Howard Husock, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, uses data from the Census Bureau to illustrate how rent control is “shabbifying” New York City’s rental housing. The bureau’s data shows: The bureau’s report states that housing quality declined across all housing types, but it is too “early to know if this was a…
On Monday, we examined Elon Musk’s claim that working from home is “morally wrong.” Such a claim derives from a lack of conceptual clarity. Musk is hardly alone. Today, we will examine a claim that a home mortgage is a form of rent control. Mark Paul, an assistant professor of economics at Rutgers, writes, Some…
Progressive Regressive “journalist” Patrick Range McDonald informs us that renters paid a total of $512 billion to landlords in 2019. This, he wants us to believe, is evidence of “corporate landlord greed.” Certainly, that’s a lot of money. However, it proves nothing other than McDonald’s inability to consider the full context. In doing so, he…
The Washington, D.C. Rental Housing Commission recently approved a rent increase of 8.9 percent based on the rate of inflation. Many tenants and activists are upset about the increase, with one arguing that “landlords have been getting inflation plus 2% for years, so why hasn’t it been enough?” This same tenant asserted that her landlord…
In November 2021, voters in St. Paul approved one of the nation’s most stringent rent control laws. The law was later amended to loosen the controls slightly. However, that did little to motivate the construction of new housing. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) reports that building permits in St. Paul fell…
In November 2021, voters in Minneapolis asked city leaders to explore the implementation of rent control. Last week, a city staff report was released. The report recommended against the 3 percent cap on rent increases that a group of landlords and tenants had suggested. The report concludes that the cost to the city from imposing…
Rent control hasn’t even taken effect in Boston, and already the consequences of rent control are being felt. Banker and Tradesman reports that building permits in Boston declined 94 percent between 2021 and 2022. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and others have claimed that rent control will not lead to less new housing construction, despite what…
In February, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu unveiled a rent control plan. Wu’s proposal quickly drew criticism. Real estate interests oppose the plan, while Leftists argue that it isn’t strong enough. This is shaping up to be a classic example of how the Left shifts the debate. Wu’s proposal allows for rent increases of 6 percent…
In defending her rent control proposal, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said, “The status quo is not working.” She is correct. However, her solution to the problems caused by forcing individuals to act contrary to their own judgment is to force individuals to act contrary to their own judgment. Zoning laws serve as one example. In…
The opponents of rent control rarely take a moral stand on the issue. They fail to identify rent control as a violation of the right to property—the freedom to produce and trade. Instead, they focus on economic arguments. Rent control, they say, discourages the production of housing and makes maintenance more difficult. While these arguments…
In early January, fifty Democrat members of Congress sent a letter to President Biden. The letter urged him to “to pursue all possible strategies to end corporate price gouging in the real estate Sector….” The letter recommends seven actions Biden can take. Among the most significant is directing the Federal Housing Finance Agency to establish…
From Britain comes an interesting, though implicit, admission that Leftists do not value the producers. Vicky Spratt, the “housing correspondent” for i (an online newspaper published by the Daily Mail), calls for a housing strike. She argues that strikes force all of us–those in power and those who take the train or use the NHS…