Biden rent control plan blasted by experts, trade groups

Steven Greenhut, a resident senior fellow at the R Street Institute and the free market think tank’s director of state affairs for the Western region, told FOX Business in response to Biden’s plan: “There are many reasons this is a terrible idea.”

Greenhut argued that, for starters, housing regulations are not a proper role for the federal government. He then pointed out that in California, where he resides, cities with rent controls such as San Francisco and Santa Monica have the state’s worst housing problems.

Greenhut said that in the short term, rent controls limit prices for select renters, but over the long term, they discourage developers from investing in new rental housing and encourage people to pull their houses off the rental market. That increases the cost of rentals by limiting the number of available units.

He concluded, “The Biden administration plan is a misguided idea that will only make matters worse.”