• Let's Go 2 the Mall!@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I live in a small town in the SE US. I bought my house for $89,900, 12ish years ago. There are 3 vacant houses on my street and they are all listed for $250,00 or more. My house is bigger than all of them. They have all been empty for over a year.

    • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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      1 year ago

      They really should tax empty houses at 100%. You’ll see how fast they will sell, and how low the price will go to achieve that.

      • mayo@lemmy.today
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        1 year ago

        We do that in Vancouver and it’s good. The fines are steep.

        But it’s opened a mini industry of people being paid to visit homes so they aren’t ‘empty’.

  • SacrificedBeans@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Last month I had this random conversation with an old lady while on vacation. She mentioned that quite lightheartedly, that “we bought our house just on our salaries, we worked hard back then and needed to settle down”. I wasn’t expecting to have to explain to her that this is not such an easy option for us right now. She seemed genuinely surprised and disappointed at the facts and I didn’t know whether to feel enraged or amused by her true or not ignorance.