State legislators in Ohio may become the latest to wage war with local governments. Last week, an Ohio House committee passed a bill that would prohibit local government from banning or directly regulating short-term rentals. Not surprisingly, local governments oppose the bill, arguing that it usurps local control and sets the stage for a battle…
Denver recently began implementing the Healthy Residential Rentals for All ordinance. Supporters of the law claim that it will even the playing field between renters and landlords. As is usually the case with such laws, this ordinance prohibits some individuals—landlords—from acting as they judge best for the purpose of achieving a level playing field. The…
Despite a myriad of proposals and policies, there is no end in sight for the affordable housing crisis. Nearly all of these policies involve throwing more taxpayer money at the problem. If legislators truly want to solve the problem, they should unleash the swarm. And it won’t cost taxpayers a single penny. One of the…
Prodded by students, last September legislators in Ann Arbor, Michigan, passed a law that prohibits landlords from showing properties or entering new lease agreements more than 150 days before an existing lease expires. Now the students are complaining that landlords are finding loopholes to get around the ordinance. They should have seen this coming. One…
Republicans in Minnesota, Mississippi, and Missouri are joining their colleagues in Texas and Florida in declaring their disdain for property rights and freedom of association. Of course, they aren’t stating it in those terms, but that is in fact what they are doing by supporting restrictions on private businesses. In Minnesota, lawmakers are considering a…
Ayn Rand correctly wrote that without property rights, no other rights are possible. And the reason is, it’s all about property rights. The right to property means the freedom to produce, trade, and use material values. If you are like most people, the bulk of your waking hours are spent producing, trading, or using material…
In April, San Francisco’s “Right to Organize” ordinance went into effect. As is common, the law’s name is misleading. Tenants have always had the right to organize, and the ordinance does nothing to change that. What the ordinance does do is force landlords to negotiate with tenant “unions.” The law requires landlords to recognize tenant…
When government expands its powers beyond its legitimate purpose of protecting individual rights, unintended consequences are unleashed. When various levels of government use those powers for different goals, the individual is invariably caught in the crossfire. Government’s response to the pandemic is one example. Early in the pandemic, states and localities across the nation ordered…
Mark Twain popularized the phrase “lies, damned lies, and statistics.” The essential meaning of the phrase is that statistics can be misrepresented to support a particular position. A recent report from Housing for All Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is an example of abusing statistics. In the Introduction, the authors claim, This report……
In a recent interview, White House Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci made it clear that he supports dictatorship. Addressing a U.S. district court ruling that struck down travel mask mandates, Fauci said, I think it’s a bad precedent when decisions about public health issues are made by people, be they judges or what have…
Housing activists frequently proclaim that a household earning the minimum wage cannot afford a two-bedroom apartment. This is the elephant in the room that housing activists refuse to address. As an example, the executive director of the Capital Area Housing Partnership in Michigan writes, The fair market rent for a modest two-bedroom apartment in the…
The beginning of the headline was intriguing: “New law protects Hoosier property rights…” The second clause of the headline—”…makes it harder for HOAs to say no to solar”—set the stage for a grand disappointment. The law does not protect property rights. What the law does do is nullify contractual agreements between neighbors. Homeowner associations (HOAs)…