WizardMarks asks an excellent question: "does a landlord set his/her rents to match [what the government will pay] and, if they do, does that skewer the actual worth of rental space?"
Some landlords already set their rent equal to what the government will pay. My experience is that these landlords usually have poor buildings and poor maintenance records. They usually attract tenants with historical behavior problems. This problem exists today for small parts of the section 8 market. However, most for-profit landlords set their rents at what the market will bear. If a "rent stamps" program was created and suddenly thousands of new families could afford housing, that would likely have an impact on the demand and rents would likely increase. To what level will depend on the total supply and demand in the marketplace. The interesting question -- and one I should probably leave for a real economist and not this amateur one -- is what happens over the longer term? If rents rise dramatically due to the availability of government subsidies, I expect two things will happen to off set the increased demand: First, market rate tenants will move out and buy homes. Second, the market will respond (without government intervention) and provide more rental units. This amateur economists opinion? A broad rent stamps program will likely have a short term impact on the cost of rent. However, over the longer term, I suspect the impact will be negligible. So, what are the options? - Expand our already overflowing homeless shelters. - Pay builders and non-profits $158,828/unit to build "affordable housing" that exist in a different financial realm. - Make all housing affordable by subsidizing low income families. This may affect the marketplace. Regards, Bill Cullen. Hopkins & Uptown. TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.) ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
