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Why isn’t everything rent-controlled?
Why isn’t everything rent-controlled?
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Legendas (52)
0:00
What if we could just ban ridiculously
0:01
high rents? That is what more and more
0:03
cities and states are trying to do with
0:05
rent control, which limits how much
0:06
landlords can raise rents every year on
0:08
some apartments? That might sound like a
0:10
great idea. Why shouldn't landlords
0:12
profit a little less so people can
0:14
afford to make their rent? I'm a
0:16
lifelong renter and my rent is pretty
0:18
steep and it would be my dream to be
0:20
able to know I won't be hit with a
0:21
massive rent hike next year. If only it
0:23
were that simple. Rent control can
0:25
protect a limited number of tenants who
0:27
are grandfathered into low rents, but
0:29
it's not costless. It can sometimes
0:31
worsen the very housing affordability
0:33
problem that it's trying to solve. In
0:35
high-cost cities, housing is so
0:36
expensive because there is so much
0:38
demand to live there. There aren't
0:40
enough homes and we need to build more
0:41
of them. But when rent increases are
0:43
tightly restricted, landlords have a
0:45
strong incentive to take apartments off
0:47
the rental market entirely, which
0:49
reduces rental housing supply. We saw
0:51
this happen in San Francisco where a
0:53
group of economists found that an
0:54
expansion of the city's rent control law
0:56
in 1994 led some landlords to convert
0:59
their rental apartments to condos. So,
1:01
the supply of rentals in the city
1:03
shrank, causing the rents in non-run
1:05
control departments to rise. Trying to
1:07
artificially suppress rents is kind of
1:09
like trying to hold the lid down on a
1:11
boiling pot. The pressure will
1:13
inevitably boil over somewhere. So, why
1:15
not just rent control everything? that
1:18
would prevent new housing from being
1:20
built at all, which would create an even
1:22
more severe housing shortage. But that
1:24
said, not all rent control laws are
1:25
created equal, and rent control is
1:27
trying to achieve a really important
1:29
goal to give tenants not just
1:31
affordability, but also long-term
1:33
stability and more dignity. You can find
1:35
all my reporting on this very nuanced
1:37
issue at vox.com.
