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Oregon expected to enact first state-wide rent control law

nytimes.com

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Re: Oregon expected to enact first state-wide rent control law

#21

Post by everdev »

OtterCoder wrote: post #11
refurb wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Such as?

Massive housing price inflation relative to median incomes, for one, which the popularity of real estate and rental property ownership as an investment/speculation tool has greatly contributed to.

I'd argue it's the lending market and tax incentives, not the housing market.

The lending market is designed to encourage spending and making higher offers. It brings new people into the housing market faster than they should be entering.

The tax breaks around owning a home encourage you to live there for 3 out of the last five years. There are also realtor fees that discourage you from selling. This, along with housing values appreciating discourages people from selling. When my home is appreciating in value, it makes it more attractive to buy as an investment or rent it out while I buy a new house.

If you encourage people to buy and discourage them from selling, you're going to get a high demand / low supply situation pretty quickly.

If you eliminate the tax breaks and reduce lending, you'd have a pretty balanced market.

But who wants to be the politician responsible for slowing home value appreciation?

Re: Oregon expected to enact first state-wide rent control law

#22

Post by cookingrobot »

everdev wrote: post #15
jim-jim-jim wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another far less wonky solution to consider: public housing.

I've never met anyone in the US who has enjoyed their experience in public housing or low rent apartments.

Here are some examples from outside of the US of luxury public housing. https://jacobinmag.com/2018/11/beautiful-public-housing-red-...

Re: Oregon expected to enact first state-wide rent control law

#24

Post by koolba »

yaks_hairbrush wrote: post #9
twoodfin wrote: post #6

Bizarre to not mention the long-standing, broad consensus among economists that rent controls do more harm than good. Courtesy Wikipedia, here’s Paul Krugman in 2000: https://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/07/opinion/reckonings-a-rent... Surely if economists were so widely in support of such policies, the Times would have highlighted that fact.

That's the big thing that jumps out at me. There are very, very few serious economic policies that have this level of agreement among economists. Greg Mankiw did a list a while back about what economists agree on: https://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2009/02/news-flash-economist...

That’s an amazing list. I wish it went further to show the even less popular ideas. In particular I’m curious what shows up at the 50% mark.

Re: Oregon expected to enact first state-wide rent control law

#25

Post by broccolistem »

treis wrote: post #20
broccolistem wrote: post #19

In Québec we've had province-wide rent control since at least the early 70's. Landlords are allowed to raise rent annually up to a certain percentage determined by inflation (last year, up to 2.5%). Rent raises can also be appealed to the housing board if they seem unfair, or if the landlord has not been keeping up with maintenance. Prices can go up if significant renovations occur (which they almost never do), but e…

> in Montréal you can get a $400USD 1 bedroom apartment in a good part of town I find that extremely hard to believe

I pay $500 Canadian + electricity/heating ($80) / month for an apartment (half of top floor in duplex) in a good part of town, 20 minute walk from the very best part. That's 439.43USD including all utilities for a one bedroom, or '3.5' as it is called here (kitchen, living room, bedroom, bathroom).

& I know many dozens of people in the same scenario, or who pay less. There is definitely more expensive stuff out there, and you do need to hunt a little bit for this price (usually craigslist etc. is pricey), but I regularly see even bigger apartments go for the price I'm paying.

In fact I shit you not, my neighbour who has kept their place since the early 90s, pays 246.22 USD + electric for the same apartment as me. . .

Re: Oregon expected to enact first state-wide rent control law

#26

Post by anigbrowl »

twoodfin wrote: post #6

Bizarre to not mention the long-standing, broad consensus among economists that rent controls do more harm than good. Courtesy Wikipedia, here’s Paul Krugman in 2000: https://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/07/opinion/reckonings-a-rent... Surely if economists were so widely in support of such policies, the Times would have highlighted that fact.

And yet the market seems not to have magically provided a supply of housing that is adequate for the market to reach an affordable equilibrium. I agree the article should have mentioned it and am also skeptical about the efficacy of rent control, but other approaches don't seem to be working out as hoped.

Re: Oregon expected to enact first state-wide rent control law

#27

Post by ds »

There is more consensus on Rent Control being harmful than there is on global warming. Its absolutely insane that it would be enacted.

The solutions to expensive housing is complicated, obviously. Its about zoning, cancelling out NIMBYism, incentivizing affordable housing and basically matching supply with demand.

Rent control simply doesn't work. For any person it helps, it will disadvantage 10x more in the process.

I wonder if they are putting in vacancy controls as well. That would have the 1-2 punch of not only reducing rental stock but also significantly lowering property values (and property taxes in the process)

Re: Oregon expected to enact first state-wide rent control law

#28

Post by dbroockman »

Here's a great paper about how rent control is counterproductive: https://web.stanford.edu/~diamondr/DMQ.pdf.

> Using a 1994 law change, we exploit quasi-experimental variation in the assignment of rent control in San Francisco to study its impacts on tenants and landlords. Leveraging new data tracking individuals’ migration, we find rent control limits renters’ mobility by 20% and lowers displacement from San Francisco. Landlords treated by rent control reduce rental housing supplies by 15% by selling to owner-occupants and redeveloping buildings. Thus, while rent control prevents displacement of incumbent renters in the short run, the lost rental housing supply likely drove up market rents in the long run, ultimately undermining the goals of the law.

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