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SuckMyAssmar t1_j8oun9p wrote

Reply to comment by JPenniman in Gentrification by [deleted]

I am not sure of this. There are management companies and landlords that will keep (expensive) units vacant. I will have to look into the prevalence of this in Boston and the surrounding areas.

To your second point, can government subsidize the units that middle-class renters would be in? Do you think it is plausible or possible? Any other ideas on how to make affordable units affordable?

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Opposite_Match5303 t1_j8oxv36 wrote

The vacancy rate in greater Boston is exceptionally low.

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tjrileywisc t1_j8p70lm wrote

Here's a recent paper about this process (housing chains) working in Helsinki:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3929243

While this is frequently derided as 'trickle down housing', it's not like the supply side economic theory about always lowering taxes on rich people. Housing chains are more like the used car market- someone paid to have a new car and eat the cost of depreciation while selling their previous car at at a much lower price than they bought it.

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SuckMyAssmar t1_j8p7qqo wrote

Hmm ok. Inflation right now is insane, obviously, but I will read this paper in a bit. Initial thought is that the older (relative term) being sold still isn’t affordable to the ‘average’ person, aka someone that isn’t a software engineer or works in biotech.

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tjrileywisc t1_j8p8qhv wrote

That's fair, but I would say what you are looking for is for any price gradient to not go up as steeply and hopefully wages rise to meet it in a more sane place (that paper suggests in two years you can see a clear impact).

As an example of where this is going well, Tokyo builds enough housing supply that a recent college graduate can rent without roommates to my understanding.

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SuckMyAssmar t1_j8p95qg wrote

Yes and thank you - I was not aware of that in Tokyo!

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