> why the city should swoop in and give tax payer money to landlords.
is the only thing stopping better housing ideological aversion to subsidizing landlords?
If the landlords cannot find economical ways to turn offices into residential apartments, they won't do it. Therefore, it is in the city's interest to make such a subsidy.
This is a situation where capitalism is actually pretty close to optimal.
The landlord attempts to sell at a small enough loss to avoid bankruptcy.
If that fails, the lender (which should be collecting enough interest or holding enough insurance to absorb the shock) forecloses and sells at auction to the highest bidder.
The new owner effectively received a subsidy, since they bought way below cost.
Incompetent real estate holding companies and banks go under, increasing future economic efficiency.
If all this is so bad to lead to economic contagion, the government can bail out the retail investors and institutions that got swindled by the wall street folks.
That bailout is some tiny percentage of the cost of bailing out the real estate holders, since all the fiscally irresponsible companies that went under act as ablative shielding.
chii|2 years ago
is the only thing stopping better housing ideological aversion to subsidizing landlords?
If the landlords cannot find economical ways to turn offices into residential apartments, they won't do it. Therefore, it is in the city's interest to make such a subsidy.
Spooky23|2 years ago
Real estate ownership has more direct and indirect subsidies than any business other than oil. Their greed shouldn’t be rewarded.
Let the government bailout the bank by buying and auctioning off the distressed asset.
hedora|2 years ago
The landlord attempts to sell at a small enough loss to avoid bankruptcy.
If that fails, the lender (which should be collecting enough interest or holding enough insurance to absorb the shock) forecloses and sells at auction to the highest bidder.
The new owner effectively received a subsidy, since they bought way below cost.
Incompetent real estate holding companies and banks go under, increasing future economic efficiency.
If all this is so bad to lead to economic contagion, the government can bail out the retail investors and institutions that got swindled by the wall street folks.
That bailout is some tiny percentage of the cost of bailing out the real estate holders, since all the fiscally irresponsible companies that went under act as ablative shielding.