8 ms·

Oregon expected to enact first state-wide rent control law

41 points by mykowebhn 8y ago

mjevans 8y ago
Rent control is a bandaid that tries to fix fundamental systemic flaws and lack of planning by society. Problems: They do mention Oregon's land use laws. I didn't see it while skimming but (for west coast states) the land that is actually "state" instead of federal is also an issue (#1). However the biggest issue is that the Supply vs Demand curves for housing are simply insane. Demand is mostly dictated by jobs, and only slightly moderated by the quality of public transit and transportation infrastructure (mass transit AND freeways/parking included). As a nation the US has been housing constrained for at least 20 years, probably longer. Worse for a generation or two housing has been used as an investment rather than the cost center that it is; so all sorts of market incentives are massively messed up. Finally "career" jobs, which allow someone to live in the same house for their entire adult life more or less began a long slow death in the 1980s, which is the true beginning of the destruction of communities. Solutions to consider: Tax, based on land use opportunity cost/value. This should have a built in history consideration that gradually introduces rising land use potential over a number of years. (E.G. sliding window over 10 or 20 years) Tax, transparently, to fund infrastructure, and provide a place (website?) where someone can go to see what their tax dollars are actually being spent on. How they are getting value for services. Zone and re-zone and do urban development more like Japan (#2) and Europe (? speculation) do; based on nuisance level. Encourage, via help with red-tape, ignoring local opposition when exceeding code requirements, and co-coordinating funding and insurance bids for projects, that there is ample supply on the market to reach the desired rental price for an area. If builders don't want to service an area help local benefit corporations get started to fulfill this need. Raise the building codes and promote buildings that are designed to last, be safe and comfortable to live in, and which encourage privacy at home while being responsible to the community around them. Design transportation in city cores more like the Caves of Steel, and provide civic infrastructure (monitored parking garages/etc) at the edges to interface with the exterior world. #1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LruaD7XhQ50 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LruaD7XhQ50 "CGP Grey - what is (US) Federal Land" #2 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8540845 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8540845 ----- http://urbankchoze.blogspot.com/2014/04/japanese-zoning.html http://urbankchoze.blogspot.com/2014/04/japanese-zoning.html Edits - I can never remember what variant of markdown this site uses... please don't convert my text to italics.
- jim-jim-jim 8y ago
  Another far less wonky solution to consider: public housing.
  - Kalium 8y ago
    The tricks tend to be affording enough of it, building enough of it, and maintaining it. Even places with widely lauded public housing systems, like Vienna, can't reliably manage all of these. Public housing in the US has a less pleasant record, often synonymous with concentrated poverty.
  - everdev 8y ago
    I've never met anyone in the US who has enjoyed their experience in public housing or low rent apartments.
    - cookingrobot 8y ago
      Here are some examples from outside of the US of luxury public housing. https://jacobinmag.com/2018/11/beautiful-public-housing-red-vienna-social-housing https://jacobinmag.com/2018/11/beautiful-public-housing-red-...
      - everdev 8y ago
        I don't think it's an engineering challenge, I think it's a cultural challenge. When traveling abroad, it's amazing how clean everything is. The amount of trash on US highways, city sidewalks, public parks, etc. is pretty noticeable when you return. I'm sure we could build beautiful housing pretty affordably, but I'm not sure we could keep it beautiful unless we treat affordable housing as an ongoing investment and not just build it and forget about it.
  - Bartweiss 8y ago
    Public housing is hardly a libertarian's dream, but even from a laissez-faire viewpoint this makes vastly more sense than rent control. If you want something, and the market isn't providing it, you subsidize the supply or you buy it directly. That might distort prices relative to an independent market, but if your public policy is stable they'll still reflect relative demand and supply. Subsidizing purchases or constraining prices doesn't just alter the market, it degrades the signal - and usually doesn't fulfill the goal except in the very short term.
rhacker 8y ago
Oregon actually has pretty nice rental laws, strongly favoring tenants. This shows that continuing. Also 8/10 pictures from Oregon are going to have that hazy white color cool. It's always cloudy there.
- sieabahlpark 8y ago
  Boy do I ever love the rent control of San Fran and West LA! So affordable!
refurb 8y ago
Why do governments go this direction when it causes so many problems? In a market economy, which includes both housing construction and home rentals, price is the signal by which demand is measured. Rent control either eliminates or severely distorts that signal. I’m going to predict that:1) fewer new homes will be constructed and 2) rents will sky rocket where it’s possible (tenant turnover).
- whymsicalburito 8y ago
  I'm going to predict that governments go this direction because of all the problems the housing market economy has caused.
  - refurb 8y ago
    Such as?
    - OtterCoder 8y ago
      Massive housing price inflation relative to median incomes, for one, which the popularity of real estate and rental property ownership as an investment/speculation tool has greatly contributed to.
      - everdev 8y ago
        I'd argue it's the lending market and tax incentives, not the housing market. The lending market is designed to encourage spending and making higher offers. It brings new people into the housing market faster than they should be entering. The tax breaks around owning a home encourage you to live there for 3 out of the last five years. There are also realtor fees that discourage you from selling. This, along with housing values appreciating discourages people from selling. When my home is appreciating in value, it makes it more attractive to buy as an investment or rent it out while I buy a new house. If you encourage people to buy and discourage them from selling, you're going to get a high demand / low supply situation pretty quickly. If you eliminate the tax breaks and reduce lending, you'd have a pretty balanced market. But who wants to be the politician responsible for slowing home value appreciation?
twoodfin 8y ago
Bizarre to not mention the long-standing, broad consensus among economists that rent controls do more harm than good. Courtesy Wikipedia, here’s Paul Krugman in 2000: https://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/07/opinion/reckonings-a-rent-affair.html https://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/07/opinion/reckonings-a-rent... Surely if economists were so widely in support of such policies, the Times would have highlighted that fact.
- yaks_hairbrush 8y ago
  That's the big thing that jumps out at me. There are very, very few serious economic policies that have this level of agreement among economists. Greg Mankiw did a list a while back about what economists agree on: https://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2009/02/news-flash-economists-agree.html https://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2009/02/news-flash-economist...
  - koolba 8y ago
    That’s an amazing list. I wish it went further to show the even less popular ideas. In particular I’m curious what shows up at the 50% mark.
- anigbrowl 8y ago
  And yet the market seems not to have magically provided a supply of housing that is adequate for the market to reach an affordable equilibrium. I agree the article should have mentioned it and am also skeptical about the efficacy of rent control, but other approaches don't seem to be working out as hoped.
  - beaner 8y ago
    Is there local regulation or NIMBY-ism that prevents the market from providing new housing?
    - anigbrowl 8y ago
      I suggest you form your own assessment and see if other people find it plausible and actionable.
ummonk 8y ago
Rent control is nativism just like prop 13. Provides special economic benefits unavailable to newcomers.
- teej 8y ago
  For arguments sake - is nativism inherently immoral?
  - burlesona 8y ago
    It depends on what kind of world you want to live in, I suppose. It certainly isn’t egalitarian or inclusive, and I would argue it’s not very far removed from racism. The real debate would be around what amount of “us versus them,” favoring your chosen social group over all outsiders, is acceptable.
  - alanbernstein 8y ago
    Is the morality what's in question here? To me, it seems nonsensical, as evidenced by the logical conclusion: no people should move from any city to any other city.
- claudiulodro 8y ago
  That's sort of the whole point, though. Long-time Portlanders are frustrated at getting priced out of the rentals they live in, as rents increase faster then their salaries increase because of newcomers competing for the same supply.
broccolistem 8y ago
In Québec we've had province-wide rent control since at least the early 70's. Landlords are allowed to raise rent annually up to a certain percentage determined by inflation (last year, up to 2.5%). Rent raises can also be appealed to the housing board if they seem unfair, or if the landlord has not been keeping up with maintenance. Prices can go up if significant renovations occur (which they almost never do), but even then costs must be split across all units in the building. In 10 years, across 9 apartments, I have not once had a landlord bother to raise my rent. It's not a perfect system, but still today in Montréal you can get a $400USD 1 bedroom apartment in a good part of town, thanks to this system. It ensures that the working class can live near their occupation, and they don't have to commute from a slum neighbourhood outside the city. In many quartiers, you have the very poor and the very wealthy living side by side. I believe absolutely rent-control (in tandem with a few other policies) has enabled Montréal to situate itself as a hotbed of creativity. We have one of the most dynamic and diverse art scenes in all of North America, and with a population on the island of Montréal still less than 2 million. I definitely support this kind of legislation.
- treis 8y ago
  > in Montréal you can get a $400USD 1 bedroom apartment in a good part of town I find that extremely hard to believe
  - broccolistem 8y ago
    I pay $500 Canadian + electricity/heating ($80) / month for an apartment (half of top floor in duplex) in a good part of town, 20 minute walk from the very best part. That's 439.43USD including all utilities for a one bedroom, or '3.5' as it is called here (kitchen, living room, bedroom, bathroom). & I know many dozens of people in the same scenario, or who pay less. There is definitely more expensive stuff out there, and you do need to hunt a little bit for this price (usually craigslist etc. is pricey), but I regularly see even bigger apartments go for the price I'm paying. In fact I shit you not, my neighbour who has kept their place since the early 90s, pays 246.22 USD + electric for the same apartment as me. . .
ds 8y ago
There is more consensus on Rent Control being harmful than there is on global warming. Its absolutely insane that it would be enacted. The solutions to expensive housing is complicated, obviously. Its about zoning, cancelling out NIMBYism, incentivizing affordable housing and basically matching supply with demand. Rent control simply doesn't work. For any person it helps, it will disadvantage 10x more in the process. I wonder if they are putting in vacancy controls as well. That would have the 1-2 punch of not only reducing rental stock but also significantly lowering property values (and property taxes in the process)
- nosuchthing 8y ago
  What do you mean by vacancy controls leading to reduced rental stock and lowering property values? If high rent is the issue, vacant units should be pushed to the market instead of artificially limiting supply. Cities and residents would mutually benefit from a vacancy tax like Vancouver or similar, where international speculators are not using the units for anything useful to anyone in the city.
  - ds 8y ago
    I can easily explain this. Two buildings are for sale. They are identical in rental income, quality, etc.. and cost the same. The only difference between the two buildings is that one has enormous restrictions on how you own and operate the building. You as a landlord will have a cap on your potential upside in rent, but NO cap in the downside. Which building will you buy, all other facts equal? Unless you are insane, it will be the non rent-controlled building. As such, the price of the rent-controlled building will have to be lowered to compete for a sale. Hence lower prices.
    - nosuchthing 8y ago
      What value does the expensive building offer the city if it's exactly the same? You've actually just convinced me rent control might do a city good by pushing capital investors into more useful pursuits, rather than simply "investing in land" which effectively does nothing of value for people. I do think it's silly to treat the symptom without fixing the main problem which is zoning law and permit restrictions on building more housing stock. But why not both? Might as well add the Land Value Tax while we're at it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_value_tax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_value_tax
dbroockman 8y ago
Here's a great paper about how rent control is counterproductive: https://web.stanford.edu/~diamondr/DMQ.pdf https://web.stanford.edu/~diamondr/DMQ.pdf. > Using a 1994 law change, we exploit quasi-experimental variation in the assignment of rent control in San Francisco to study its impacts on tenants and landlords. Leveraging new data tracking individuals’ migration, we find rent control limits renters’ mobility by 20% and lowers displacement from San Francisco. Landlords treated by rent control reduce rental housing supplies by 15% by selling to owner-occupants and redeveloping buildings. Thus, while rent control prevents displacement of incumbent renters in the short run, the lost rental housing supply likely drove up market rents in the long run, ultimately undermining the goals of the law.
exabrial 8y ago
It'll work this time
burlesona 8y ago
Everyone loves to regulate and restrict housing to try and keep anything from changing. If they would ban job creation then they’d get what they say they want. But if you suggest that, it reveals the NIMBY hypocracy. “We want the economy to keep growing just no more people moving here...” ie the existing residents want to get rich by extracting wealth from the job creators in their region via restriction of housing supply.
liamtk43 8y ago
Unconstitutional. It's a regulatory taking under the Fifth Amendment.
tropo 8y ago
There are some great pictures in this PDF, entitled "Bomb Damage or Rent Control?". You really can't tell! http://www.walterblock.com/wp-content/uploads/publications/RentControlMythsRealities.pdf http://www.walterblock.com/wp-content/uploads/publications/R...
jdlyga 8y ago
Rent control causes urban blight
ElijahLynn 8y ago
Great news! (Oregonian here) We were kinda pushed into buying our first home because our rent went up $100/month in 2017 and then $200/month in 2018.. I saw where that was headed and we made home buying happen way sooner than we wanted too. Glad to see this is being addressed because some just can't make that happen.
- ElijahLynn 8y ago
  I see a lot of comments referring to a study that says it does more harm than good and I haven't read into them yet but my first question is: Does it measure the impact it has on community? As in does it take into account the fact that a community needs residents to stick around, not just live in boxes and not interact with each other. Because my experience with a $100 then $200/month rent increase showed me that it is going to destroy the community of long time renters in the neighborhood. Hopefully it addresses that.
menckenjr 8y ago
This is not going to work. Price controls will generate shortages.

41 points by mykowebhn 8y ago

Rent control is a bandaid that tries to fix fundamental systemic flaws and lack of planning by society. Problems: They do mention Oregon's land use laws. I didn't see it while skimming but (for west coast states) the land that is actually "state" instead of federal is also an issue (#1). However the biggest issue is that the Supply vs Demand curves for housing are simply insane. Demand is mostly dictated by jobs, and only slightly moderated by the quality of public transit and transportation infrastructure (mass transit AND freeways/parking included). As a nation the US has been housing constrained for at least 20 years, probably longer. Worse for a generation or two housing has been used as an investment rather than the cost center that it is; so all sorts of market incentives are massively messed up. Finally "career" jobs, which allow someone to live in the same house for their entire adult life more or less began a long slow death in the 1980s, which is the true beginning of the destruction of communities. Solutions to consider: Tax, based on land use opportunity cost/value. This should have a built in history consideration that gradually introduces rising land use potential over a number of years. (E.G. sliding window over 10 or 20 years) Tax, transparently, to fund infrastructure, and provide a place (website?) where someone can go to see what their tax dollars are actually being spent on. How they are getting value for services. Zone and re-zone and do urban development more like Japan (#2) and Europe (? speculation) do; based on nuisance level. Encourage, via help with red-tape, ignoring local opposition when exceeding code requirements, and co-coordinating funding and insurance bids for projects, that there is ample supply on the market to reach the desired rental price for an area. If builders don't want to service an area help local benefit corporations get started to fulfill this need. Raise the building codes and promote buildings that are designed to last, be safe and comfortable to live in, and which encourage privacy at home while being responsible to the community around them. Design transportation in city cores more like the Caves of Steel, and provide civic infrastructure (monitored parking garages/etc) at the edges to interface with the exterior world. #1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LruaD7XhQ50 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LruaD7XhQ50 "CGP Grey - what is (US) Federal Land" #2 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8540845 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8540845 ----- http://urbankchoze.blogspot.com/2014/04/japanese-zoning.html http://urbankchoze.blogspot.com/2014/04/japanese-zoning.html Edits - I can never remember what variant of markdown this site uses... please don't convert my text to italics.

jim-jim-jim 8y ago
Another far less wonky solution to consider: public housing.
- Kalium 8y ago
  The tricks tend to be affording enough of it, building enough of it, and maintaining it. Even places with widely lauded public housing systems, like Vienna, can't reliably manage all of these. Public housing in the US has a less pleasant record, often synonymous with concentrated poverty.
- everdev 8y ago
  I've never met anyone in the US who has enjoyed their experience in public housing or low rent apartments.
  - cookingrobot 8y ago
    Here are some examples from outside of the US of luxury public housing. https://jacobinmag.com/2018/11/beautiful-public-housing-red-vienna-social-housing https://jacobinmag.com/2018/11/beautiful-public-housing-red-...
    - everdev 8y ago
      I don't think it's an engineering challenge, I think it's a cultural challenge. When traveling abroad, it's amazing how clean everything is. The amount of trash on US highways, city sidewalks, public parks, etc. is pretty noticeable when you return. I'm sure we could build beautiful housing pretty affordably, but I'm not sure we could keep it beautiful unless we treat affordable housing as an ongoing investment and not just build it and forget about it.
- Bartweiss 8y ago
  Public housing is hardly a libertarian's dream, but even from a laissez-faire viewpoint this makes vastly more sense than rent control. If you want something, and the market isn't providing it, you subsidize the supply or you buy it directly. That might distort prices relative to an independent market, but if your public policy is stable they'll still reflect relative demand and supply. Subsidizing purchases or constraining prices doesn't just alter the market, it degrades the signal - and usually doesn't fulfill the goal except in the very short term.

rhacker 8y ago

Oregon actually has pretty nice rental laws, strongly favoring tenants. This shows that continuing. Also 8/10 pictures from Oregon are going to have that hazy white color cool. It's always cloudy there.

sieabahlpark 8y ago
Boy do I ever love the rent control of San Fran and West LA! So affordable!

refurb 8y ago

Why do governments go this direction when it causes so many problems? In a market economy, which includes both housing construction and home rentals, price is the signal by which demand is measured. Rent control either eliminates or severely distorts that signal. I’m going to predict that:1) fewer new homes will be constructed and 2) rents will sky rocket where it’s possible (tenant turnover).

whymsicalburito 8y ago
I'm going to predict that governments go this direction because of all the problems the housing market economy has caused.
- refurb 8y ago
  Such as?
  - OtterCoder 8y ago
    Massive housing price inflation relative to median incomes, for one, which the popularity of real estate and rental property ownership as an investment/speculation tool has greatly contributed to.
    - everdev 8y ago
      I'd argue it's the lending market and tax incentives, not the housing market. The lending market is designed to encourage spending and making higher offers. It brings new people into the housing market faster than they should be entering. The tax breaks around owning a home encourage you to live there for 3 out of the last five years. There are also realtor fees that discourage you from selling. This, along with housing values appreciating discourages people from selling. When my home is appreciating in value, it makes it more attractive to buy as an investment or rent it out while I buy a new house. If you encourage people to buy and discourage them from selling, you're going to get a high demand / low supply situation pretty quickly. If you eliminate the tax breaks and reduce lending, you'd have a pretty balanced market. But who wants to be the politician responsible for slowing home value appreciation?

twoodfin 8y ago

Bizarre to not mention the long-standing, broad consensus among economists that rent controls do more harm than good. Courtesy Wikipedia, here’s Paul Krugman in 2000: https://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/07/opinion/reckonings-a-rent-affair.html https://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/07/opinion/reckonings-a-rent... Surely if economists were so widely in support of such policies, the Times would have highlighted that fact.

yaks_hairbrush 8y ago
That's the big thing that jumps out at me. There are very, very few serious economic policies that have this level of agreement among economists. Greg Mankiw did a list a while back about what economists agree on: https://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2009/02/news-flash-economists-agree.html https://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2009/02/news-flash-economist...
- koolba 8y ago
  That’s an amazing list. I wish it went further to show the even less popular ideas. In particular I’m curious what shows up at the 50% mark.
anigbrowl 8y ago
And yet the market seems not to have magically provided a supply of housing that is adequate for the market to reach an affordable equilibrium. I agree the article should have mentioned it and am also skeptical about the efficacy of rent control, but other approaches don't seem to be working out as hoped.
- beaner 8y ago
  Is there local regulation or NIMBY-ism that prevents the market from providing new housing?
  - anigbrowl 8y ago
    I suggest you form your own assessment and see if other people find it plausible and actionable.

ummonk 8y ago

Rent control is nativism just like prop 13. Provides special economic benefits unavailable to newcomers.

teej 8y ago
For arguments sake - is nativism inherently immoral?
- burlesona 8y ago
  It depends on what kind of world you want to live in, I suppose. It certainly isn’t egalitarian or inclusive, and I would argue it’s not very far removed from racism. The real debate would be around what amount of “us versus them,” favoring your chosen social group over all outsiders, is acceptable.
- alanbernstein 8y ago
  Is the morality what's in question here? To me, it seems nonsensical, as evidenced by the logical conclusion: no people should move from any city to any other city.
claudiulodro 8y ago
That's sort of the whole point, though. Long-time Portlanders are frustrated at getting priced out of the rentals they live in, as rents increase faster then their salaries increase because of newcomers competing for the same supply.

broccolistem 8y ago

In Québec we've had province-wide rent control since at least the early 70's. Landlords are allowed to raise rent annually up to a certain percentage determined by inflation (last year, up to 2.5%). Rent raises can also be appealed to the housing board if they seem unfair, or if the landlord has not been keeping up with maintenance. Prices can go up if significant renovations occur (which they almost never do), but even then costs must be split across all units in the building. In 10 years, across 9 apartments, I have not once had a landlord bother to raise my rent. It's not a perfect system, but still today in Montréal you can get a $400USD 1 bedroom apartment in a good part of town, thanks to this system. It ensures that the working class can live near their occupation, and they don't have to commute from a slum neighbourhood outside the city. In many quartiers, you have the very poor and the very wealthy living side by side. I believe absolutely rent-control (in tandem with a few other policies) has enabled Montréal to situate itself as a hotbed of creativity. We have one of the most dynamic and diverse art scenes in all of North America, and with a population on the island of Montréal still less than 2 million. I definitely support this kind of legislation.

treis 8y ago
> in Montréal you can get a $400USD 1 bedroom apartment in a good part of town I find that extremely hard to believe
- broccolistem 8y ago
  I pay $500 Canadian + electricity/heating ($80) / month for an apartment (half of top floor in duplex) in a good part of town, 20 minute walk from the very best part. That's 439.43USD including all utilities for a one bedroom, or '3.5' as it is called here (kitchen, living room, bedroom, bathroom). & I know many dozens of people in the same scenario, or who pay less. There is definitely more expensive stuff out there, and you do need to hunt a little bit for this price (usually craigslist etc. is pricey), but I regularly see even bigger apartments go for the price I'm paying. In fact I shit you not, my neighbour who has kept their place since the early 90s, pays 246.22 USD + electric for the same apartment as me. . .

ds 8y ago

There is more consensus on Rent Control being harmful than there is on global warming. Its absolutely insane that it would be enacted. The solutions to expensive housing is complicated, obviously. Its about zoning, cancelling out NIMBYism, incentivizing affordable housing and basically matching supply with demand. Rent control simply doesn't work. For any person it helps, it will disadvantage 10x more in the process. I wonder if they are putting in vacancy controls as well. That would have the 1-2 punch of not only reducing rental stock but also significantly lowering property values (and property taxes in the process)

nosuchthing 8y ago
What do you mean by vacancy controls leading to reduced rental stock and lowering property values? If high rent is the issue, vacant units should be pushed to the market instead of artificially limiting supply. Cities and residents would mutually benefit from a vacancy tax like Vancouver or similar, where international speculators are not using the units for anything useful to anyone in the city.
- ds 8y ago
  I can easily explain this. Two buildings are for sale. They are identical in rental income, quality, etc.. and cost the same. The only difference between the two buildings is that one has enormous restrictions on how you own and operate the building. You as a landlord will have a cap on your potential upside in rent, but NO cap in the downside. Which building will you buy, all other facts equal? Unless you are insane, it will be the non rent-controlled building. As such, the price of the rent-controlled building will have to be lowered to compete for a sale. Hence lower prices.
  - nosuchthing 8y ago
    What value does the expensive building offer the city if it's exactly the same? You've actually just convinced me rent control might do a city good by pushing capital investors into more useful pursuits, rather than simply "investing in land" which effectively does nothing of value for people. I do think it's silly to treat the symptom without fixing the main problem which is zoning law and permit restrictions on building more housing stock. But why not both? Might as well add the Land Value Tax while we're at it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_value_tax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_value_tax

dbroockman 8y ago

Here's a great paper about how rent control is counterproductive: https://web.stanford.edu/~diamondr/DMQ.pdf https://web.stanford.edu/~diamondr/DMQ.pdf. > Using a 1994 law change, we exploit quasi-experimental variation in the assignment of rent control in San Francisco to study its impacts on tenants and landlords. Leveraging new data tracking individuals’ migration, we find rent control limits renters’ mobility by 20% and lowers displacement from San Francisco. Landlords treated by rent control reduce rental housing supplies by 15% by selling to owner-occupants and redeveloping buildings. Thus, while rent control prevents displacement of incumbent renters in the short run, the lost rental housing supply likely drove up market rents in the long run, ultimately undermining the goals of the law.

exabrial 8y ago

It'll work this time

burlesona 8y ago

Everyone loves to regulate and restrict housing to try and keep anything from changing. If they would ban job creation then they’d get what they say they want. But if you suggest that, it reveals the NIMBY hypocracy. “We want the economy to keep growing just no more people moving here...” ie the existing residents want to get rich by extracting wealth from the job creators in their region via restriction of housing supply.

liamtk43 8y ago

Unconstitutional. It's a regulatory taking under the Fifth Amendment.

tropo 8y ago

There are some great pictures in this PDF, entitled "Bomb Damage or Rent Control?". You really can't tell! http://www.walterblock.com/wp-content/uploads/publications/RentControlMythsRealities.pdf http://www.walterblock.com/wp-content/uploads/publications/R...

jdlyga 8y ago

Rent control causes urban blight

ElijahLynn 8y ago

Great news! (Oregonian here) We were kinda pushed into buying our first home because our rent went up $100/month in 2017 and then $200/month in 2018.. I saw where that was headed and we made home buying happen way sooner than we wanted too. Glad to see this is being addressed because some just can't make that happen.

ElijahLynn 8y ago
I see a lot of comments referring to a study that says it does more harm than good and I haven't read into them yet but my first question is: Does it measure the impact it has on community? As in does it take into account the fact that a community needs residents to stick around, not just live in boxes and not interact with each other. Because my experience with a $100 then $200/month rent increase showed me that it is going to destroy the community of long time renters in the neighborhood. Hopefully it addresses that.

menckenjr 8y ago

This is not going to work. Price controls will generate shortages.