Dear legislators: pick one — (i) implement rent controls or (ii) improve housing affordability. You can't have both. But don't let evidence get in the way of opinion polling.
Washington State’s legislature just passed a bill limiting rent increases, now sitting on the governor’s desk.
While the bill includes carveouts (e.g., for new construction and first-year tenancies), history shows that top-down price controls rarely deliver better outcomes for households.
This feels like a step backward for everyone but politicians.
Case in point: It's hard to imagine a more dysfunctional housing market than New York City, where renters pay among the highest shares of income toward housing and where capital markets (e.g., NYCB) are being destabilized by ever-changing rent regulations.
Jay Parsons, interested in your take on this...
COMMENTS