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NMHC Rebuts 32 Economists’ Letter on Rent Control Effectiveness
The National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) on Monday rebutted a recent letter from 32 economists to the Federal Housing Finance Agency, purporting to show empirical evidence that rent control is a net positive. The council pointed out that the academics cited by the economists actually concluded that rent control has had negative effects.
“These economists come from a variety of disciplines, including political economists and labor economists, but the majority appear to have limited to no experience as housing economists,” according to NMHC. “We wholeheartedly agree with the letter signatories that millions of households in this country face a housing affordability crisis, but cannot let disinformation feed false narratives about decades of fact-based evidence of the negative policy consequences of rent regulations.”
For example, in a 2019 study published in the American Economic Review and cited by the 32 economists, Rebecca Diamond, Tim McQuade and Franklin Qian concluded, “While rent control prevents displacement of incumbent renters in the short run, the lost rental housing supply likely drove up market rents in the long run, ultimately undermining the goals of the law.” Diamond, McQuade and Qian instead proposed government subsidies or tax credits to help provide insurance against rent increases.
- ◦Lease
- ◦Policy/Gov't
