In some situations they’ll rather have empty houses than rent it out to the poorest people for lower prices. Or actively destroy (“upgrade”) affordable housing to keep prices of the rest up. And if the prices do really go down a lot it’s still poors with mortgages but suddenly no more enough income selling their places for bargain prices to the ultra rich for whom even in a real estate crisis with crashed prices it’s all still just a game situation, not a food on the table one. They use it to gobble up even more.
In some situations they’ll rather have empty houses than rent it out to the poorest people for lower prices. Or actively destroy (“upgrade”) affordable housing to keep prices of the rest up. And if the prices do really go down a lot it’s still poors with mortgages but suddenly no more enough income selling their places for bargain prices to the ultra rich for whom even in a real estate crisis with crashed prices it’s all still just a game situation, not a food on the table one. They use it to gobble up even more.