what i'm intuiting is this.

let's say you've got ten houses lined up besides each other, across the street from the university. they're all big houses. 5,6,7,8 rooms.

a few years ago, they had a mix of tenants: students, workers, disabled people, whatever.  but, they've all been bought up by elderly asian women from toronto (apparently.) who want to turn them into furnished rentals for students only.

the problem is that these asian kids are all poor, which is why they ended up here at the epicentre of decay, and they want to share rooms. two, three people a room. that doesn't fly in these fancy furnished houses. so, if there was enough centralized planning to match enrolment to housing (there almost certainly wasn't.), it badly miscalculated the amount of housing necessary.

so, now, every single one of those ten houses is half empty.

the solution, long term, is going to be to move the kids in some of the houses into the other ones, leaving empty houses that can be rented to non-students.

but, for right now, pretty much all of these old asian women are going to be left with a choice that nobody seems to have told them is endemic to capitalism: adjust to the market or lose a lot of money.

i'm trying to sneak into a few places that are separate units. basements. side units. etc. but, my interest in this is more about getting some of the excess demand off the market, as it will narrow down the competition for what i actually want.

of course, i'm running out of time...

i might have to serve the painter tomorrow. i'm going to review the rules.