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"Aren't you forgetting about the even less affluent people who wouldn't be able to afford a bigger apartment even at the same price per area as their current ap

"Aren't you forgetting about the even less affluent people who wouldn't be able to afford a bigger apartment even at the same price per area as their current apartment and who'd be priced out of the market (a.k.a. forced to move out) by rising rents?" What? No... the whole point is the answer is supply, not rent control. Supply keeps prices down, rent control pushes prices up (for those units that hit the market, which are the only ones that matter in this case). Having a lot of supply on the market is what those people need, and rent control is what drives them out. "I think not being able to move to your city of choice is less bad than being forced to leave it." Okay, that's a fair preference, but the problem is it's never what anyone says they're trying to achieve when they enact rent control. The reasoning is always to help people who aren't well off financially, not to keep outsiders out of your city. If xenophobia is the goal, then by all means rent control away.

yorwba 6y ago
> the answer is supply, not rent control. Supply keeps prices down Supply requires construction, which takes time, which limits the speed at which supply can be created. Meanwhile, demand has been growing much faster. So far, supply has not succeeded at keeping prices down, while rent control has. > rent control pushes prices up (for those units that hit the market, which are the only ones that matter in this case) First of all, units that hit the market are not the only ones that matter. There are already people living in those apartments who don't want them to hit the market because they'd like to continue living there, thankyouverymuch. Secondly, the Bloomberg article shows that rent in rent-controlled apartments fell and the price for apartments that are sold, not rented, fell as well. The price increase is concentrated in the unregulated market for new construction, where it at least serves the useful purpose of incentivizing increasing supply, although still not quickly enough. > Having a lot of supply on the market is what those people need, and rent control is what drives them out. What? No... their landlords raising the rent to a level they can't afford is what drives them out, and rent control prevents that. > The reasoning is always to help people who aren't well off financially, not to keep outsiders out of your city. The reasoning is that poor people shouldn't get evicted from their apartments just because someone else is willing to pay more, and if that limits the ability of some outsiders to move there, that's an acceptable tradeoff. If those outsiders are willing to provide for their own supply by paying for the construction of new housing, they're very much welcome. I wouldn't call that xenophobia.

yorwba 6y ago

> the answer is supply, not rent control. Supply keeps prices down Supply requires construction, which takes time, which limits the speed at which supply can be created. Meanwhile, demand has been growing much faster. So far, supply has not succeeded at keeping prices down, while rent control has. > rent control pushes prices up (for those units that hit the market, which are the only ones that matter in this case) First of all, units that hit the market are not the only ones that matter. There are already people living in those apartments who don't want them to hit the market because they'd like to continue living there, thankyouverymuch. Secondly, the Bloomberg article shows that rent in rent-controlled apartments fell and the price for apartments that are sold, not rented, fell as well. The price increase is concentrated in the unregulated market for new construction, where it at least serves the useful purpose of incentivizing increasing supply, although still not quickly enough. > Having a lot of supply on the market is what those people need, and rent control is what drives them out. What? No... their landlords raising the rent to a level they can't afford is what drives them out, and rent control prevents that. > The reasoning is always to help people who aren't well off financially, not to keep outsiders out of your city. The reasoning is that poor people shouldn't get evicted from their apartments just because someone else is willing to pay more, and if that limits the ability of some outsiders to move there, that's an acceptable tradeoff. If those outsiders are willing to provide for their own supply by paying for the construction of new housing, they're very much welcome. I wouldn't call that xenophobia.