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Rent control isn't the only problem. We don't have rent control in Boston/Cambridge but we also have skyrocketing rental prices. The fact is supply needs to at

Rent control isn't the only problem. We don't have rent control in Boston/Cambridge but we also have skyrocketing rental prices. The fact is supply needs to at a minimum match demand or outpace it to suppress severe rent inflation. You can only get to that happy place if you make development easier; both San Francisco and Boston have very strong NIMBY groups in the various neighborhoods.

TheOtherHobbes 12y ago
You can't have skyrocketing rental prices. That's economically impossible. If you do have skyrocketing rental prices, you should buy yourself an Econ 101 textbook and educate yourself about why this is impossible. Then the problem will go away. >both San Francisco and Boston have very strong NIMBY groups in the various neighborhoods. Well, yes. In the real world - the one that doesn't consider 'just so' stories an explanation of anything - it's well known that rents depend on a mix of factors, not least of which is strong government support for affordable social housing. Germany has a very strong rental culture, and excellent availability. Rentals remain reasonable, because there's a critical political mass of renters who would cause problems for politicians if they stopped being reasonable. London, meanwhile, has limited housing stock and no rent control. The result is that rents are increasingly insane, landlords are increasingly disinterested in spending money on repairs (...so much for that argument) and most ordinary people are either sharing in overcrowded conditions, living in spare rooms, or moving elsewhere. As a test case, this is hardly a resounding success for the no-control lobby. London used to have a solid reservoir of social housing, but that was deliberately eliminated in the 80s. The result has been a steady cycle of manic-depressive boom/bust explosions. Currently property prices are being driven up by foreign speculators. Wherever there's boom, capital flocks to it - until prices crash again, and then the greater fools are left behind, trying to capitalise on decrepit slum properties. Rent control on its own isn't a solution to this. But an integrated and thoughtful housing policy certainly can be.
- myrryr 12y ago
  "You can't have skyrocketing rental prices. That's economically impossible." "If you do have skyrocketing rental prices, you should buy yourself an Econ 101 textbook and educate yourself about why this is impossible." ok, this made me laugh more then it should :)
- meddlepal 12y ago
  "You can't have skyrocketing rental prices. That's economically impossible." "If you do have skyrocketing rental prices, you should buy yourself an Econ 101 textbook and educate yourself about why this is impossible." Please explain; genuinely curious.
bhickey 12y ago
Cambridge is a great study in rent control. After rent control was thrown out in 1994, as you might imagine, prices in the city began to rise. The twist is that never-controlled units rose faster than controlled units! Since a tenant doesn't care if about the historical rent control status of unit, this strongly implies that never-controlled units were of higher quality.

TheOtherHobbes 12y ago

You can't have skyrocketing rental prices. That's economically impossible. If you do have skyrocketing rental prices, you should buy yourself an Econ 101 textbook and educate yourself about why this is impossible. Then the problem will go away. >both San Francisco and Boston have very strong NIMBY groups in the various neighborhoods. Well, yes. In the real world - the one that doesn't consider 'just so' stories an explanation of anything - it's well known that rents depend on a mix of factors, not least of which is strong government support for affordable social housing. Germany has a very strong rental culture, and excellent availability. Rentals remain reasonable, because there's a critical political mass of renters who would cause problems for politicians if they stopped being reasonable. London, meanwhile, has limited housing stock and no rent control. The result is that rents are increasingly insane, landlords are increasingly disinterested in spending money on repairs (...so much for that argument) and most ordinary people are either sharing in overcrowded conditions, living in spare rooms, or moving elsewhere. As a test case, this is hardly a resounding success for the no-control lobby. London used to have a solid reservoir of social housing, but that was deliberately eliminated in the 80s. The result has been a steady cycle of manic-depressive boom/bust explosions. Currently property prices are being driven up by foreign speculators. Wherever there's boom, capital flocks to it - until prices crash again, and then the greater fools are left behind, trying to capitalise on decrepit slum properties. Rent control on its own isn't a solution to this. But an integrated and thoughtful housing policy certainly can be.

myrryr 12y ago
"You can't have skyrocketing rental prices. That's economically impossible." "If you do have skyrocketing rental prices, you should buy yourself an Econ 101 textbook and educate yourself about why this is impossible." ok, this made me laugh more then it should :)
meddlepal 12y ago
"You can't have skyrocketing rental prices. That's economically impossible." "If you do have skyrocketing rental prices, you should buy yourself an Econ 101 textbook and educate yourself about why this is impossible." Please explain; genuinely curious.

bhickey 12y ago

Cambridge is a great study in rent control. After rent control was thrown out in 1994, as you might imagine, prices in the city began to rise. The twist is that never-controlled units rose faster than controlled units! Since a tenant doesn't care if about the historical rent control status of unit, this strongly implies that never-controlled units were of higher quality.