Kingston, New York, orders landlords to reduce rent by 15%

Wordpress ^ | November 17, 2022 | Dan from Squirrel Hill

[grundle]

The city of Kingston, New York, is ordering landlords to reduce their rent by 15%.

Pretty much every economist, even the ones on the left, agree that, in the long run, rent control reduces both the quantity and the quality of rental housing.

Rent control is great for people who already have a rent controlled apartment.

But it’s horrible for people who are looking for an apartment.

The Swedish economist Assar Lindbeck, a housing expert, said that “rent control appears to be the most efficient technique presently known to destroy a city – except for bombing.”

That being said, as a person who does not live in Kingston, I think this is a great experiment to see what the results will be. Will the results here be the same as in other cities that had rent control? Or will they be different? Contrary to popular belief, it was not actually Einstein who first said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.”

Sources:

https://reason.com/2022/11/16/landlords-sue-over-city-mandated-15-percent-rent-cut/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent_regulation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent_control_in_the_United_States

https://www.businessinsider.com/misattributed-quotes-2013-10

[tired&retired]

January, 2012
Case summary(ies)
The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution includes a deceptively simple requirement: “[N]or shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” Although the same language does not appear in the North Carolina constitution, the state’s highest court has held that Article I, Section 19, of the state constitution, providing that no person shall be “deprived of his life, liberty, or property but by the law of the land,” has the same functional impact as the federal taking clause.

Summary:
Regulatory Takings
David W. Owens
Gladys Hall Coates Professor of Public Law and Government
School of Government, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Very in depth paper summarizing many court cases, including Supreme Court, on seizure of property by zoning regulations.

https://www.sog.unc.edu/resources/legal-summaries/regulatory-takings

[Reno89519]

Hey, can someone get my landlord to drop rent 15% here in Reno? And, if 15%, why not 25% or even 50%?

[Chode]

do their mortgages go down by 15% too???

[grundle]

I remember that on Seinfeld too.

[1_Rain_Drop]

How is a landlord to run the building? will they also get a 15% reduction from fuel and electric companies? reduction of fees and taxes?

[1_Rain_Drop]

"My understanding is that rent control is actually a fiction."

Not true. Rent controlled apartments have different rules are inherited from parents to children. Tenants cannot be evicted. Rent increases are so minimal ($5.00) that now there are still tenants paying $300/month for HUGE apartments in NYC.

Some apartments have been in the same family since 1940. No landlord can survive with a rent controlled apartment. Other apartments compensate, hence the high rent prices.

Living in a rent controlled apartment is like owning a house and not having to pay for any repairs, paying property taxes or fears that you will ever be homeless.

Government should stay out of the rental business since they have no clue how it is run.