Kamala Harris wants to raise your rent

The Biden administration’s housing policies did nothing to lower sky-high rents, and a potential Kamala Harris administration would likely be even worse.

Shortly before bowing out of his bid for a second term, President Biden attacked what he called “corporate landlords,” blaming them for price hikes on rent.

Rent is defined as the price paid for the use of a real asset. As such rent, like all prices, comes about through the interaction of supply and demand. Blaming corporate greed is not accurate just as Biden blamed generally high prices on price gouging and corporate greed.

Despite that, Biden announced a proposal that penalized landlords who own more than 50 properties with a 5% cap on annual rent increases. The feel-good solution was roundly condemned by high-profile economists, including by some who worked for Democratic administrations.

Anytime that a ceiling is placed on any price, the result is always a shortage of the product. In this case, Biden’s proposal would lead to fewer new rental properties being constructed and there would be an increase in the demand.

President Biden even began blaming property management software of all things. This software, produced by companies like RealPage and Yardi, is used by landlords to determine fair prices for their tenants in each area. The president, angry at how high prices became, blamed the people who reported what those prices were instead of the politicians who made those costs rise.

Harris has offered no indication that she intends to govern differently than Biden.

Not only has the vice president explicitly endorsed Biden’s disastrous rent control scheme, but her tax-and-spend, regulate-and-destroy senatorial record on the issue confirms she would only make the problem worse.

While serving in Congress, Harris sponsored the Rent Relief Act, which offered a tax credit to renters spending more than 30% of their incomes on rent. This bill lacks even a basic understanding of supply and demand. Far from solving the problem, the legislation would just increase rent prices further by making more dollars chase the same number of properties.

Harris also went out of her way to endorse an Oregon rent control measure last year, which capped rental increases at 7% per year — 2% more than President Biden proposed last week.

Endorsing this proposal is something even President Biden didn’t do, but Kamala went there. She wrote on X at the time that the Oregon governor “made it easier for families to stay in their neighborhoods by enacting statewide rent control, adding, “No one should ever have to choose between paying their rent each month or feeding their children.”

Actually, Kamala, there’s a good reason that 93% of economists say that rent control “reduces the quantity and quality of housing available.”

Take, for example, Kamala’s old stomping grounds — San Francisco.

According to a paper by Northwestern University’s Eilidh Geddes and Nicole Holz, San Fran’s 1995 rent control expansion led to an 83% increase in wrongful eviction claims. The supply of rental housing in the city decreased by 15%. as landlords withdrew from the rental market in response to the policy.

Nothing has changed in the city over the last 30 years. A 2019 Stanford University study on San Francisco’s rent control found that “since many of the existing rental properties were converted to higher-end, owner-occupied condominium housing and new construction rentals which are exempt from rent restrictions, the passage of rent control ultimately led to a housing stock which caters to higher income individuals.”

That is what the American public must look forward to if Kamala becomes president — higher rent bills, fewer apartments to choose from, and a market that prioritizes penthouse suites over affordable housing.

If only we could make any economist — Democratic or Republican — live rent-free in her head, she might begin to respect the laws of supply and demand.

Unfortunately, however, some people never learn, and on this issue, Kamala is one of those people.

Agree/Disagree with the author(s)? Let them know in the comments below and be heard by 10’s of thousands of CDN readers each day!