Rent Control - Dumb Idea
Great article by John Cochrane regarding rent control(1) with highlights below.
Nothing rings more true of our government than restrict supply, subsidize demand, and watch prices skyrocket.
The biggest losers of rent control are the young, the mobile, the ambitious, immigrants, and people without a lot of cash.
A rent control only makes rental “affordable” for the lucky recipient. It does not make rental housing more “affordable” for society as a whole. It does not increase the number of people who have housing. Indeed it reduces that number. It just changes who gets it. It does not even make housing more “affordable” on average. For those who want it must now pay with time, and inconvenience, or pay by foregoing the great opportunities that moving to the city provided.
(1)
