Comment by local_crmdgeon

This is housing trutherism - yes, there's a lot of vacant housing. These units are being renovated, are uninhabitable, are in areas that aren't really livable (a ton are in rural Upstate New York, and don't have heat for example).

It's also still too small a % of total housing to create a proper liquid market. I've seen a liquid housing market, in KC - it's amazing. In NYC, it's fucking miserable to convince a landlord to let you suck them off to the tune of 6k a month.

This is Flat Earth but for housing policy. Look at places that win the housing price war - they just build a shitload of housing. Houston, Dallas, increasingly MSP.