

The vacancy rate in NYC is a lie – and we can double it overnight - schrodinger
https://medium.com/@DrShaffopolis/the-vacancy-rate-in-nyc-is-a-lie-and-we-can-double-it-overnight-96433ad26ee2

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bko
I don't see how banning an economic activity would have a positive impact on
overall welfare. I can't exactly describe why but It seems like a very archaic
economic idea.

Similarly, you can say [item] is too expensive, so let's ban using [item] on
anything other [essential purpose].

Of course [essential purpose] is a complete value judgement determined by
politic incentives.

Perhaps this would work if housing were truly a fixed commodity, but kind of
like other commodities, it is not. For instance, we're yet to reach peak oil.
In fact, oil reserves go up pretty much every year [0].

Making housing less valuable to land owners would discourage new construction
and likely result in other unforeseen consequences.

[0] [http://www.forbes.com/sites/johntharvey/2011/04/26/why-
you-a...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/johntharvey/2011/04/26/why-you-are-
paying-so-much-for-gas/)

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mhink
In a way, it's a tragedy of the commons thing. Part of what makes a
neighborhood nice is... well, the people. People that have lived there for a
long time, contributing to the local economy and community. In a city, where
you can't easily expand supply, this has two effects: it drives the demand up
and the supply down, yeah? So, now you have people who see dollar signs, and
jump on every bit of open housing to rent it out on AirBnB- but doing so means
they're not contributing back to the community in the same way it originally
became desirable. So, in a way, they're draining the value others created.

I do have another note regarding how that value contributes to a community's
overall welfare, but I've got to get back to work. I'll edit it this evening.

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ChuckMcM
This would be a stronger article if it looked at the economic impact of 2% of
the apartments being AirBnb rentals vs having those 2% be part of the leasing
pool. Housing affordability can be addressed by raising wages (something that
hasn't happened).

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drshaffopolis
I agree that that would make a stronger article. I actually spent a bunch of
time researching that and even asked a few real economists, who would do a
better job than I did.

I know those studies must exist - think tanks do them whenever we're talking
about a new major building project - I just wasn't able to find any.

