Stabilize the Housing Market

Shadow_stalker77

Well-Known Member
Jul 14, 2017
165
361
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So lately there's been a ton of ideas to fix the economy, so I decided to put in my two cents.

Honestly, a lot of these ideas would even make a dent into a lot of peoples’ wealth. Receiving $20 less each paycheck or paying $75 more to warp is nothing, especially when you consider that you can earn $300 every so often simply for being online or $500 when someone votes.

The housing market is the real problem right now. Houses are being listed for way too much money and, even worse, people are buying them and reselling them for more. Older players (6+ months) have a huge advantage because they were able to buy plots for a decent price, hold onto them, and now sell them for a bunch of money.

One solution would be to stabilize house pricing. There are a few steps to this:

1) Empty plots. Just as in real life, the area of the plot should be evaluated for a fair price. There would be a few factors for this, including how good the location is and what the terrain is (hilly, flat, sandy, mountainous). The price per block wouldn’t change much plot-to-plot, just enough to compensate for the location. An example would be $300 a block for a 10x10 plot in the heart of the city, so the empty plot would be worth $30,000. Once the price per block is calculated, the actual house would be priced.

2) House pricing. Houses are a bit more tricky to price because of quality (appearance, color coordination, use of space, etc) and size. The size would be easy to standardize, like $20 a square block of floor space (not plot space, the area of the actual house) excluding basements (each basement could add $1,000 or something not too OP). Then, the quality would be evaluated by a realtor or arch. I realize that quality is subjective, so 1-3 opinions would be necessary. The realtor could rate the house quality 0-100, each point being worth like $500.

So as an example, there’s a 25x25 plot on Bunny Island in a nice neighborhood. It would be worth $250 a block, based off location and terrain, so it would be $156,250 for the plot itself. Now say that someone put a house in that plot. The square blockage of the 2-story house is 920 blocks at $20 a block to be $18,400. Then the quality is assessed; the house scores well at 90, so an additional $45,000 would be added to the price. In total, this house would be worth $219,650, which seems a lot more fair than someone selling it for $400,000.

It would take a lot of effort to value all of the plots currently reselling, but it could still be implemented for the sellers that want to fix the problem or the buyers that don’t want to be scammed.

Still, it wouldn’t be fair to force plot owners to sell their houses for a set amount of money. This pricing model would only be a suggestion for the seller, not the amount they have to sell it for. However, to prevent players from selling overpriced plots to newbies, the suggested value of the plot/house could be put on a sign in front of the plot so the buyers can see it.

A new position could be created to run this program, or the Minister P could even oversee it. It doesn’t have to be a staff member; it could be a Sr Arch or even a realtor (side note, the realtor job needs to be changed so the realtors can actually price houses, not just inflate prices to get a higher commission). There’s like 3-4 realtor groups, too; they could implement this idea.

Standardizing the housing market would allow buyers and sellers to know a fair price for their houses. In real life, similarly sized houses of comparative quality are all worth pretty much the same amount. This would help stabilize the economy because players wouldn’t have to grind for money to buy a house, and plot sellers wouldn’t become insanely rich by simply holding onto a house until the value goes up.
 
T

Trump15024

Guest
So lately there's been a ton of ideas to fix the economy, so I decided to put in my two cents.

Honestly, a lot of these ideas would even make a dent into a lot of peoples’ wealth. Receiving $20 less each paycheck or paying $75 more to warp is nothing, especially when you consider that you can earn $300 every so often simply for being online or $500 when someone votes.

The housing market is the real problem right now. Houses are being listed for way too much money and, even worse, people are buying them and reselling them for more. Older players (6+ months) have a huge advantage because they were able to buy plots for a decent price, hold onto them, and now sell them for a bunch of money.

One solution would be to stabilize house pricing. There are a few steps to this:

1) Empty plots. Just as in real life, the area of the plot should be evaluated for a fair price. There would be a few factors for this, including how good the location is and what the terrain is (hilly, flat, sandy, mountainous). The price per block wouldn’t change much plot-to-plot, just enough to compensate for the location. An example would be $300 a block for a 10x10 plot in the heart of the city, so the empty plot would be worth $30,000. Once the price per block is calculated, the actual house would be priced.

2) House pricing. Houses are a bit more tricky to price because of quality (appearance, color coordination, use of space, etc) and size. The size would be easy to standardize, like $20 a square block of floor space (not plot space, the area of the actual house) excluding basements (each basement could add $1,000 or something not too OP). Then, the quality would be evaluated by a realtor or arch. I realize that quality is subjective, so 1-3 opinions would be necessary. The realtor could rate the house quality 0-100, each point being worth like $500.

So as an example, there’s a 25x25 plot on Bunny Island in a nice neighborhood. It would be worth $250 a block, based off location and terrain, so it would be $156,250 for the plot itself. Now say that someone put a house in that plot. The square blockage of the 2-story house is 920 blocks at $20 a block to be $18,400. Then the quality is assessed; the house scores well at 90, so an additional $45,000 would be added to the price. In total, this house would be worth $219,650, which seems a lot more fair than someone selling it for $400,000.

It would take a lot of effort to value all of the plots currently reselling, but it could still be implemented for the sellers that want to fix the problem or the buyers that don’t want to be scammed.

Still, it wouldn’t be fair to force plot owners to sell their houses for a set amount of money. This pricing model would only be a suggestion for the seller, not the amount they have to sell it for. However, to prevent players from selling overpriced plots to newbies, the suggested value of the plot/house could be put on a sign in front of the plot so the buyers can see it.

A new position could be created to run this program, or the Minister P could even oversee it. It doesn’t have to be a staff member; it could be a Sr Arch or even a realtor (side note, the realtor job needs to be changed so the realtors can actually price houses, not just inflate prices to get a higher commission). There’s like 3-4 realtor groups, too; they could implement this idea.

Standardizing the housing market would allow buyers and sellers to know a fair price for their houses. In real life, similarly sized houses of comparative quality are all worth pretty much the same amount. This would help stabilize the economy because players wouldn’t have to grind for money to buy a house, and plot sellers wouldn’t become insanely rich by simply holding onto a house until the value goes up.
There are thousands of regions on the server. I like the goal of the idea but the market is always going crazy and if there is a set price all the time for blocks it will not be flexible when something happens that affects the economy. The main problem is there is too much money in the McCities economy millions is being put in the economy each day and almost none is going out the simple solution to take money out quick would be for @nibble to sell stuff that will take money out of the economy. The housing market right now is much better than it was in Septemeber-October of 2017 (according to Apple+Microsofts joint survey that lasted from September of last year to June this year and had over 50 respones) but that dosent mean that it cant be improved. Plus if this idea is not being enforced no one would really follow it.
 
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Shadow_stalker77

Well-Known Member
Jul 14, 2017
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I agree that the economy is growing out of hand, but taking money out the economy is way less effective than fixing the housing market. The only impactful ways to remove money from the economy would be your idea (nibble selling stuff) or nibble eco-wiping ultra-rich players (which would be awful, please don't). How much stuff could nibble possibly have lying around to sell? After a dozen items, the value of even those things would decrease.
 
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Trump15024

Guest
I agree that the economy is growing out of hand, but taking money out the economy is way less effective than fixing the housing market. The only impactful ways to remove money from the economy would be your idea (nibble selling stuff) or nibble eco-wiping ultra-rich players (which would be awful, please don't). How much stuff could nibble possibly have lying around to sell? After a dozen items, the value of even those things would decrease.
Well it would have to be unique plots he has a lot plus he could continue to take plots from inactive players who are on 15 minutes a month just to keep their stuff and sell them also maybe more regions on /as info forsale, and custom items like one time items that will never be on the server again that he could auction
 
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Shadow_stalker77

Well-Known Member
Jul 14, 2017
165
361
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So your solution is to add more houses to the real estate market so they can be exploited the way they are now? I feel like this would make the problem worse.

My point is that your idea would help if the housing market was fixed. These new houses from inactive players could be priced fairly and serve as a test to see if my idea would even work.
 
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Trump15024

Guest
So your solution is to add more houses to the real estate market so they can be exploited the way they are now? I feel like this would make the problem worse.

My point is that your idea would help if the housing market was fixed. These new houses from inactive players could be priced fairly and serve as a test to see if my idea would even work.
Not region new ones just sell the ones that are already regioned that inactive players own and don't even use and @nibble could sell them for fair prices and that would also take money out the economy so hitting 2 birds with one stone.
 
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cutie-kun

Active Member
May 29, 2018
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150
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United States
Well if u rich lil baby boys actually bet me in 1v1s I could fix this whole economy problem in one day, I'd start with 1mil bets until I killed every last one of u bajillionaires and swiftly /gamble my entire bank ;>
 

ItzJazzMade

Well-Known Member
Former Staff
Verified
Empty_exe
Empty_exe
Oct 14, 2017
2,480
7,255
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Google maps
Sinple suggestion: restart of /as info reselling every 2 weeks or just auto close of one house after 2 weeks. So if youre house isn't bought after 2 weeks it goes back into sold mode. Would take some overpriced houses off the market and sellers know if it is overpriced and don't just forget about it.

Or island owners can make rules that the region can only be sold 10k above the buying price.

My simple ideas :/
 
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Trump15024

Guest
Sinple suggestion: restart of /as info reselling every 2 weeks or just auto close of one house after 2 weeks. So if youre house isn't bought after 2 weeks it goes back into sold mode. Would take some overpriced houses off the market and sellers know if it is overpriced and don't just forget about it.

Or island owners can make rules that the region can only be sold 10k above the buying price.

My simple ideas :/
I like the idea of after 1-2 weeks the property goes off resell and possibly giving islands more flexibility on the price of plots sold but idk about that as that would give islands too much power in the economy
 

Laurel

Well-Known Member
MissFrosty
MissFrosty
Jan 13, 2017
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Los Angeles, CA
www.youtube.com
I honestly think there is almost no way of avoiding this problem, its a hard issue to solve which i wish was easy to fix. I honestly think that you cant fix this problem by adding rules, i think it comes down to people wanting to help others. And if you ask me, i think we can do it, b/c i know there are a LOT of kind people here and i know that people want to help. To me, in my opinion, i think rules dont do much, cause when they are there, people want to find ways around them, but when people choose to be kind, we dont need rules. If everyone just chose to price homes fairly, everyone here could have a home and live happily. I know that everyone here is so kind and loving, and i know that we dont need rules to help the housing market, we just need kindness..... but that already is here, all we need to do is remember it, and show it! <3
“We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.” — Winston S. Churchill