6 Responses

1. Rent control works fine. That’s why its so easy to find an affordable apartment in New York City. Investors love to build rental housing knowing they won’t be able to make a good return on the investment, and without private sector investment, we know we can rely on NGO’s to come up with the money. Or maybe the government can provide rental housing — the US has been a resouding success at building low cost public housing.

   But then again, Adam Smith never quite made it to Eretz Yisrael.

   P.S. Especially for those who don’t know who Adam Smith is, I want to point out that this is an example of sarcasm.

2. akuperma,

   The author of the Torah, more brilliant than Adam Smith, realized that free markets don’t always work, and strict limits on them. Judaism does not see the value of everything in terms of economics.

   And in fact investors have been building huge amounts of housing, including rental housing, in New York City. The population of NYC has increased in the past 30 years by approximately the same number of people as Dallas, Texas, itself a huge city! The problem is that it is physically impossible to build fast enough to keep up with the demand.

   Without rent control, entire communities will be destroyed, including some of the important Jewish communities, as only the most wealthy will be able to afford to live here. And in fact today there are plenty of neighborhoods with reasonably priced rental apartments, just not in the trendy areas of Manhattan and Brooklyn.

3. Actually New York City’s population has risen less than 10% in the last 50 years (while the country’s population has doubled). New York “peaked” in the period immediately after World War II, and has been going down hill ever since (the state even more so, once New York was the “Empire State”, and now its struggling to stay the third largest state in population).

   The primary impact of rent control was to give people who were living in the city 50 years ago a very good deal and to make it harder for the rest, and to encourage the private sector to build elsewhere. Think Kiriyas Yoel. The result is growth in suburbs for those not affluent enough to afford the city (and longer commutes as well). The population isn’t growing in the city, and the reason housing isn’t coming down in cost relates to government intervention in the marketplace.

4. “The population isn’t growing in the city”

   Wrong.

   New York City population, 1980 census: 7,071,639
   New York City population, 2010 census: 8,175,133
   New York City population, 2012 Census Bureau estimate: 8,336,697

   That is 18% growth, all fitting into the same 307 square miles. During that time, the population of Westchester County increased by 11%, and of Nassau County 2%. New York State’s population has not been increasing rapidly but that is because low tax low regulation rust belt areas upstate have been losing population. For example, Erie County (Buffalo) has lost 9% of its population during that time, and Niagara County (Niagara Falls) 5%.

   (Can’t you spend five minutes on the internet to avoid yourself this embarrassment?)

5. charliehall,

   S/he doesn’t deal in reality. Facts are the same as fantasy in his/her world.

6. The author of the Torah? Come on Charlie, don’t make us guess who you mean. Anyhow, where in G-d’s Torah are rental prices of land assets restricted?