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Comment by izzydata | Hacker News Reader

What about real-estate? Theoretically someone could buy up every property in an area and then price gouge anyone who wants to live there. They "could" just live somewhere else that is cheaper.

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Isn't that what people have already collectively done in cities? It takes $2k/mo to live in Seattle. The land I live on is valued at 5x what the house is worth and I'm not allowed to build an apartment on it.

> collectively done

I.e. the market, not a monopoly.

That's what we've outlawed -- we've outlawed all gas stations and supermarkets from raising prices regardless of monopoly. They have diverse ownership.

Tripling prices of TP so you don't hoard during a shortage seems less detrimental to society than locking generations of working class people from being able to ever join highly-productive areas.

I guess with a land value tax you can be sure the land is being used economically efficiently. As it is, the land is being used inefficiently. So I suppose it’s a market, just not an efficient one.

"Gouging" in this context means raising a price to take advantage of a temporary emergency or people in a desperate situation. I can't imagine how buying a house in a particular neighborhood would be an emergency. If people are willing to pay massive amounts of money for property in a given area then that is the market value for that area whether there is a single owner or multiple.

I guess that just adds more to the "I don't know how I feel." part. If the demand is there, then they will sell. Otherwise, this person would own a bunch of empty property. But is there something already stopping that? Is there anything stopping Jeff Bezos from just buying up a small community and disallowing anybody to live there without paying a ton extra? I am very unfamiliar with real estate so this is a genuine question.

If I got wind that Bezos was determined to buy up every property in my neighborhood, I'd quadruple my price. Heck, 10x! Bezos would pay plenty. I'd buy my neighbor's house for 2x and jack that up 10x for the sale to desperate Bezos.

This is why such attempts to corner the market fail. See Hunt Brothers.

Similarly, Disney bought the land in Florida for WDW quietly, using a bunch of shell companies, to avoid exactly this situation.

That is much more difficult. Land is not owned by a single entity that's willing to give it up at the right price

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