Angie Lopez’ letter speaks to the heart (“Candidates need to
support all of Yuma,” August 25, 2013).
We certainly want candidates to have the welfare of all in mind. But rent control, like so many wonderful
sounding socialist programs, has disastrous consequences for the very people
they purport to protect, and the wealthy always find ways to make it work for
them.
It’s impossible to find an apartment in a city that has rent
controls. Vacancy rates in cities run at
about 1 to 2 per cent. No investor wants
to build apartments in those markets. If
they can’t make a profit, there is no incentive. In cities like Phoenix that do not have rent
control, vacancy rates run as high as 15 per cent and the free market
rules. Landlords compete for tenants at
lower rates and with seductive packages.
William Tucker (“How Rent Control Drives out Affordable
Housing”) says that there is absolutely no disagreement among economists that
rent control will reduce the quality and quantity of available housing and cause rents to
skyrocket every time.
In New York and San Francisco and Berkley and in a dozen
other American cities, those who benefit from rent control legislation are
upper and upper middle class professionals.
The poor and the elderly are pushed out of the market altogether.
Many cities are trying to repeal rent control legislation,
but it seems the more detrimental government programs are, the more difficult
it is to get rid of them
Rent control is a
disease in search of a host.
No comments:
Post a Comment