$2,000 rent-deregulation limit up in the air (The Wall Street Journal)
Rent regulations good for New Yorkers? (Save the Lower East Side!)
Loved ones create a Facebook page in memory of Grace Farrell (Facebook)
Jury selection for 9th Precinct rape trial starts today (The Daily News)
A benefit For hate-crime victim Barie Shortell this Wednesday (New York Shitty)
Revisiting the Show Follies Center in Times Square (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)
When Carnegie Hall was almost torn down (Ephemeral New York)
LES still a Poop De Ville weekend nights (BoweryBoogie)
East Village scenes from St. Patrick's Day (Nadie Se Conoce)
St. Patrick's Day
Reviewing the Fourth Avenue Salvation Army (Thrift Store Confidential)
HBO debuts "Triangle: Remember the Fire" tonight (HBO)
Does anyone know what would actually happen if rent regulations were removed and all apartments became market rate? Would rent prices continue to rise or would they balance out?
ReplyDeletethe answer is yes, rents will increase. The market will bear it. Meanwhile, natural born Americans will get kicked out for foreigners, children of the international rich who can afford the new market pricing.
ReplyDeleteRent control does more harm than good.
ReplyDeleteMany economists agree it leads to the creation of less housing, raises prices, and increases urban blight. By existing, it cuts the supply which raises demand and therefore prices. Its like the govt subsidizing corn, it artificially keeps the price low for a certain demographic while destroying the market for everyone else.
Econ 101.
Nice try, NY grump.
@anon 3:51. Maybe that was the first day of Econ 101, but I feel bad if you didn't also learn that those corn subsidies also provide cheap food for a lot of people who couldn't otherwise afford it. Similarly, rent control/stabilization is one of the reasons many of the artists, actors, painters, etc. that make this neighborhood great can live here. This is a social subsidy that by and large contributes to keeping this place interesting.
ReplyDeleteThere will always be abuse of subsidies, but I'm willing to take some good with the bad. If I wanted to be surrounded by people that only paid market rate I'd buy a house in nice boring subdivision.
Economists are educated guessers. You can quote their speculations all you like but it is just theory so get off your high horse and bake me a meatloaf. I can give you a recipe for meatloaf that is not theoretical. No one in their right mind will assert NYC Landlords will lower prices if rent control is abolished. Last year the media was gleeful that some rents came down, but on closer look the rents that came down were the high end units, certainly nothing in the affordable range. There is always someone who posts the exact same statement as you did to anti rent stabilization articles. rent is not a commodity, comparing corn to living space is disingenuous.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading somewhere that when Boston deregulated, the market rate rents went down by 10% but of course those below market rate increased by leaps and bounds, cancelling out any overall decrease for society at large. So your $3000 apartment will become $2700 - does that really make a big difference? I don't think so.
ReplyDeleteIn the end, the only winners are the landowners, as usual, and I guess a lot of people think that is as it should be, as the right-wing diatribe has come to a fever pitch in the course of those lifetimes who are younger than 30 - they've never heard anything else - voting against their own interests because one day they think they too will be landlords and want the laws set up for their ultimate profit. Watching the rich get richer is the Republican wet dream, and those middle class suckers who have bought into that dream think they can and will have it too, when in fact they will likely never have the chance to benefit from it.
We can see it in little bits here - I have witnessed that those tenants, my neighbors, without regulation are moving every year, not investing in the community and have no long term commitment to building a life here.
At market rate here in the EV, everybody has to have roommates to afford the rents - thus making staying here ridiculous for adults who want to live like adults rather than in a dorm. I can't blame them for moving, there is no place to live for young adults who want to be independent and not share a 400 square foot hovel, even if it has shiny new appliances (and blocked off windows to make room for them.)
I have not witnessed any increase in services or habitability for those tenants paying market rate - ie even in their recently "renovated" apartments, they still have the same problems with plumbing, the boiler, super responsiveness and security. The difference is they can just move when they get no satisfaction, while those regulated have no recourse. Plus the LL encourages people to move because they are also the broker and charge that month "finders fee" every time they re-rent it.
Because we've lived so long with this split system, those who are out of it just can't see the benefits and "feel" they are carrying those under regulation. But in fact, less than 20% of the units in my building are rent stabilized, and even amongst those at least 10% of those are paying around $1500, which is not chump change, but still half of market rate.
I have seen the financials (you can get a good glimpse at PropertyShark) and do some calculations and you can see how profitable these rental buildings are, even at rents that are 50% lower than they are charging.
I know nothing about economics, but would someone please wake me up when that meatloaf is done? I'm starving over here!
ReplyDeletePlease Call Governor Cuomo at 212-681-4580
ReplyDeleteTell him:
"I'm encouraged by your statements that rent regulations should be renewed and strengthened as part of the budget. We can't afford to keep losing apartments to vacancy destabilization. Please be a leader for tenants and use the budget process to pass a law that strengthens our rent protections!"
sweet photograph and a great neighborhood place!
ReplyDelete