Editor:
Rent control doesn’t just affect landlords — it affects entire communities. As property values drop due to Olympia’s rent cap, local governments will lose millions in tax revenue, cutting into school funding, infrastructure, and public safety budgets. Meanwhile, fewer rental homes will be built, worsening Washington’s housing shortage. This bill may sound good, but it will ultimately cost taxpayers more in lost economic growth and government revenue. If lawmakers want real solutions, they should focus on fixing Washington’s outdated zoning laws and cutting unnecessary permitting delays.
Sincerely,
Alisa Kelley
Edmonds
100% agree with this. This is a bill that has been proposed by lawmakers that have no clue about what it takes and the economics behind providing housing. This is at best a short-term fix but has long-term ramifications that will be hard to come back from if it passes. They need to look no further than Austin, TX, where quantity and variety created market competition which in turn, by virtue of basic economics, reduced rental rates.
To expand on the “basic economics” mentioned above (and FYI this is my educational background), pretty much any single economics 101 course uses rent control to highlight the affect of rent caps (or any government enacted price control, for that matter) on reducing supply far below the ideal equilibrium. Does it lower rents for some in the short term, and importantly those ALREADY in housing? Yes. That said, it essentially stops the creation of new supply as it no longer makes any sense in a free market economy. The ONLY way to reduce costs in our economic system is to increase supply if the demand is there. The former points on rent control are apolitical; it is what it is. The latter is political; how do you do that in a way that is fair and equitable and doesn’t destroy the environment or communities. But… rent control does nothing but hurt everyone. This is in fact and objectively a terrible idea and one that I fear will only be shown to be such after things get considerably worse.
Back in 2019 Oregon passed a first in the U.S. statewide rent control law. Among other strict mandates, it capped annual rent increases and inserted The State into the Landlord/Lessee arrangement. This was done at the leadership of Tina otek, then House Majority leader, current governor. Imagine the consternation 6 years later when affordable housing ‘experts’ decried the lack of new housing starts and availability. The single party democrats who have run Oregon for decades were warned the smaller landlords would exit the marketplace. They did, selling either to 1st time buyers or large corporations. They were warned that investors would avoid spending mney in Oregon on new housing inventory and building permit applications plummeted.
It was predicted and it was preventable. Will WA majority democrats learn from this cautionary tale? Probably not.
Well Said Alisa, Jeremy, Tom, and Kurt! If only those in Olympia saw it that way…..It’s just Basic Economics.
Why do they always have to make the most simple concept so complicated??
All true..
Short term gain for renters but long term loss as investors decide not to build new rental units. Les availability will result in higher rents in the long term.
They should stay out of business decisions but, they won’t. They think themselves smarter than than investors and developers. That is why the state has a huge budget hole to try an fill because they were so smart with profligate spending of taxpayer dollars.
100% correct! When will they learn? Their mistakes are always at our expense!
This is the Democrat way. They create the problems, and then they have to fix the problems. They never think things through to the nth degree to figure out all possible outcomes, good or bad, before they implement their ideas. Then we all have to pay for their mistakes.