Exactly my point. What exactly are we gaining from the constant bidding war?
We’re just coming out with a less nice house than we can really afford. Or an apartment that we’re overpaying for.
במחילת כבודך I don’t thing you took any courses in economics in elementary school or mesivta so I’ll explain in a nutshell (with some oversimplification.)
It’s called supply and demand. When there is a chicken shortage and there are 100,000 people who are interested in making chicken for dinner (and can afford to pay $2.49 lb- in a poorer society you have less demand) and only 70,000 packages of chicken available, the price of chicken rises to $3.99 a lb. and 30,000 people decide that maybe they’ll have fish or turkey for dinner so supply and demand balance out.
At $800 there are just too many potential renters looking for apartments in Lakewood. Rents start to shoot up and eventually reach a point where some singles start sharing apartments or staying home with parents, some people start putting apartments they were keeping for themselves back on the market or finishing their long unfinished basements to capitalize on $25,000 of additional income a year. New construction with rentable basement is incentivized since it adds a meaningful sum toward the monthly mortgage. Some young couples are priced out of the market and start looking at places on the periphery of Lakewood. Others abandon plans to move to Lakewood entirely.
https://forums.dansdeals.com/index.php?topic=21675.0 starts getting a little more active. Slowly supply and demand begin to equalize. Sometimes the supply ends up exceeding the demand, vacancies increase and prices drop until they reach a new equilibrium.