On Interfluidity, Steve Randy Waldman posted some criticisms of the market urbanist position. The post was interesting, though I took issue with a few specific points. The following are my responses. Regulatory Authority as a Property RightThe customary property rights surrounding homeownership … [Read more...]
How to Fix San Francisco’s Housing Market
Want to live in San Francisco? No problem, that’ll be $3,000 (a month)--but only if you act fast.In the last two years, the the cost of housing in San Francisco has increased 47% and shows no signs of stopping. Longtime residents find themselves priced out of town, the most vulnerable of whom … [Read more...]
The Case Against Rent Control
To someone ignorant of economic reasoning, rent control seems like a great policy. It appears instantly to provide “affordable housing” to poor tenants, while the only apparent downside is a reduction in the income flowing to the fat-cat landlords, people who literally own buildings in major cities … [Read more...]
Ending rent control may not lower prices for non-regulated units
That's one takeaway from a paper sent to me by one of its co-authors, Andy Garin, at MIT, on the effects of the end of rent control in Massachusetts in 1995 on property values in Cambridge. Fascinating topic, and much thanks to Andy for sending it to me – it's always nice when other people write my … [Read more...]
Rent Control: Trying to Make a Bad Policy Worse in NYC
In New York, lawmakers are currently debating a compromise between New York City and upstate interests to change the policies that shape residents' housing costs. New York City lawmakers are fighting for an extension and expansion of current rent control laws, while Governor Cuomo wants to tie this … [Read more...]
“The Joys of Staying Put,” or “The Joys of Rent Control”?
The New York Times is unusually good at ignoring economic forces at play in land use and transport markets, but I think this piece called "The Joys of Staying Put" by Constance Rosenblum takes the cake. Here's a quote: New Yorkers typically move a lot. Prompted by the arrival of a partner or a … [Read more...]
Links
1. A shameless story of rent control in NYC. Glad to see that the city is forcing developers to subsidize wealthy Manhattanites' Eat, Pray, Love-like dreams of moving to Paris.2. The travails of getting a bus lane on a busy LA street where "[m]ore people already travel by bus than by car along … [Read more...]
Undead Ideas: Rent Control
In these days of economists constantly debating the right way to revive the economy, it seems like there is no way to find consensus among economists. Economists don’t spend much time debating the issues they agree on, and to them, rent control is about as dead an issue as the earth revolving … [Read more...]