As energy expert Alex Epstein points out in Fossil Future, before we begin to analyze any idea or policy, we must first establish the proper standard of value. We must identify the goal or value that we seek, and then evaluate alternatives against this standard. Housing activists ignore this sage advice. Instead, they found their…
The Los Angeles City Council recently approved a plan to let landlords increase rents in 2024 by 4 percent. Renters and housing activists aren’t happy, complaining that landlords have enjoyed low inflation and 3 percent rent increases for years before the pandemic. Consequently, property owners “can now afford to tighten the belt so that people…
Landlords have long been an object of derision. The ongoing affordable housing crisis has only exacerbated the attacks. Landlords are called greedy and negligent. It is argued that they put profits before people. All of this is intended to make it acceptable to hate landlords. Now, CNN informs us, landlords are also guilty of hate…
When a landlord raises the rent, he is often accused of profiteering—making an “excessive” or “unfair” profit. Those making such claims seldom present any evidence, other than pointing out that some corporate landlords generate billions in revenue. However, revenue is only one factor in determining profitability. Expenses—insurance, maintenance, mortgage payments, and property taxes—must also be…
A recent article on Common Dreams, a news website serving the progressive community, claims that a lack of supply isn’t causing the housing crisis. The article claims that the United States has a surplus of housing—3.5 million more housing units than are needed. Further, a surplus exists in nearly every metropolitan area in the nation….
In my book, The Affordable Housing Crisis: Causes and Cures, I examine many different policies that have impacted the affordability of housing in the United States, including single-family zoning and federal highway policies. One policy that I did not examine, but which has a significant impact on housing, is minimum parking requirements. CNN reports that…
In early December, Maxwell Frost tweeted that he had been denied an apartment in Washington, DC, because of “really bad credit.” This is noteworthy only because the twenty-five year-old Florida Democrat was elected to the United States House of Representatives in November. In subsequent comments Frost engaged in a denial of responsibility for his past…
Since early in the pandemic, we have heard countless stories of the hardships faced by renters due to the lockdowns. Thrown out of work, many tenants were unable to pay their rent. In response, the federal government, along with many state and local governments, imposed eviction moratoriums. We heard virtually nothing about the hardships that…
I previously wrote that in 2024 voters in Los Angeles will decide whether the city should force hotel owners to rent vacant rooms to homeless people. This, the advocates of the initiative want us to believe, is the solution to homelessness in Los Angeles. If that is true, why delay the solution for more than…
For years, tenants and housing activists have complained that there is a housing shortage and that “the rent is too damn high.” While failing to tell us what rent would not be “too damn high,” they trot out a variety of proposals which do virtually nothing to increase the housing supply. According to the National…
The New York Times reports that many landlords in New York City are significantly raising rents—50 percent of more in many cases. They are trying to recoup losses suffered during the first two years of the pandemic. During that period, they had slashed rents to fill vacant properties. Renters are now paying the price for…
“Just cause eviction” laws (sometimes called “good cause eviction laws) are, according to housing advocate Shelter Force, “a legal framework that requires landlords to provide sufficient grounds for any attempt to remove a tenant from [sic] through eviction….” Currently, four states and more than twenty cities have just cause eviction laws. While the details vary,…