“Rent control”, median income and median rent

“Rent control”, median income and median rent

A central argument for rent control is apparently based on misinformation that rents are rising faster than wages:

Many recent stories have decried the rise of rents outpacing the rise in income. But census data suggest the nationwide median gross rent has increased 16 percent nationally between 2011 and 2017; yet at the same time, the median household income for renters is up 26 percent.

Source: Study posits SF among most affordable US cities for renters (this is not a typo) – SFGate

If rent control works, then why don’t we have “health insurance price controls” and “health care care price controls” and “university tuition price controls”? All of those have risen far faster than inflation and wage growth. In the past 5 years, ACA insurance prices for my family rose by about 200% – that is three times higher than 5 years ago.

(200% is a 3x multiplier. Consider $1 increases by 100% and becomes $2 and by 200% becomes $3. 3 divided by 1 is 3.)

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