[deleted] t1_j7hu30m wrote
Reply to comment by ER301 in Federal court upholds NY rent stabilization laws, setting up possible Supreme Court showdown by ER301
Build more housing!!!! Rent control is a terrible policy. It discourages new investment and leads to the inefficient allocation of a scarce resource. For example, there are rent controlled apartments on the upper east side next to the met that are capped at $500 a month. some owners don’t live there they are just used as piedaterres.
GeorgeWBush2016 t1_j7i66v2 wrote
less than 1% of the housing stock is rent controlled
ManhattanRailfan t1_j7hvgsk wrote
Except that's demonstrably not true. Rent regulation has never been shown to have a detrimental effect on the rate of new construction in any city where it's been implemented. If you're concerned about pied-a-terres, all you have to do is have a strictly enforced full-time residency requirement.
All you're really saying is that the free market is terrible at making housing affordable and we should massively expand public housing.
bsbbtnh t1_j7i271u wrote
> Except that's demonstrably not true. Rent regulation has never been shown to have a detrimental effect on the rate of new construction in any city where it's been implemented.
And yet removing rent controls leads to more construction.
>Building on the existing literature, the purpose of this study is to estimate the effect of rent control and its evolution over time on housing construction in the Bay Area, and in particular, in Berkeley, California. Our approach is a macro analysis, using place-level data over time for both rent-controlled and non-rent-controlled communities. In particular, the case study demonstrates how major changes in rent control rules following the statewide Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act in 1995, contributed to faster supply growth in the ensuing years for rent-controlled communities.
>The vast majority of economists agree that artificially controlling apartment rents acts as a price ceiling that reduces the supply of housing over time. While the precise nature and severity of rent control are important factors, empirical studies have found numerous ways that rent control can reduce housing supply.
>...
>RCG’s case study examined the impact of rent control and its evolution over time on housing construction in the Bay Area. More specifically, our research considered how the change in rent-control rules following the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act in 1995 affected the growth in housing supply in rent-controlled cities, including Berkeley, as well as Oakland, San Francisco and San Jose. Even after accounting for employment growth, density, rent growth and local place-specific factors, the supply of housing in these rent controlled cities grew faster following the loosening of rent control rules than during the period of more restrictive rent controls. This result was statistically significant, even though newly built units were generally not included in local rent control ordinances during the pre-Costa-Hawkins period. In addition to the change in the nature and severity of rent control rules (the shift to vacancy decontrol and statewide exemptions for new construction and single family homes), we believe that uncertainty regarding the potential for future changes to local rent-control policies was an important factor that limited development in the pre-Costa-Hawkins period. The statewide legislation provided greater certainty for developers, investors and lenders, factors that bolstered housing construction in rent-controlled cities in the ensuing years.
ManhattanRailfan t1_j7i4wg0 wrote
NAHB? This is like citing a study by BP to say that climate change isn't real. Of course the parasites that are collecting rent aren't going to want rent control.
Also the problem with this case study is two-fold. 1, Costa-Hawkins passed in 1995, right when cities all over the US were going into a growth period with massive amounts of investment and construction. In fact, more housing was built in 1990, 91, and 92 than. In 1995 or 1996. 2. Clearly, it hasn't solved the housing affordability crisis because SF remains the first or second most expensive city in the country, and the rest of the Bay Area isn't much better.
The primary factors behind a lack of construction in NYC are zoning, NIMBYs, and high upfront costs. The idea that rent regulation is even a factor, especially in as-of-right construction with no mandatory inclusionary housing, is quite frankly, asinine.
bsbbtnh t1_j7muohr wrote
Presumably you have some studies which say rent control doesn't have an impact on new construction?
ManhattanRailfan t1_j7mwg3r wrote
And an article for slightly easier comprehension.
In fact, the only articles that I could find that claim rent control decreases construction were published by developers and parasites landlords themselves. Not exactly an unbiased source. And basically all of them cite that single Bay Area case study that you did. And case studies aren't good evidence of a trend or causation. Only that something is a possibility.
[deleted] t1_j7i28va wrote
Look at saint paul and Minneapolis construction rates post rent control
ManhattanRailfan t1_j7i5spe wrote
You mean when builders threw a fit? Rent control was in place for a single year. Ultimately, they always come back because they can still profit off the backs of people who actually work for a living. Obviously, the best solution would just be to have all the government do it like in Singapore or Vienna, but this is the US and we can never do anything that would benefit people to the detriment of parasites corporate shareholders and billionaires.
ctindel t1_j7i6jmc wrote
> All you're really saying is that the free market is terrible at making housing affordable and we should massively expand public housing.
It isn't the "free market" that imposes stupid things like FAR limits and air rights, it's the government regulation that prevents people from tearing down buildings and replacing them with bigger ones in the first place.
ManhattanRailfan t1_j7i7t9r wrote
Yeah, and it's the free market that allowed 10 to a room tenements with factories right next to homes, child labor, no safety codes, and blue fucking milk. I'm not saying zoning regs as they stand are good, but rent regulation is absolutely a good thing because landlords are universally terrible who see their tenants as nothing more than a source of income with little to no labor required. Even Adam Smith, the father of capitalism, thought landlords could get fucked, so obviously we should be keeping them on an extremely tight leash.
ctindel t1_j7i92dh wrote
> Yeah, and it's the free market that allowed 10 to a room tenements
Well, when the city doesn't allow you to build supply that matches demand, that's how people can afford it.
> with factories right next to homes
Separating industrial from residential doesn't cause the housing supply to be limited though. I don't think there's any problem with this.
> rent regulation is absolutely a good thing because landlords are universally terrible who see their tenants as nothing more than a source of income with little to no labor required.
If you believe that being a landlord/super is no work, especially in NYC, then you've never done it.
Anyway, the answer is to make it so the majority of people aren't renters but owners. That way they aren't beholden to these evil landlords you hate so much. This should be a country of owners, and instead of limiting construction we should allow unlimited construction as long as the buildings are coops that are affordable by the middle class and have to be owner-occupied as a primary residence by covenant.
ER301 OP t1_j7ich0q wrote
Reduced rent through increased housing is certainly a piece of the puzzle, and a great investment for the future, but it would likely be a decade before we actually saw any substantial citywide rent reductions due to expanded housing availability. If rent stabilization was outlawed, what would working class families do right now, in real time?
Junk-trash t1_j7hwvcj wrote
If they dont live there the landlord can initiate a holdover and take the place back
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