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by aurareturn 334 days ago
Is it Airbnb that increased the price or hosts?

Regardless, I don't see any problem here. The price increases, more people with a spare apartment, home, or room will be incentivized to host which increases supply.

If you suppress the price artificially, then the supply won't increase which won't do people who lost their homes any favors.
2 comments
sanp 334 days ago
Isn’t the underlying assumption here that supply is essentially infinite (or at least comparable to demand)? I think is the underlying assumption with any such statement. If the assumption doesn’t hold true then I am not sure the statement holds true (perhaps only till there is some supply).
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aurareturn 334 days ago
No, that's not the assumption. The assumption is that higher prices will draw out more supplies. This is how a free market works.
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sanp 334 days ago
Well that assumes that there are more suppliers available (within the time period under consideration). Over what time period do we assume that more suppliers will be drawn out? An hour? A day? A month?
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aurareturn 334 days ago
Given that hosts routinely take their units off market for various reasons, people who have been on the edge of renting out via Airbnb, etc. I'd say the supply increase can be quite substantial. I don't have the data. Only Airbnb does.
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MangoToupe 334 days ago
> If you suppress the price artificially, then the supply won't increase which won't do people who lost their homes any favors.

Supply's not increasing substantially in the near future to help regardless. Folks place far too much faith in market effects that history has demonstrated again and again only take effect in the long term.

You know what would actually guarantee an increase in supply? Government-funded public housing. But that would deflate property prices, which is far more reprehensible to americans than the institutions of poverty and homelessness. We are a disgusting and reprehensible people.

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shlant 334 days ago
> You know what would actually guarantee an increase in supply? Government-funded public housing

Or just removing needless restrictions so the market can provide the incentive for private entities to build housing? The government is not the primary builder of housing, nor should it be.

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MangoToupe 334 days ago
I simply do not share your faith, and I think any government that does not build housing for its people hates its people.
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