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Rent control refers to laws or ordinances that set price controls on the renting of residential housing. It functions as a price ceiling. Non-binding price ceiling Pricing, quantity, and welfare effects of a binding price ceiling A price ceiling is a government-imposed limit on how high a price can be charged on a product. ...
In the United States, rent controls were first adopted in response to WWII-era shortages, or following Richard Nixon's 1971 wage and price controls. They remain in effect in some cities with large tenant populations, such as New York, San Francisco, and Washington, DC. Smaller communities also have rent control, notably Santa Monica, Berkeley, and West Hollywood California along with many small towns in New Jersey. In recent years, rent control in some cities, such as Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been ended by state ballot. Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki TÅjÅ Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. ...
A tenant (from the Latin tenere, to hold), in legal contexts, holds real property by some form of title from a landlord. ...
Midtown Manhattan, looking north from the Empire State Building, 2005 New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the most populous city in the state of New York and the entire United States. ...
Nickname: Location of the City and County of San Francisco, California Coordinates: , Country United States of America State California City-County San Francisco Founded 1776 Government - Mayor Gavin Newsom Area - City 47 sq mi (122 km²) - Land 46. ...
Aerial photo (looking NW) of the Washington Monument and the White House in Washington, DC. Washington, D.C., officially the District of Columbia (also known as D.C.; Washington; the Nations Capital; the District; and, historically, the Federal City) is the capital city and administrative district of the United...
Santa Monica Pier Santa Monica is a coastal city located in Los Angeles County, California USA, by the Pacific Ocean, south of Pacific Palisades and Brentwood, west of Westwood, Los Angeles, and north of Venice. ...
Berkeley may refer to: // The Berkeley family of England Lord Berkeley (disambiguation page) Baron Berkeley Berkeley Baronets Anthony Berkeley a pseudonym of Anthony Berkeley Cox, writer Busby Berkeley, film choreographer Elizabeth Berkeley, wife of Charles Noel Somerset, 4th Duke of Beaufort Edmund Berkeley, mathematician and computer scientist, founder of the...
West Hollywoods logo illustrates the citys borders. ...
Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area Ranked 3rd - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²) - Width 250 miles (400 km) - Length 770 miles (1,240 km) - % water 4. ...
Official language(s) English de facto Capital Trenton Largest city Newark Area Ranked 47th - Total 8,729 sq mi (22,608 km²) - Width 70 miles (110 km) - Length 150 miles (240 km) - % water 14. ...
Nickname: Location in Massachusetts, USA Coordinates: , Country United States State Massachusetts County Suffolk County Settled 1630 Incorporated (city) 1822 Government - Governor Deval Patrick (D) Area - City 89. ...
Location in Massachusetts Coordinates: , Country United States State Massachusetts County Middlesex County Settled 1630 Incorporated 1636 Government - Type Mayor-council city - Mayor Kenneth Reeves (D) Area - City 7. ...
In some regions rent control laws are more commonly adopted for mobile home parks (sometimes called manufactured home communities). Reasons given for these laws include residents owning their homes (and renting the land), the high cost of moving "mobile" homes, and the loss of home value when they are moved. California, for example, has only 13 local apartment rent control laws but over 100 local mobile home rent control laws. A modern double-wide manufactured home. ...
Purpose and scope
Although the political debate over rent control is far-reaching, as described below, the purposes and provisions of such laws are intended to be limited in scope. They define which rental units are affected, and may have only larger or older rental complexes covered by the law. The frequency and degree of rent increases are limited, usually to the rate of inflation defined by the Consumer Price Index or to a fraction thereof. (San Francisco, for example, allows annual rent increases of 60% of the CPI.) Unregulated rent increases may be allowed when a tenant moves ("vacancy decontrol"). Landlords have an opportunity to show that they are not receiving a fair return, for example by proving an increase in costs (such as capital improvements) that should be passed on to tenants. Tenants may be able to claim that decreased services or the lack of necessary repairs offset such additional increases or justify a rent reduction. Landlords may be required to register current rent levels or provide other information on rent increases and/or terminations of tenancy. (Since rent control laws vary considerably from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, landlords and tenants who may be affected should contact their local jurisdiction to obtain information on which law, if any, which applies to them.) A consumer price index (CPI) along with a population census, is one of the two most important products of national statistical offices. ...
The Argument for It is necessary to prevent landlords from imposing rent increases that force key-workers or vulnerable people to leave an area. Maintaining a supply of affordable housing is essential to sustaining the economy. Homeowners who support rent control point to the neighborhood instability caused by high or frequent rent increases and the effect on schools, youth groups, and community organizations when tenants move more frequently. A landlord, is the owner of a house, apartment, condominium, or real estate which is rented or leased to an individual or business, who is called the tenant. ...
It has been contended that housing is an inalienable positive human right that equals or exceeds the property rights of landlords. Therefore the needs of the tenant should supersede the needs of the landlord. A positive right is a right, either moral or decreed by law, to be provided with something through the action of another person or group of people (usually a state). ...
The rental-accommodation market suffers from information asymmetries and high transaction costs. Typically, a landlord has much more information about a home than a prospective tenant can reasonably detect. Moreover, once the tenant has moved in, the costs of moving again are very high. Unscrupulous landlords can thus conceal defects and, if the tenant complains, threaten to raise the rent at the end of the lease. With rent control, tenants can ensure that hidden defects at least be repaired to comply with code requirements, without fearing retaliatory rent increases. Rent control may thus compensate somewhat for inefficiencies of the housing market. In economics, information asymmetry occurs when one party to a transaction has more or better information than the other party. ...
In economics and related disciplines, a transaction cost is a cost incurred in making an economic exchange. ...
The Argument against Like all price ceilings, rent control is criticized for creating a shortage of housing, reducing its quality, deterring investment and raising the price of unaffected rental units. If a price is forceably kept low, there will be higher demand. When demand outpaces supply, there is a shortage. However, since builders are restricted in the rents they may charge, they are less willing to construct more housing. Since supply is perpetually low, landlords also do not have to worry about tenants leaving - for example, unless the landlord can reasonably expect that punitive action will be taken against them for doing so, they might let building maintenance deteriorate in order to mitigate the lower rental income. People moving into the city also have serious difficulty finding housing. A shortage is en economic term describing a disparity between the demand for a product or service (see labor shortage and its supply in a market. ...
Punitive damages (termed exemplary damages in the United Kingdom) are damages not awarded in order to compensate the plaintiff, but in order to reform or deter the defendant and similar persons from pursuing a course of action such as that which damaged the plaintiff. ...
Rent control laws are frequently used in economics courses as a textbook example of the problems that arise in trying to artificially reduce prices. The natural consequence in a free-market economy is a reduction in supply and consequent shortages. This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ...
A free market is a market where the price of an item is arranged by the mutual consent of sellers and buyers, with the supply and demand of that item not being regulated by a government (see supply and demand); the opposite is a controlled market, where supply and price...
Areas with rent controlled housing are notable for difficulty of finding vacant housing and the resulting power imbalance between landlords and tenants. Tenants have serious difficulty finding housing, so are seriously disadvantaged if they are forced to move. As a result, landlords can impose numerous conditions and requirements.
Rent control has been discredited by some unlikely governments. Speaking in 1989, Vietnam's Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach said: "The Americans couldn't destroy Hanoi, but we have destroyed our city by very low rents. We realized it was stupid and that we must change policy."[citation needed] Hanoi (Vietnamese: Hà Nội, Hán Tự: 河内) , estimated population 3,145,300 (2005), is the capital of Vietnam. ...
Moreover, critics see rent control as a violation of property rights since landlords are told what they may and may not do with their property. Some also claim that rent control limits the owners' ability to sell their rent-controlled property, thus essentially forcing them to put their property to work for the state without recourse. Opponents of rent control also claim that its benefits accrue disproportionately to wealthy and well-connected tenants. They argue that the goal of making housing affordable and available to the poor can be accomplished by the same free market that created the affordable units in the first place, or by government construction or subsidy. This page deals with property as ownership rights. ...
A free market is an idealized market, where all economic decisions and actions by individuals regarding transfer of money, goods, and services are voluntary, and are therefore devoid of coercion and theft (some definitions of coercion are inclusive of theft). Colloquially and loosely, a free market economy is an economy...
Enforcement issues Some landlords use extralegal means to evade rent controls and attempt to take advantage of housing conditions. Some landlords may step up discrimination against any group they dislike if they believe there is a surplus of prospective tenants. Jurisdictions that implement rent controls may have to pass laws in response, such as forbidding landlords from compelling new tenants to hire the landlord's moving company. In some areas with especially strict rent controls, landlords may require key money (a non-refundable deposit). Demanding key money is illegal in most of North America, but since the landlord will invariably demand it in cash, it is very difficult to trace and nearly impossible to prove in court. This article is about discrimination in the social science context. ...
Key money is used differently in different parts of the world and sometimes means money paid to an existing tenant who assignes a lease to a new tenant where the rent is below market. ...
North America North America is a continent[1] in the Earths northern hemisphere and (chiefly) western hemisphere. ...
For other uses, see Cash (disambiguation). ...
Some tenants, however, use their regulated unit to "profiteer." By subletting their apartment (or rooms within their apartment) to sub-tenants who pay market rate, tenants are able to make a profit at the expense of the owner.
See also Just cause eviction controls or Just Cause are laws that protect renters by ensuring that landlords can only evict with proper cause, such as a tenants failure to pay rent or destruction of property. ...
Affordable housing is a dwelling where the total housing costs are affordable to those living in that housing unit. ...
West Hollywoods logo illustrates the citys borders. ...
Santa Monica Pier Santa Monica is a coastal city located in Los Angeles County, California USA, by the Pacific Ocean, south of Pacific Palisades and Brentwood, west of Westwood, Los Angeles, and north of Venice. ...
Further reading - Gilderbloom, John I. Editor. Rent Control: A Source Book. Center for Policy Alternatives; 3rd edition, June 1, 1981. ISBN 0-938806-01-7.
- Keating, Dennis. Editor. "Rent Control: Regulation and the Housing Market". Center for Urban Policy Research: 1998. ISBN 0-88285-159-4
- Niebanck, by Paul L. Editor. The Rent Control Debate. Urban and Regional Policy and Development Studies. 148 pages. University of North Carolina Press. February 1, 1986. ISBN 0-8078-1670-1.
- Tucker, William. "Zoning, Rent Control and Affordable Housing". 1991. ISBN 0-932790-78-X
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