• Flying SquidOP
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    25 hours ago

    Either the market has decided that houses are unaffordable for most people or they are overvalued. Which is it?

    • @hperrin
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      15 hours ago

      I believe that is a false dichotomy.

      • Flying SquidOP
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        15 hours ago

        No, I’m basing it on what you said.

        You said the market decides on value.

        The market has decided the value of houses is beyond most people’s ability to buy them.

        Therefore the value of houses is beyond most people’s ability to buy them based on your own reasoning.

        And then you claimed they were overvalued despite the market deciding on value.

        It can’t be both.

        • @hperrin
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          4 hours ago

          Again, I never claimed they were overvalued. I do not know if they are overvalued. There are plenty of reasons the market can sustain things being overvalued though, like false scarcity or price fixing. If your definition of value means markets suffering from these practices are actually increasing value, then our definitions of value differ. So if that’s the case, I don’t think this argument is going to go anywhere.

          • Flying SquidOP
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            4 hours ago

            Right, so, again, you believe that the value of homes is beyond the means of most people’s ability to buy them because that is what the market has decided.

            Also:

            • @hperrin
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              4 hours ago

              Do you see how I said “That may be a case of something being overvalued. That can especially happen when there is artificially limited supply.”

              At no point did I say, “That is a case of something being overvalued.”

              • Flying SquidOP
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                4 hours ago

                Right, so, again, you believe that the value of homes is beyond the means of most people’s ability to buy them because that is what the market has decided.

                Weird how you refuse to respond to this despite me suggesting it over and over. I think we both know why.

                And this whole “I didn’t say it was overvalued, I said it might be overvalued” stuff is weasely as fuck.

                • @hperrin
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                  4 hours ago

                  Ok, let me see if I can clear up the confusion. It is incredibly difficult to determine if something like the housing market is overvalued. Professional economists disagree with each other about that, and I am not a professional economist. I’m not even an amateur economist. You can ask me all you want, but I’m not going to take a stand on it, because I simply don’t know. Whether you will accept “maybe” as an answer is really up to you.

                  I also don’t know why houses are priced where they are. I know of a few of the factors, like how regulations have made it harder to build affordable housing, and, surprisingly, harder to build luxury housing even. Whatever the factors are that are affecting this market seems to have priced out most people. We can agree on that. Why that is (and whether homes are properly valued or overvalued) is what we can’t agree on, because again, I just don’t know.

                  • Flying SquidOP
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                    14 hours ago

                    So the market always decides value except when it doesn’t. I see.