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Comment by underseacables | Hacker News Reader

“ Those who beat the real estate curve and bought property for their employees to live in before home prices skyrocketed are faring much better on the hiring front than their comrades.”

So we are returning to factory towns? It seems the only solution is the cap rental prices, which traditionally doesn’t work.

Maybe the city should be buying at the housing and providing it?

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> Maybe the city should be buying at the housing and providing it?

We do this in New York. It’s pork for politicians.

Really? I thought companies owning the housing of their workforce to be a terrible thing because it could easily lead to abuse, and more likely than not will. I didn’t know that governments were already doing this… That’s depressing.

The solution is to not interfere in the market.

I agree with allowing the market to function, but I also believe it needs to be coupled with a land value tax to incentivise efficient use of the land. A land value tax incentives people to build up and build in a space efficient manner.

Aren't property taxes a form of a land value tax? You could argue that property taxes aren't high enough - or priced below market value - to incentivize efficient resource allocation.

.... which "works out in the end", but only after lots of people suffer from the required dislocations.

Is their suffering better or worse than the "distortions" caused by "interfering" in the market?

I would agree with you typically, but it seems in this case in Tahoe, if you don’t interfere in the market, the businesses will eventually either go out of business, or the economy will stagnate. Property owners are not willing to lower their price, why should they? Businesses can only raise the money they’re willing to offer so much. They could raise prices but then you run into a tipping point where people say you know Tahoe is just too expensive to get a sandwich. Eventually it’s a race to the top, but the top is a cliff.

I guess the businesses could close and people could just stop going to Tahoe all together.

As services raise prices and/or quality suffers, the desirability falls, and so will the housing prices, unless the owners like a private resort. It may take time.

Agree with the land value tax (if you don't have it) - it would flatten and speed things up.

How is that possible, its surrounded by a national forrest necessarily creating a regulatory interference.

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