Check out my new post at Metropolitan Abundance Project:How “inclusionary” are market-rate rentals? In metropolitan Baltimore, a family of four making $73,000 in 2024 qualifies for 60% AMI affordable housing, where it would pay $1,825 per month for rent, utilities included. A third of new … [Read more...]
Poor People Move Too
It is well known that rent control is not particularly effective in controlling rents; cities like New York and San Francisco have rent control and yet are quite expensive. Supporters of rent control, however, often argue that rent control is valuable for a different reason: it makes housing more … [Read more...]
Rent regulation in MoCo
In my home county, Montgomery County, Maryland, rent control is on the agenda after County Executive Marc Elrich and a county council majority each released competing proposals to cap annual rent increases.Adam Pagnucco responded with a series of posts at Montgomery Perspective about the … [Read more...]
The fallacy of total rent regulation
One of the most-common beliefs many leftists in America hold is that the staggering increase in apartment rents is not a result of not building enough supply but rather a combination of greedy landlords, corporations buying out rental properties, and landlords intentionally keeping units vacant to … [Read more...]
Rent Control is How the Rich Outbid Less-Affluent People for Valuable Land
Several homes in my neighborhood have sold recently, each more expensive than the last. The priciest was a lovely home that drew $1.65 million at the peak of this spring's market.Takoma Park is a great place to live. It's also the only jurisdiction in the region that has rent control.As a … [Read more...]
New and Noteworthy: Randy Shaw’s Generation Priced Out
In Generation Priced Out, housing activist Randy Shaw writes a book about the rent crisis for non-experts. Shaw's point of view is that of a left-wing YIMBY: that is, he favors allowing lots of new market-rate housing, but also favors a variety of less market-oriented policies to prevent … [Read more...]
Rent Control Makes It Harder to Vote with Your Feet
One advantage of a federal system is enabling people ill-treated by one government body to “vote with their feet” toward less abusive jurisdictions. That escape valve is one rationale for reserving some political policy determination for state rather than national government, or to local rather than … [Read more...]
Rent Control Again
A blog post in Pacific Standard seeks to defend rent control- an idea that, as the author admits, is generally detested by economists.The author writes that "rent regulations give tenants a greater stake in their community and incentivize them to put time, energy, and even money into their … [Read more...]