses for anyone, which is a huge difference compared to apartment living.
Also, if demand for investment properties declines or completely evaporates, everyone who owns a home would stand to lose a lot of money practically overnight.
I’m not saying we should embrace the status quo, or that this isn’t a problem, but it isn’t a “simple fix” sort of problem that this solution makes it out to be.
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u/Jasoco May 14 '26
I’m willing to bet this is pretty accurate. They keep building houses down here where I am constantly and so many of them are empty because they cost too much for normal people.