Going off on a tangent, but are vacancies keeping rent high or are they a result of overpriced rent not responding to market pressure? It seems like vacancies should mean low demand at the current price, which, in my little econ 101 view of the world, should push the price down.
Econ 101 falls apart when landlords are allowed to participate in a pricing cartel. They can also make more money off the asset in their book worth X amount than they can filling the unit with a tenant at a lower price. This is possible because they have a minimum percentage filled at a price that covers their costs for the unfilled units.
So there is no incentive for them to lower prices unless they need to raise revenue for some reason.
Going off on a tangent, but are vacancies keeping rent high or are they a result of overpriced rent not responding to market pressure? It seems like vacancies should mean low demand at the current price, which, in my little econ 101 view of the world, should push the price down.
Vacancies happen when landlords refuse to lower the rent that they’re seeking to meet falling market value. Don’t believe landlords.
Econ 101 falls apart when landlords are allowed to participate in a pricing cartel. They can also make more money off the asset in their book worth X amount than they can filling the unit with a tenant at a lower price. This is possible because they have a minimum percentage filled at a price that covers their costs for the unfilled units.
So there is no incentive for them to lower prices unless they need to raise revenue for some reason.