'Renters Are Struggling': Economists Back Tenant-Led Push for Federal Rent Control
'Renters Are Struggling': Economists Back Tenant-Led Push for Federal Rent Control
"We have seen corporate landlords—who own a larger share of the rental market than ever before—use inflation as an excuse to hike rents and reap excess profits beyond what should be considered fair and reasonable."
My understanding is that rent control backfired pretty spectacularly in the long term.
The better plan here would be to stop companies from buying residential properties, to incentivized the conversion of commercial properties into apartments, to penalize banks and individuals who are sitting on unused residential properties.
Oh, and wipe out all student loan debt so that younger generations have a prayer of buying a house someday.
There's a supply shortage.
You can't sprawl your way out of this problem, despite Texas' best efforts. All you do there is create traffic.
The answer is simple. Legalize housing. More triplexes, more quadplexes, more ADUs, 5 over 1s, more of everything. Developers want to fill this demand. They can't. They're hamstrung by city ordnances and state laws that often only allow apartments or single family housing. Not everyone wants or needs a separate house. Make rent boring again and the corporations will lose interest.
2015 - rent was $1200
2017 - rent was $1600.
2021 - rent was $2100 average. I was paying $2400.
2023 - rent was $2500 average. I'm paying nearly $3000.
These are all two bedroom, two bathroom apartments in the same city.
I've asked college age tenants who lived here how they can do it. They split it with roommates (2bd/2bath - like four ppl living there)
Housing should NEVER have been part of determining ones worth or wealth etc. People need places to live...fuck this shit. Idgaf about people that boohoo about selling their home later in life when soooooo many of us can barely afford a rental in shitty areas these days. I have zero sympathy for any owners concerns as I can't even own and I make more money than I ever have in my life. Can't win vs the rich bastards that swoop in and pay 100k above asking price and just destroy any chances many of us have at just having a home and a life. Fuck your "starter home" boomer mentality. I want a home to die in someday and it can be the first home I buy if I ever get to
More than 30 U.S. economists have signed a letter expressing support for strong federal tenant protections and rent control as housing costs remain sky-high, even amid broadly cooling inflation.
The economists note in their letter, released Thursday, that the median rent in the U.S. "has surpassed $2,000 for the first time, and there is not a single state where a worker earning a full-time minimum wage salary can afford a modest two-bedroom apartment."
"We have seen corporate landlords—who own a larger share of the rental market than ever before—use inflation as an excuse to hike rents and reap excess profits beyond what should be considered fair and reasonable," the letter continues. "Renters are struggling as a result."
The letter's signatories—including Mark Paul of Rutgers University, James K. Galbraith of the University of Texas at Austin, and Isabella Weber of the University of Massachusetts Amherst—call on the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to require rent regulations as a condition for federally-backed mortgages and reject the "economics 101 model that predicts rent regulations will have negative effects on the housing sector," likening it to typical arguments against raising the minimum wage.
"Empirical research on local rent control policies in San Francisco, CA and New York, NY found that rent regulations lower housing costs for households living in regulated units," the economists wrote. "In Cambridge, MA, empirical research showed that the repeal of rent stabilization laws resulted in an average rent increase of $131 for tenants."
Given that "Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages on the secondary market support nearly half of rental units in the U.S.," they argued, "Government Sponsored Entities (GSEs) have the influence needed to meaningfully change the trajectory of the housing crisis."
The economists' letter is part of a broader push by tenant rights groups and housing justice organizations to secure federal protections against egregious rent hikes and wrongful evictions.
Earlier this week, 17 U.S. senators wrote in a letter to the FHFA that "renters also have too few protections, making them vulnerable to steep rent increases and deteriorating housing conditions—factors that are out of their control."
"Tenant protections vary drastically from state to state and even sometimes from county to county, often leaving renters without recourse," the senators added. "There have been repeated reports of investors using low-cost financing from Enterprise-backed loans to buy properties and then sharply raising rents, mistreating tenants, and allowing buildings to fall into disrepair."
More than 140 academics, over 70 climate researchers, and dozens of local elected officials have also joined the call for nationwide rent regulations.
Tara Raghuveer, director of the Homes Guarantee campaign at People's Action, said in a statement Thursday that "tenants are coming for rent regulations, and everyone from senators to economists agree: tenant protections are common sense."
"Due to lack of regulation, affordable housing is lost quicker than it can be built," said Raghuveer. "Corporate landlords call the shots with federal financing through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. That's why tenants spent this summer organizing to win what we need: federal tenant protections like caps on annual rent increases."
In late May, the FHFA issued a request for public input on tenant protections at multifamily properties with mortgages backed by GSEs.
Tenants with the Homes Guarantee campaign responded by knocking on more than 4,000 doors at GSE-backed properties and organizing more than 2,000 comments in support of tenant protections and rent regulations.
"The system as we know it today has failed everyday people, many of whom make impossible choices between rent and food, their homes or their medications," said Raghuveer. "The status quo is not working for the people, it is only working for the profiteers, and it is time for change. It is time for the federal government to make changes to that system, to correct the imbalance of power between landlords and tenants, to protect tenants, and to stabilize the American economy."
There is no way the corporate-loving leaders of our country will agree to this, but I wish them luck anyway.
Rent is inherently predatory and exploitative because it's usually a commodity in a scarce housing market where the landowners can charge prices that generate a large profit margin over what it cost them. For example, a person who pays $1,500 a month to the bank for mortgage may be able to rent that out at twice the price, and usually to people who are economically insecure.
Foreign investors and real estate speculators are squeezing the middle class dry. The only options out there if you don't want to live in the middle of bumfuck nowhere are either really really old properties, really really shitty properties, or too far above your means to be able to afford it.
Renting should be the most affordable option, yet if you actually look at the numbers, you are paying almost as much as the value of an entire mortgage with one monthly rent check in some areas. Properties built in the 60's that are falling apart and lacking modern amenities should not be going for $2,500/month, but that's the reality I live in right now. I'm on the fucking brink and I'd do anything to have a chance at climbing on the real estate ladder right about now. I don't care if my house never gains a cent in value, at least it would be mine.
Rent has been high for a LONG time... and yet somehow it keeps going up. I'm very fortunate in my rental situation.. but I do see the other side of the crunch, which is LIFE is fucking expensive. Every last thing we do these days is expensive. When you are getting squeezed in every single direction...
rent control and stop cooperate take over of housing, especially foreign companies.
Time to organize
Yup. I currently am renting a house built in the 60s. Hasn't been updated since the 70s, so not only is rent sky high, but so is our utility bill. My landlord doesn't give a shit enough to upgrade the house. Why should he? He's raking in the cash without having to spend a dime, and the fucking state I live in allows it to happen.
Permanently Deleted