(12-09-2021, 11:10 AM)sluismcfc Wrote: I would assume something registered on title that prevents them from being sold at a price higher than some ratio relative to median income or market prices. Usually the numbers you see are 30% of median income as a yearly housing cost or market cost less 10%. It may also be tied to time horizon of 20 or 50 years (just numbers I've seen recently for other projects).
That can’t work. I’m not saying that’s not how it is, but price controls of this sort will just cause trouble. If it goes on the market at the price limit, it will attract huge amounts of offers; and then how does the seller choose? Realistically, they probably choose the “cash tomorrow” offer, meaning the unit almost certainly ends up in the hands of a rich shyster who can then find a way to sell it for more.
This is the same problem as full rent control (no vacancy de-control) unmoored from market prices. You end up with prices rising in other ways.
Edit: OK, I see one suggested possibility is a fraction of market prices. That might conceivably work more or less as expected; but on the other hand it doesn’t provide that much price relief (which is of course also why it has a chance of working as expected). It remains the case that the only way to really keep prices low is to have enough supply that the market price is lower.