Rent Control

Blog

Read about latest push for rent control

Seattle rejects rent control in win for sound economics

It’s always a breath of fresh air when elected officials have a grasp on basic economics. On August 1, the Seattle City Council voted 6-to-2 to reject a rent control proposal from termed-out Socialist Alternative Councilmember Kshama Sawant. Sawant proposed a rent control trigger law that would impose a strict, ...
California

A Delinquent Tenant’s Paradise

Los Angeles recently changed its municipal code to give tenants “permanent protections against eviction and burdensome rent increases.” L.A. County has extended its eviction moratorium, originally scheduled to be lifted on January 31, through the end of March. And a few hundred miles north, California state lawmakers are considering a bill ...
Blog

Biden’s California Economy: Calling for national rent control

When running for president, Joe Biden often praised California’s governance and promised to nationalize many of the state’s policies. While Biden mostly has promoted the state’s infamous Assembly Bill 5, which was an attempt to largely outlaw independent contracting, the president also seeks to mimic the state in another way: ...
Blog

Would A Vacancy Tax Reduce State’s Housing Shortage? History Says No.

While it might seem impossible given the state’s perpetual housing shortage, there are empty homes in California. Some policymakers believe that forcing the owners to put tenants in their properties will help solve an unaffordability problem that has priced so many out of the market. Sounds simple. Of course it’s ...
Blog

Rent control is destroying a city near you

In 1977, President Jimmy Carter stood on a vacant lot on Charlotte Street in the South Bronx, surrounded by empty, burned-out buildings, something reminiscent of Berlin at the end of World War II. The scene looked like something from a scene in “Escape from New York,” but Carter promised he ...
Blog

Permanent Solutions or Band-Aids: Solving the Decades-Old California Homelessness Crisis

California’s budget last year contained $12 billion, a record number, to address homelessness. Yet, California has the largest homeless population in the nation with, as of January 2020, around 161,500 individuals. California is one of the few states that experienced one of the largest homelessness increases between 2019-2020 with a ...
Blog

Rent Control Can’t Stop Soaring Housing Rents

California’s “Been There, Done That” California’s sky-high rental housing rates are now being felt by the rest of the country.  Apartment List’s most recent report in February showed that rents grew 17.6 percent annually for all housing types and increased 0.6 percent over the month.  This tracks the Bureau of ...
Business & Economics

Rent control in response to rising housing costs? Wayne Winegarden responds on NTD News

Is enacting rent control measures a positive approach to dramatically rising housing costs? Watch economist and PRI senior fellow Wayne Winegarden respond below.
Blog

When Public Policy Is Predatory

The same city that requires employers to pay workers at least $16.32 an hour, far more than twice the federal minimum wage, also limits how much some businesses can charge for their services. It’s enough to send some companies seeking relief from the court system. Two have done just that. ...
Agriculture

Key Supreme Court ruling protects Californians’ private property rights

“I’m going to take this to the Supreme Court,” is almost always an empty, baseless threat generated by in-the-moment fury from someone who believes they were wronged. But sometimes cases get that far. Sometimes the offended party wins. And on occasion, that victory undergirds the framework of a free society. ...
Blog

Read about latest push for rent control

Seattle rejects rent control in win for sound economics

It’s always a breath of fresh air when elected officials have a grasp on basic economics. On August 1, the Seattle City Council voted 6-to-2 to reject a rent control proposal from termed-out Socialist Alternative Councilmember Kshama Sawant. Sawant proposed a rent control trigger law that would impose a strict, ...
California

A Delinquent Tenant’s Paradise

Los Angeles recently changed its municipal code to give tenants “permanent protections against eviction and burdensome rent increases.” L.A. County has extended its eviction moratorium, originally scheduled to be lifted on January 31, through the end of March. And a few hundred miles north, California state lawmakers are considering a bill ...
Blog

Biden’s California Economy: Calling for national rent control

When running for president, Joe Biden often praised California’s governance and promised to nationalize many of the state’s policies. While Biden mostly has promoted the state’s infamous Assembly Bill 5, which was an attempt to largely outlaw independent contracting, the president also seeks to mimic the state in another way: ...
Blog

Would A Vacancy Tax Reduce State’s Housing Shortage? History Says No.

While it might seem impossible given the state’s perpetual housing shortage, there are empty homes in California. Some policymakers believe that forcing the owners to put tenants in their properties will help solve an unaffordability problem that has priced so many out of the market. Sounds simple. Of course it’s ...
Blog

Rent control is destroying a city near you

In 1977, President Jimmy Carter stood on a vacant lot on Charlotte Street in the South Bronx, surrounded by empty, burned-out buildings, something reminiscent of Berlin at the end of World War II. The scene looked like something from a scene in “Escape from New York,” but Carter promised he ...
Blog

Permanent Solutions or Band-Aids: Solving the Decades-Old California Homelessness Crisis

California’s budget last year contained $12 billion, a record number, to address homelessness. Yet, California has the largest homeless population in the nation with, as of January 2020, around 161,500 individuals. California is one of the few states that experienced one of the largest homelessness increases between 2019-2020 with a ...
Blog

Rent Control Can’t Stop Soaring Housing Rents

California’s “Been There, Done That” California’s sky-high rental housing rates are now being felt by the rest of the country.  Apartment List’s most recent report in February showed that rents grew 17.6 percent annually for all housing types and increased 0.6 percent over the month.  This tracks the Bureau of ...
Business & Economics

Rent control in response to rising housing costs? Wayne Winegarden responds on NTD News

Is enacting rent control measures a positive approach to dramatically rising housing costs? Watch economist and PRI senior fellow Wayne Winegarden respond below.
Blog

When Public Policy Is Predatory

The same city that requires employers to pay workers at least $16.32 an hour, far more than twice the federal minimum wage, also limits how much some businesses can charge for their services. It’s enough to send some companies seeking relief from the court system. Two have done just that. ...
Agriculture

Key Supreme Court ruling protects Californians’ private property rights

“I’m going to take this to the Supreme Court,” is almost always an empty, baseless threat generated by in-the-moment fury from someone who believes they were wronged. But sometimes cases get that far. Sometimes the offended party wins. And on occasion, that victory undergirds the framework of a free society. ...
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