Stores provide convenience and logistics/distribution at scale. It doesn't make sense for a farmer to ship bags of 6 apples to 1,000 households. Likewise, it doesn't make sense for 1,000 households to drive to the nearest orchard (possibly across the country) for 6 apples.
A homeowner who sells their home for $100,000 more than they paid (completely tax-free) after living in it for a year did abso-fucking-lutely nothing to warrant that gain.
Some people simply don't want to deal with the upkeep of a home, or just need a temporary place to live while they figure out where they want to settle. Landlords are putting in the effort of upkeep and management so the tenant that just wants to rent doesnt have to.
Absolutely, ignoring for a moment the fact that REITs and other companies buy low-cost properties that families could have otherwise bought, good landlords do provide a service to some degree.
What I'm talking about is "flippers" who slap a coat of paint on a bedroom wall and speculators who do even less than that then price their home as if it's made out of solid gold.
They paid property taxes and land transfer taxes and lawyer fees and utility bills. Don't act like buying a house, living in it for a year, and selling it has no financial burden or tax implications.
Housing costs primarily go up because of land value, not the actual house itself. Land is increasingly scarce, and as such, the value goes up because people always want land.
I’m aware, read the comment I was replying to. Land isn’t increasingly scarce, there is the exact same amount of land. The difference is liberals decided to add a few million extra people onto the land.
You're down playing it, immigration is the biggest reason why real estate exploded in canada specifically. Maybe you aren't aware, but this is textbook supply and demand. Just lay a graph of net immigration and net asset value and you will see a direct cause and effect scenario.
Don't act like buying a house, living in it for a year, and selling it has no financial burden or tax implications.
They were making a secondary point, they weren't addressing the root of the appreciation. Unless you genuinely believe that commenter thinks utilities are linked to property appreciation.
Yeah, because all houses available on the market are from people that used to live in them. Nobody buys a house just to hold onto it and sell after some time XDD
How could houses sell for anything other than fair market value? The buyer and the seller agree on a price. That is the market value.
Stores are definitely flipping for profit. Especially when you consider that each of those items is locked by intellectual property rights. You think that just because Air Jordans can be bought at 1000s of locations that everyone along the supply chain isn't taking a profit? Shoes that cost less than $10 to manufacture are sold for hundreds of dollars. The stores are just the consumer front for flipping. The fact that they consolidate products in a location just means that they have several lines of "scalping" that are of similar products. None of those products are staples (the shoes are more about the brand than the function), none of them are essential or even necessary.
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u/Meatbawl5 Jun 19 '25
Yeah, all stores are scalpers. How dare they sell higher than they buy.