Rent control

July 28, 2015

As rents continue to climb in Seattle, more and more people are talking about rent control as a way to stop the increases. Economics, at least in this country, are based on supply and demand. When demand, out-paces supply, the costs increase. In this case, we’re talking about housing and apartment supply. In addition, you can overlay the millenial’s desire to live in walkable neighborhoods, and everybody’s desire to minimize their commute–both are additional and real factors in adding demand (and consequently lowering supply) to desirable, in-close neighborhoods.

John Okamoto has a good feel for this and how it hasn’t worked in other places in the link below.

Rent control hasn’t worked in other cities