[whatindaheck]

> Rising home values are a zero-sum game. It makes people look wealthier on paper

I had a thought the other day and HN seems like a good place to ask. And I understand this idea is just straight up out there but I am honestly asking.

What would/might happen if we put a freeze on home prices? Assuming a magic wand could be waved.

[returningfory2]

If housing prices were capped, as in this proposal, selling a house would immediately be a bad economic decision because you would, by design, be giving up something for less than it's worth. People would rationally respond to this by selling less often. The distribution of homeowners over time would then change very little - i.e., in 20 years time, mostly the same people who own homes would still have them, and people who didn't have a home would be economically locked out of homeownership.

You see this dynamic play out exactly with rent control. People are (rationally) very reluctant to leave rent controlled apartments, so rental housing basically sticks with the people who had it at the time rent control was introduced and newcomers are kind of screwed.

[whatindaheck]

> You see this dynamic play out exactly with rent control. People are (rationally) very reluctant to leave rent controlled apartments

I’m holding onto an apartment now exactly because of this so it really hits with me. Thank you!

[moffkalast]

People would just continue the already established practice of paying part of the sum in cash to dodge taxes, or in this case to work around the imposed limit.