Re:Rent Affordability Gap in San Francisco
by rayiner on Sunday September 29, 2013 @01:37PM
(#6465859)
Rent controls decrease supply. They help the few (mostly old) people who get in early on them, but raise prices for everyone else. Highly paid municipal workers require high taxes to support their salaries and pensions. Housing prices and taxes are key reasons people cite for moving out of the cities into the suburbs.
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Re:Rent Affordability Gap in San Francisco
by dionidium on Sunday September 29, 2013 @01:52PM
(#6465921)
Housing prices and taxes are key reasons people cite for moving out of the cities into the suburbs.
Regarding housing prices: this may be true in first-rate cities like San Francisco or New York, but here in St. Louis (and in dozens of similar cities in the U.S.) housing is usually cheaper in the city's core. People left for the suburbs to get more space, because they had automobiles, because the housing stock in the suburbs is much newer, because blacks were moving in, and because of crime levels (some real, some perceived).
Re:Rent Affordability Gap in San Francisco
by rayiner on Sunday September 29, 2013 @02:12PM
(#6465987)
Desegregation and crime were major reasons, sure, but housing prices and taxes didn't help the situation. And today, even though there is a big trend of young people moving back into cities, questions remain about whether they'll stay while taxes ratchet up to support underfunded pensions, etc.
Also, rent controls depress the quality of housing stock.