> 3) Outlaw rent control. Now you have more abundant housing.
The biggest problem preventing more housing being built now isn't rent control, it's zoning usage and density laws. Most of the time low-density zoning is enforced for the benefit of existing house owners to artificially inflate the value of their properties. This (and Proposition 13, a law that's supposed to provide relief for property tax rate increases but ended up being a huge disincentive to sell real estate: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_13_%2819...) are the major factors keeping housing supply from increasing to meet market demand in California. Rent control is wrong, but it's not the biggest problem.
If there was no rent control, and all renters were feeling the pressure of the price increase, there would be significantly more political support for allowing more and denser construction.
Or higher rent prices would drive property values up, causing existing owners of real estate capital to deploy their capital to lobby for protectionist zoning. Which is what is mostly seems to be happening.
The biggest problem preventing more housing being built now isn't rent control, it's zoning usage and density laws. Most of the time low-density zoning is enforced for the benefit of existing house owners to artificially inflate the value of their properties. This (and Proposition 13, a law that's supposed to provide relief for property tax rate increases but ended up being a huge disincentive to sell real estate: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_13_%2819...) are the major factors keeping housing supply from increasing to meet market demand in California. Rent control is wrong, but it's not the biggest problem.