Letters: Wall Street gambles with housing

Re “A shortage of new homes as builders struggle,” March 2

The real reason that new homes are not being built here and across the country is because Wall Street hedge funds have gobbled up available housing stock and are either using them for rentals or holding them un-inhabited, as in Las Vegas, to drive up the market.

For these uber-wealthy people, housing is a commodity like gold to be speculated with. They are not investing in new development because they are betting on driving housing prices up by creating a false scarcity.

This is a great example of what happens when the rich are not taxed enough and have too much money to play in the Wall Street casino. Not to mention, we should not be building huge new developments when we are faced with one of the worst droughts in history.

Carole Lutness

Valencia

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