There are also ~600M people living in relative poverty in the country side, who would love to move to the cities.
How is this not a good thing?
A Fifth of China’s Homes Are Empty (2018)
41–50 of 191 posts
Re: A Fifth of China’s Homes Are Empty (2018)
#42For context, it's been estimated that there are around 18M vacant homes in the US, though it's difficult to find a reliable source for this information. https://www.google.com/search?q=how+many+vacant+homes+are+th...
Seems high in the context of a total of ~112M homes. That would be more than 1 in 10 homes which I find hard to believe. https://www.statista.com/statistics/183635/number-of-househo...
Maybe together with houses that are not in living conditions, those numbers would be, right? How many abandoned farmhouses are there in the US?
Re: A Fifth of China’s Homes Are Empty (2018)
#43It doesn't make much economic sense that these houses are empty. Why not rent them out or sell them for whatever the market will bear?
Why do car dealerships not rent out their new cars until a purchaser comes along?
You've probably heard that your new car loses most of its value (that is, most of the value it will ever lose) the minute you drive it out of the dealership. The label "new" is worth much more than the functionality.
This can also be true of apartments. I have seen it written that it is true of Chinese apartments, though I can't personally attest one way or the other.
Re: A Fifth of China’s Homes Are Empty (2018)
#44Why does it say "homes" when the first sentence says "urban housing stock"?
Re: A Fifth of China’s Homes Are Empty (2018)
#45For context, it's been estimated that there are around 18M vacant homes in the US, though it's difficult to find a reliable source for this information. https://www.google.com/search?q=how+many+vacant+homes+are+th...
Seems high in the context of a total of ~112M homes. That would be more than 1 in 10 homes which I find hard to believe. https://www.statista.com/statistics/183635/number-of-househo...
I think it should be 17M (12%), I tried plotting it in FRED: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=mGVF (the numbers themselves from the US Bureau of Census) The highest the US has gone recently is 15% vacant housing units, and it's been going down since the Great Recession. I think one reason why 12% is not so unbelievable is that if people move reasonably often, and it takes a certain amount of time to find a new tenant, then part of the vacancy rate will be proportional to the rate of churn of people moving in/out. For a single landlord, a 12% vacancy rate is about 1.5 months of rent missing per year, which is high but not hard to imagine.
Looking at that plot, it does seem like the vacancy rate correlates with housing bubbles quite well.
Re: A Fifth of China’s Homes Are Empty (2018)
#46For context, it's been estimated that there are around 18M vacant homes in the US, though it's difficult to find a reliable source for this information. https://www.google.com/search?q=how+many+vacant+homes+are+th...
Seems high in the context of a total of ~112M homes. That would be more than 1 in 10 homes which I find hard to believe. https://www.statista.com/statistics/183635/number-of-househo...
> That would be more than 1 in 10 homes
I know this stuff can be highly market dependent, but that roughly matches on-the-ground observation in Midwest. (11% of homes are vacant, rental units have a ~9% vacancy rate).
Some of those houses are in disrepair (unlivable). Some of the units are brand new (not yet occupied). Some are bank owned investment properties (intentionally empty). Some are between occupants. Etc.
Re: A Fifth of China’s Homes Are Empty (2018)
#47China plans to reallocate 0.1bn people into cities before 2020. Go figure.
Re: A Fifth of China’s Homes Are Empty (2018)
#48For context, it's been estimated that there are around 18M vacant homes in the US, though it's difficult to find a reliable source for this information. https://www.google.com/search?q=how+many+vacant+homes+are+th...
Seems high in the context of a total of ~112M homes. That would be more than 1 in 10 homes which I find hard to believe. https://www.statista.com/statistics/183635/number-of-househo...
Like a lot of stats, one has to sit back and think of the definition and not let intuition or feelings get in the way. I can't comment on whether that is or isn't high, but I've got some experience trying to calculate such in Australia. You've got to take into account:
- abandoned yet still livable homes
- new construction not yet moved into
- houses currently in the state of being sold
- old buildings not yet demolished
- airbnb and short term rentals currently sitting empty: seasonal housing usually makes up a large extent of vacant housing in a country
- accomodation for workers/fly-in-fly-out workforce
- rentals currently vacated because they can't find a tenant
- rentals currently tenanted but not being occupied (because of moving in/out consecutively with other properties)
- holiday homes not being used
The Aussie census also calculates about 11% of homes being vacant on census night.
Like with employment markets, most people seriously underestimate the true 'state of natural churn' in these stats that can be found in a modern day country/economy, and just form a picture in their head of an apartment block just sitting there doing nothing all the time or wonder why people aren't being housed in them.
Re: A Fifth of China’s Homes Are Empty (2018)
#49It doesn't make much economic sense that these houses are empty. Why not rent them out or sell them for whatever the market will bear?
Why do car dealerships not rent out their new cars until a purchaser comes along? You've probably heard that your new car loses most of its value (that is, most of the value it will ever lose) the minute you drive it out of the dealership. The label "new" is worth much more than the functionality. This can also be true of apartments. I have seen it written that it is true of Chinese apartments, though I can't persona…
A car loses value when used because the components degrade (presumably, a new car not being driven, but stored doesn't degrade).
An apartment or house could degrade when being lived in - but that's the internal furnishings, which is "easily" replaced. The concrete, walls and other structural features degrade regardless of whether an occupant is in it or not!
Re: A Fifth of China’s Homes Are Empty (2018)
#50Sounds like a solid solution to America's housing crisis once transfer booths are invented.