I don't know what the rents are in that neighborhood, now so I am not going to enter into discussion of specific rents.
If you are trying to say that there is rent control where apartments are $3,400 for a 750 sqft 2-bed apartment, you're not going to get very far with that.
I will simply say that IF any apartment is renting for $3,400 for a 750 sqft 2-bed apartment, then it obviously is not under any normal control law, and likely hasn't been for quite some time.
I will also say
AGAIN that when I lived in a rent controlled apartment for 21 years, and I moved out, the rent was $85/month. 10 years later, it was only $97/mo, as the increases were limited to 3% per year.
That's actually part of the problem.
You lived in a rent controlled apartment for 21 years.
That's part of why rent prices go up, is because the apartments that are rent controlled never become available.
Yes, rent control benefited you. It did. No question. But what about everyone else?
See the problem is, all those rent controlled apartments like the one you were in, people tend to stay in them for decades on decades. So those apartments are effectively no longer on the market.
Supply and Demand. Demand is going up, while the supply is effectively shrinking, because those apartments never come up for rent. You stay in them for 21 years or even longer.
That's how it is with rent control. It benefits the extreme few, at the expense of everyone else. Everyone else is stuck with $3,400 /mo rent for a 750 sqft 2-bed apartment.
Because people like you effectively reduced the supply of apartments by staying in a rent controlled apartment for 20 plus years.
And I wager your income was more than enough to rent something else, but you didn't. Even though far more cash-strapped people really needed those affordable apartments.
And by the way.... that's not a criticism of your choices either. I would have done the exact same thing. Absolutely. I would have stayed in that apartment for 30 or 40 years even.
There was a story in the NY Times about a NYC actress, who stayed in a rent controlled apartment for 50 years. And why not? Yes, she was making hundreds of thousands as an actress, but why would you go rent an apartment that costs $4,000, when you can stay in a rent-controlled one for under $100 a month?
Yes it screws over all the people that actually need cheap apartments, who are now faced with $3,000 a month for a hobbit hole, but what's that to you?
My point to you is still the same. Rent control has never worked. It has always resulted in rent prices dramatically increasing, and your example is exactly what I'm talking about. You stayed in that apartment for 20+ years, which means that apartment was effectively not available, which means supply was constrained, which is why prices in your area are way up into the $3,400 for a 750 sqft apartment.
Yes it benefits you. You made out on this deal. Great for you. But you screwed everyone else. Your policy is why people are struggling and having a miserable life. It benefited you. And if I lived there, I would have done the same thing. But it still benefited you at the harm of everyone else.
Which by the way is how all left-wing policies work. It benefits the few, and screws the rest of society.
