I try very hard not to think about that. I used to get by with two jobs with half your rent and still couldn't afford a car. Fucking love the economy right
Its due to gov rent control policies. Areas where rent control policies are minimal, or don't exist, housing has risen, but not nearly as much as areas like NY or CA. Houston has actually done a really good job of keeping housing costs low due to allowing building of new units, i.e. increasing supply to meet demand.
I have no idea how people keep blaming "capitalism" and "free markets" for the housing issues when it's one of the most regulated areas of the economy. Areas where housing is in a more free market are more affordable.
Correlation does not imply causation. Why would rent control - policies explicitly limiting the cost of housing - cause prices to increase? I would argue a for more likely explanation is that high rent prices cause increased pressure on the government to institute rent control. The prices in 'high value' areas, like NY or CA, would be even higher without rent control.
I'm currently paying $1100 for a two bedroom apt in MN. The main reason it's not higher is that very few people want to live in MN, especially here.
Correlation doesn't imply causation all the time. But when the pattern is rent controlled cities/states being consistently higher than non-rent controlled cities/states, that's compelling evidence.
Your own experience in MN bears this out. Demand is low, so there is some supply that keeps prices low. My area has seen an explosion in housing construction. And though housing costs have risen, it isn't as bad as in major metro areas. I pay under $2k for a 4 bedroom, 3 full bath house on 0.5 acres. That includes my taxes and insurance.
There are several issues with your argument. First, you provided no new arguments - you just repeated your first argument. Second, the pattern you describe is just correlation - you haven't eliminated the other possible relationships. In fact, my argument is that there is causal relationship - just in the other direction. You have not explained why rent control could cause higher rent.
The laws of supply and demand (which you referenced relative to my own experience), suggest that because demand is higher in large cities, prices will be higher. That's just the free market - rent control has nothing to do with it.
I hadn't really read up on what rent control policies actually look like. See https://rentguidelinesboard.cityofnewyork.us/resources/faqs/rent-control/ for the basic research I've done, but the important point is this: rent regulations only apply to some, but not all apartments. Based on the numbers in that article, and this one (www.nyc.gov/content/tenantprotection/pages/fast-facts-about-housing-in-nyc), only about a third of apartments are under any form of rent control. In other words, about two thirds of apartments in New York are not rent controlled, and thus their rent is set via the free market. Therefore, the overall high rent cannot be caused by rent control policies.
Also from the first article I linked, 'The system was enacted in 1969 when rents were rising sharply in many post-war buildings' - In other words, rent control was enacted after the free market increased rent prices. This was the argument I made in my last comment - that rent control is typically a response to high rent, rather than a cause of high rent.
Finally, I've never heard a landlord that's in favor of rent control. Landlords have a financial incentive to increase rent (they get more money), so if rent control caused an increase in rent, they would absolutely be arguing for more rent control.
American cities are bonkers. My house is in a podunk town in Ohio (personally love that and want to live in an area like this) and it is valued at $160,000 ($550/month). If you took my exact house and lot and put it in Columbus (a medium sized American city) it would be around a $1,000,000 (~$6,000/month and that’s with 20% down) house. Housing prices are insane and it’s getting to the point, even in small towns, where so many of the homes are being purchased by corporations and made into rental properties. I genuinely believe that within the next 50 years, owning a home will be only for those who have had homes left to them by parents and the rest will ALL be rentals. Like I said, I live in a very tiny town, five thousand people at the most, my neighborhood is all 100+ years old homes (fairly rare in the states), of the houses directly next to me and across the street. ONE of the four houses is owned (2 including me) and the rest are rentals.
Yeah when I broke up with my ex & moved out I needed a cosigner. My dad tried to get me to lease in a bad area because rent was $350. This was in 2017. Those same units are now $800 & I'd still need to carry...
Heavily depends on where you live and when you buy even within the same state. I bought a new house in 2021 and my mortgage is $2200. I’m not big into finance but I do know that my mortgage would be much higher than $2200 if I were to buy the same house right now
When I first moved out my parents I moved into the cheapest apartment around for miles, I only qualified because I worked minimum wage at the time. The rent was 1600 dollars a month for 195 square feet (that’s about one tiny room and a pisser btw) and that’s low income housing
I forgot the question mark. I was shocked that someone else thinks $1200 is lower than most 1 bed apartments. I wouldn't be comfprtable with more than $1000.
There’s a 400 unit apartment that rents for average of $2,200 a month, that’s 10.5m a year If you’re telling me you’re going to go bankrupt after repairs you need to build the apartments with better material
10.5m gross revenue. The owners of apartments also pay a “mortgage” on them. No one is buying them with cash. Depending on the area, that could cost between 20-50 million dollars. Divide out what that costs over a 30 year payment schedule and get an idea of what their profit per year vs on site and off site salaries and repair expenses.
I do construction work with some investment groups who buy, manage, and sell apartments, I don’t fully understand it but to do well, you need to own multiple. It’s all one big debt management company that is constantly buying and selling debt. They make money but it’s not 10.5m per year per apartment lol.
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u/Lost_Borealian Jun 20 '25
What do you mean "lowered"