During the claiming period allowing lateral first come first serve relocations

[caspergrey]

I guess I just don't see the problem with bidding on the plot you want to relocate into? It reminds me of the old system of relocations where you got to completely bypass the system in place for new home buyers and relocate whenever you wanted. It gives relocators an advantage again that I disagree with.

The point is that overall more players get into houses they want. The problem with strict bidding is less houses open up which creates a deadlock.

It's not an advantage, if anything it actually relieves pressure for new homebuyers because existing homeowners have a separate mechanism to get into a house they want.

Consider the following scenarios:

In the current system:

The lottery ends, and "player A" who won a house decides to vacate their current home.

That leaves 1 open house for the next lottery. Come next lottery, everyone who wants that house bids, and a maybe a new homeowner wins. 2 players are happy.

under the proposed system,

After "player A" vacates, "player B" who lives next door likes that house better. So "player B" relocates during the claiming period. Then "player C" likes "player B's" old house so they relocate. And then at the start of the next cycle, "player C's" house is available for the lottery.

In the first example 2 people got into houses they wanted. Also now, the new homebuyer is having to compete with "player B" for "player A" old house lowering the chance of them getting into a new home.

In the second example 4 people got into houses they wanted, in the same period of time.

also, Llimiting relocations to same housing area/same house size or smaller helps to maintain that the same quality of houses are available for the next lottery cycle as would have been if there was no relocation.