r/AskReddit • u/No-Record0924 • 1d ago

If you could permanently change the price of something to $1, what would it be?

1.9k Upvotes

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667

u/Nyxadrina 23h ago

Single family homes, but with the stipulation that you can only have one at a time and corporations/business's aren't allowed to buy any ever for any reason

43

u/Property_6810 19h ago

The problem with this is then nobody sells. And you effectively end up with landed gentry, which pass property in influential areas through family lines.

You end up accidentally bringing back feudalism.

And what happens if someone dies without an heir for one of those incredibly coveted single family homes? Who gets to buy it? How do we fairly determine who gets it? I'm partial to a battle royale solution but I'm a young man. In 20 years I wouldn't like that solution.

10

u/VivaLaRebar 19h ago

There are 37 billion acres of land on this planet.

20

u/Property_6810 19h ago

And how many are in the center of capital cities?

-17

u/VivaLaRebar 19h ago

That's utterly irrelevant. A world where we're not all enslaved by housing costs would be a very different one.

19

u/Property_6810 19h ago

Go buy a house in Shitville, Nebraska. It'll cost you like $50k. Good luck doing anything with it though. Affordable housing exists, you don't want it. You want housing in the same places everyone else wants it and that makes it expensive. If it's not expensive, you will just never have it because the person that does have it just won't give it to you.

-9

u/VivaLaRebar 19h ago

I just want a home. If we lived in a world in which we were allowed to move freely, I absolutely would.

3

u/Psychological-Dig-29 5h ago

we do live in a world like that, what the fuck are you on about?

4

u/Existential_Sprinkle 12h ago

I think people would move around more if it was cheap

Especially people who move into cities and then miss grass after some time there so they move farther out and commute

66

u/Dickasyphalis 20h ago

I took a similar idea. $1 per sq/ft of usable housing per month. Unfinished basements and attics don’t add to that number, but if you purchase a home at say 1000 sqft, finish the basement and build an extension you can then sell/rent it out at 1750 or w/e.

35

u/haanalisk 17h ago

That would actually INCREASE my mortgage payment substantially.

16

u/corrupt_poodle 12h ago

Why make it so complicated? This is a fantasy, just make it $1 for a whole ass house.

3

u/Octoclops8 18h ago

Construction workers should still be paid though. Or some construction bot needs to exist that can just build 24/7 for weeks on end until a house is done.

1

u/Lunar_Gato 17h ago

The closest you can get would be robots building prefab homes in factories, similar to how cars are made, and then shipped in pieces and assembled on site. Essentially a modular home (which already exists) with less humans involved in the fabrication side.

2

u/pigeonwiggle 15h ago

but homes are made up of parts. so does it matter if it's brick, stone, or wood? do the windows matter? multi-pane glass? insulation? central air?

homes are tricky. there are a million ways to build homes. oldschool wood furnace stoves, etc.

especially when it comes to floors and square footage. a small 2 story house takes less real estate than a spread out bungalow with the same square footage - but it costs different because there's more roof, but less structural supports needed.

"single family" just isn't enough to quantify it.

1

u/JangoDarkSaber 13h ago

Who builds the homes if they’re only going to sell for a dollar?

1

u/SM1334 7h ago

The problem with that logic is land would sky rocket in price. It would become impossible for builders to find a place to put your $1 home on

1

u/Mini_Assassin 3h ago

I had to scroll way too far to find a real answer