Is California's Watered-Down Rent Control Bill Still Problematic?
A compromise version of the bill would cap rent increases at 7 percent plus inflation for three years.
A compromise version of the bill would cap rent increases at 7 percent plus inflation for three years.
SB 50's upzoning provisions were repeatedly watered down to make the bill more politically palatable. It turns out that wasn't enough.
"When you start having mandates and [the] state setting price controls, you create all kinds of distortions in the market."
A flaw in a proposal that would let developers build more high-density apartments and condos is that it doesn't go nearly far enough
SB 50 is starting to look less like a bold reform, and more like a marginal improvement on a dreadful status quo.
Fresh from their 2018 defeat, California's rent control advocates are back with another statewide ballot initiative.
A new mailer from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation argues that allowing the construction of apartment buildings near transit stops is tantamount to "negro removal."
At least now we're arguing over the right thing: the need to hike housing supply.
This is not the first time the city has tried to delay a project over shadow concerns.
Tokyo is a shining example of how free market housing regulations can keep even big, growing cities affordable.
The senator's own San Francisco is a case study in the policy's poor consequences.
The bill comes with new risks for tenants and property owners alike.
All three Senate Democrats running for president have distinctive housing reform proposals.
How much power does the state of California have to force NIMBY localities to build more housing?
How a heavily subsidized Culver City development became the nation's most expensive affordable housing project.
NYC's mayor takes on private property (again).
The HUD secretary's desire to tackle restrictive zoning is encouraging, but real reform will have to come from the bottom up.
Bob Tillman has spent nearly 5 years and $1.4 million trying to convert his laundromat into new housing.
Reforms in multiple jurisdictions could help loosen restrictions on development that infringe on property rights, inflate housing prices, and cut off large numbers of people from job opportunities.
Zoning rules that severely restrict home construction cut off millions of poor people from jobs and affordable housing. The Minneapolis reform is the most extensive reduction in zoning achieved by any major American city in a long time.
Restrictions on the supply of new housing are making California's cities increasingly unaffordable.
Community members in the Mission District worry that the proposed market-rate development will spur gentrification.
Leaving The Bay Area is a real estate brokerage that helps people decamp for cheaper, greener pastures.
Despite the claims of NIMBY activists, cities can build their way out of a housing crunch
A positive but marginal reform to the Golden State's byzantine housing regulations
The American Housing and Economic Mobility Act would nearly double current federal housing spending.
The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program is on the receiving end of yet another negative government watchdog report.
Khsama Sawant is doing everything in her power to kill a 442-unit apartment project because it would replace an iconic concert hall.
Saddled with unaffordable requirements, Axis kills plans for a 117-unit apartment building.
Hysterical NIMBYism reaches new heights in Berkeley.
Austin was part of a group murdered in Tajikistan.
Expensive tax credits for renters are not the solution to America's housing woes.
In his sweeping reform proposal, President Trump suggests a privatization scheme for the GSEs behind the 2008 recession, but it doesn't go nearly far enough.
The owner of a "historic" laundromat has been thwarted at every turn in his bid to build apartments in a city in the midst of a housing crisis.
The 2018 "Out of Reach" report ignores the many options available to workers about how they live, work, and spend
Real estate investors worry a new construction tax will halt construction in an already-heavily taxed city.
The city attempts to wring more money from its employers rather than fix its housing problems.
A California bill that would have greatly liberalized zoning rules failed in the state legislature. The defeat has implications for the broader struggle to expand housing and job opportunities for the poor.
There are no angels in this long-running turf war.
Steel tariffs are likely to make prices rise further, particularly in markets where housing demand is already outpacing supply.
Now the city wants the laundromat studied to see if it is a historic resource.
Neighborhood residents demand a proposed affordable housing complex be five stories, not seven, to preserve "neighborhood character."
The city's new Linkage Fee law piles millions in new costs onto developers.
The city's housing authority committed to selling $138 million of government land for $17 million.
Suggestions from a New York real estate attorney
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