Rent Control's Resurgence in New York
City Journal Audio
Manhattan Institute
4.7 • 657 Ratings
🗓️ 19 June 2019
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Nicole Gelinas and Howard Husock join Seth Barron to discuss New York's landmark rent-regulation law and its potential impact on housing in the city and state.
Lawmakers in New York recently passed the toughest rent-regulation law in a generation, imposing new restrictions on landlords' ability to increase rents, improve buildings, or evict tenants. The bill made permanent the state's existing rent regulations, meaning that future legislatures will find it harder to revisit the issue.
Housing experts like Husock argue that the new laws will discourage landlords from investing in building improvements, causing the housing stock to degrade statewide. And economists across the political spectrum, from Milton Friedman to Paul Krugman, have also maintained that rent regulation can be counterproductive and detrimental to housing quality.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to the Ten Blocks podcast. This is Brian Anderson, the editor of City Journal. |
| 0:05.6 | Last week, New York's progressive-dominated state legislature and Governor Andrew Cuomo renewed and |
| 0:11.2 | extended the state's rent regulation laws governing New York City. Rent control has been a long-standing |
| 0:17.3 | feature of New York's housing market. The state-first imposed emergency rent laws after |
| 0:22.3 | World War I. Today, the city, under state law, regulates the rents of more than one million |
| 0:28.1 | apartments, housing two million people. But if economists, from Milton Friedman to Paul Krugman, |
| 0:33.9 | agree on one thing, it's that rent control can stifle a city's housing market, and New York |
| 0:39.6 | needs more housing if it's going to continue to grow. Coming up on the show today, we have three |
| 0:45.2 | City Journal contributors, Seth Barron, Nicole, Julinas, and Howard Hussock to talk about the new |
| 0:51.1 | law and what it means for the city. But before we get started, if you like following politics and policy |
| 0:57.0 | in the city and state of New York, |
| 0:59.0 | make sure you subscribe to our newsletter, The Beat. |
| 1:02.0 | You'll get news and insight on housing, education, |
| 1:05.0 | homelessness, infrastructure, and lots more, |
| 1:08.0 | delivered right to your inbox three times a week. You can find it at |
| 1:11.7 | www.thebeatMI.com. That's it for me. The conversation between Seth, Nicole, and Howard begins |
| 1:19.9 | after this. Welcome back to Ten Blocks, the podcast of City Journal. |
| 1:38.8 | This is your host for today, Seth Barron, Associate Editor of City Journal. |
| 1:43.5 | New York State has passed some historic, |
| 1:45.7 | far-reaching legislation regarding rents and real estate. Joining me now to discuss the issue |
| 1:52.3 | are Nicole Jolinas and Howard Hussock, both senior fellows at the Manhattan Institute and |
| 1:57.7 | contributing editors for City Journal. So this new law is supposed to protect tenants from |
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