Saturday, September 19, 2015

Not Enough Apartments in Portland? How to get more Apartments built:

We need more apartments (obviously).  So the question is, how do you get new apartments?
1. We already are.  Look around NW, Hillsboro and you see nothing but cranes.
2. But those apartments are for rich people!    If building is encouraged, there will be overbuilding.  Too many apartments.  That WILL happen as long as developers and banks think there's money in it.  And people will fix up older apartment buildings too.  So the quality of apartments in Portland will be higher overall.
3. We can fix it now with rent control!  Why wait?(!)   See #2.  There's no surer way of stopping the building of new buildings than enacting rent control.  Who is going to build if there are more profitable investments (like office space, which is not rent controlled)?

Also, do you know what happens in cities with strict rent control?  Landlords have zero interest in improving their properties:  insulation, new appliances, new windows, even paint!  They will barely maintain them because minimum money in is how you make money with rent control.  That's also how slumlords operate.  Not a coincidence, because this is how you make slums.

Encourage Builders!  They will go bust when too many apartments are built.  Rents will go down!  The People will have cheaper, better apartments!  This happens again and again.  It's not a guess.  Boom-Bust is the nature of the biz!  The cycle is a little over 10 years.  See those cranes? Boom.  We've got a few more years on the clock.  Then it'll be all happy.

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