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California Approves Statewide Rent Control

nytimes.com

101–110 of 1001 posts

Re: California Approves Statewide Rent Control

#101

HN: According to the simple laws of supply and demand, housing prices would go down if we just increased supply to meet demand. Also HN: These rent controls are just going to make the housing problem in this state even worse. I don't get it. If the situation were really as simple as the first statement implies, then if this particular law was really going to have a catastrophic effect on housing, that would just mean…

Rent control decreases the supply of housing

This phrase is repeated frequently throughout these comments but never with an explanation. I think the opposite of that phrase is true; that in these circumstances, rent control is part of what will enable an increase in the supply of housing.

The inequality gap must be lessened for there to be sustainable growth in the housing construction market; this rent control is part of that.

Re: California Approves Statewide Rent Control

#104
post #10
post #3

Finally, a novel and innovate solution no one has thought of before. What could go wrong? https://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/07/opinion/reckonings-a-rent...

To be clear, this is a 20 year old article, the literature on rent control has changed a lot since this was written. Basic economic consensus rn seems to be that rent control is a poor long term solution to rising housing costs but a necessary short term solution as the required supply shock wouldn't even be able to happen in the near term even if regulatory barriers are eased due to labor, construction, and land cos…

> but a necessary short term solution

[citation needed]

I've never seen an economist support any form of rent control.

Re: California Approves Statewide Rent Control

#105
post #21

I am a landlord in Oregon, but not California. The curious, although ultimately predictable, outcome of the new rent control measure in Oregon is that while I have historically had an arrangement with my property management to be restrained in annual rent increases, they are now advising a default annual increase of the maximum allowed (7 percent before inflation). This is because larger adjustments cannot be made if…

Landlords who choose to increase rents at the maximum rate permitted each year do so at the risk that they will be undercut by competing property owners who do not do so. Given this, I think that your property management company is offering you bad advice. Most landlords already increase rents at the maximum rate that the market will bear. Capping annual increases at 7% just ensures that in a year when the market wou…

One example I could imagine is that a landlord may not want to raise rents significantly on a long-term reliable tenant, but would want to increase rents when the reliable tenant leaves. “Market price” probably doesn’t include the cost risks of having a nightmare tenant.

Re: California Approves Statewide Rent Control

#106
post #75
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rent doesn't get changed daily, only when a lease is up for renewal. Rent control deters the creation of new housing. This reduce in supply raises the price, which is bad for the poor - exactly the people it is meant to help.

I was under the impression that some rents can be increased during the lease. I do not think it is only a renewal event, by law. > Rent control deters the creation of new housing. I keep seeing this repeated but I don't understand. Why does rent control deter creation of new housing? > This reduce in supply raises the price But you've glossed over why supply is reduced. I don't see any reason that supply would be red…

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https:/...

I believe you might be thinking of month-to-month, which is not a traditional lease. On all fixed term leases over a month rent cannot be changed during the term of the lease.

Re: California Approves Statewide Rent Control

#107

HN: According to the simple laws of supply and demand, housing prices would go down if we just increased supply to meet demand. Also HN: These rent controls are just going to make the housing problem in this state even worse. I don't get it. If the situation were really as simple as the first statement implies, then if this particular law was really going to have a catastrophic effect on housing, that would just mean…

https://lao.ca.gov/LAOEconTax/Article/Detail/265

Re: California Approves Statewide Rent Control

#108
post #69
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first house I ever owned was a condo I bought in 2005, way out in the sticks, because the further I got from the city the cheaper the houses got, and because I had a strong suspicion that housing prices were too damn high. By the time I had to move to CA for work in 2009 of course the market had crashed badly and the condo was well underwater, not even counting the $20k I had put into the kitchen and bathroom. It…

I own a condo too. And if I move I probably won't sell it, but rather rent it out until I move back (while living in a rented place of my own). Individual home ownership is not a problem, it should be encouraged. The problem is people (and REITs) who lever up with a bunch of properties to be fed half of people's paycheck in the manner described. I will nitpick and say that paying your mortgage is not a cost. That is…

You are very confused. A mortgage is definitely a cost. It's only meaningful equity if you ever sell it and get any of the money back, which is not guaranteed at all.

And only public housing would collapse the entire economy. Plenty of countries tried this, most notably the commies in Russia and in eastern Europe.

Re: California Approves Statewide Rent Control

#109
post #31

Perhaps an alternative real solution to the housing crises is the abolishment of professional landlords themselves. Why should we support a system where people can own many properties, each feeding them 1/2 of someone else's paycheck? Public-owned housing is the future. It works in Europe and it can work here. Treating housing as an investment vehicle is fundamentally incompatible with the ideal of housing being affo…

> It works in Europe and it can work here.

In Asia too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_housing_in_Singapore

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