"New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has an ambitious agenda for his city. In addition to promising big changes to its transportation system, Mamdani vowed to make housing more affordable. The focus on housing affordability is understandable, given that the average rent of a one-bedroom apartment in the Big Apple is more than $4,000 a month. For many in the city, housing costs consume nearly a half of their income, leaving little room for savings or any security."
"Recognizing the problem, Mamdani proposed freezing rents for nearly a million apartments. His plan calls for a four-year halt to rent increases. He suggested building 200,000 units of subsidized affordable housing - financed through about $70 billion dollars of debt. There's just one big problem: This policy is an economic nightmare. It won't fix New York's housing problem, and it will do more harm than good."
New York City's mayor-elect proposed freezing rents for nearly a million apartments for four years and building 200,000 subsidized affordable units financed with about $70 billion of debt. The plan frames the freeze as a means to make housing more affordable amid average one-bedroom rents over $4,000 and many households spending half their income on housing. A rent freeze functions as rent control—a price ceiling that forces landlords to charge below-market rates. Price ceilings interrupt market price signals that coordinate consumer demand and producer supply. Suppressing those signals reduces incentives for housing provision and maintenance, creating shortages and longer-term harm to affordability.
Read at The Hill
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