Rent Control in San Francisco

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Although rent control is a controversial topic and many economists have argued with its inefficient outcome, many cities in the United States such as New York City and San Francisco still hold this kind of law or ordinances in their systems. Why these big cities do not want to abolish rent control and is that rent control really does harms more than goods? Focus on rent control in San Francisco, and compared to New York City, this essay tried to find the changes and the revises of rent control.
Rent control is a government-imposed law to set a maximum price as “price ceiling” on housing market to protect tenants from excessive rent increases. It also can slow booming economic by limit the abnormal inflation rate. To set a rent control, the maximum price has to be set of market to become effect. But if the price ceiling is lower the equilibrium level, it stimulates the quantity demand of housing, the demand will eventually exceed the supplies, and lead to a shortage of residence space. With rent control, it might not only cause shortage of house in a city, but also leads to deterioration due to loss of invest interesting to landlords.
European nations practiced rent controls after the World War I to deal with rent increases caused by war. The first rent control in the U.S. was the Emergency Price Act of 1942 in New York City. It intended to palliate the pressures of housing market and to prevent speculative rent increasing during the wartime. After that, many cities and states adopted rent and eviction control laws. However, with the end of war and housing boom in the late 40s, the pressures in housing market relieved. Many cities’ rent controls had met the expiration or had been detached. According to Blair Jenkins’ article “R...

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