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Developers Halt Projects After St. Paul Voters Approve Rent Control

22 points by tomohawk 5y ago

nameisname 5y ago
I'm sorry but I don't really see a problem here. The fact that they won't be able to absolutely gouge people, including inflation, seems reasonable. Inflation rising above 3% is hardly the tenants fault and chances are the tenant is suffering from that as well, probably more so. Is there no other way to encourage development outside of making sure the tenants make less every year? Ultimately that's what they're ensuring here since most people are lucky to even see a raise that covers inflation. Also, the mayor can shove off. The people voted, get your wheels greased elsewhere.
- t0suj4 5y ago
  The problem I see is that there will be less houses to live in if nobody's going to build them. This will result in more people having to drive cars from nearby cities to get to work.
- xibalba 5y ago
  Rent control has been tried many many times. Point me to an instance that worked. Interfering with markets like this, particularly with price controls, almost always backfires in ways that end up hurting those who were intended to be helped.
zugi 5y ago
Economic reality should surprise no one. Price controls diminish supply. Worse price controls cause worse supply shortages.
daltonlp 5y ago
Plenty of hand-wringing about the possible throttling of housing supply. This policy only affects rents. New-building developers will shift toward an ownership model. All those $2800/month luxury apartments under construction? Yeah, those are now now $750,000 condos. For the folks purchasing those units, not much changes. For everyone who lives in a $1100/month brick 4-plex, things definitely change. Rent hikes stabilize. For the landlord, long-term profits are severely reduced. A small landlord might decide to cash out and retire. For everyone who lives on a block of residential housing, half of which was purchased by a slumlord during the housing crisis and allowed to decay...hopefully that slumlord will decide to give up the game, and sell those houses back to individual owners. Hope hope hope. For economists, this is a beautiful gift. They can do proper science, studying the effects of neighboring policies in St. Paul and Minneapolis.
- xibalba 5y ago
  Are there any rent control policies, currently in effect or discontinued, that can be pointed to as working really well? My understanding is that economists across the political spectrum have concluded rent control doesn’t work and most often backfires.

22 points by tomohawk 5y ago

I'm sorry but I don't really see a problem here. The fact that they won't be able to absolutely gouge people, including inflation, seems reasonable. Inflation rising above 3% is hardly the tenants fault and chances are the tenant is suffering from that as well, probably more so. Is there no other way to encourage development outside of making sure the tenants make less every year? Ultimately that's what they're ensuring here since most people are lucky to even see a raise that covers inflation. Also, the mayor can shove off. The people voted, get your wheels greased elsewhere.

t0suj4 5y ago
The problem I see is that there will be less houses to live in if nobody's going to build them. This will result in more people having to drive cars from nearby cities to get to work.
xibalba 5y ago
Rent control has been tried many many times. Point me to an instance that worked. Interfering with markets like this, particularly with price controls, almost always backfires in ways that end up hurting those who were intended to be helped.

zugi 5y ago

Economic reality should surprise no one. Price controls diminish supply. Worse price controls cause worse supply shortages.

daltonlp 5y ago

Plenty of hand-wringing about the possible throttling of housing supply. This policy only affects rents. New-building developers will shift toward an ownership model. All those $2800/month luxury apartments under construction? Yeah, those are now now $750,000 condos. For the folks purchasing those units, not much changes. For everyone who lives in a $1100/month brick 4-plex, things definitely change. Rent hikes stabilize. For the landlord, long-term profits are severely reduced. A small landlord might decide to cash out and retire. For everyone who lives on a block of residential housing, half of which was purchased by a slumlord during the housing crisis and allowed to decay...hopefully that slumlord will decide to give up the game, and sell those houses back to individual owners. Hope hope hope. For economists, this is a beautiful gift. They can do proper science, studying the effects of neighboring policies in St. Paul and Minneapolis.

xibalba 5y ago
Are there any rent control policies, currently in effect or discontinued, that can be pointed to as working really well? My understanding is that economists across the political spectrum have concluded rent control doesn’t work and most often backfires.