Article from Reason by Christian Britschgi.

On Wednesday, California lawmakers approved AB 1482, which caps rent increases at 5 percent per year plus inflation, and prevents landlords from evicting tenants without citing a government-approved reason.

Wednesday’s vote makes California the latest state to pass a rent control bill. Oregon passed a statewide cap on rents in February. In June, the New York legislature passed a bill strengthening existing rent controls in New York City while giving other cities in the state the ability to pass their own rent regulations.

Economists and other policy experts have long criticized rent control for reducing the supply and quality of rental housing in the long-run. California’s rent control bill is no exception says Michael Hendrix, state and local policy director at the Manhattan Institute.

“What we are going to get is a reason for landlords to convert apartments to condos,” says Hendrix. “The net result of that is potentially more units being taken off the market, and long-term this housing crisis getting worse, not better.”

Read the entire article at Reason.

Image Credit: By Henri Sivonen from Helsinki, Finland (flickr: California State Capitol) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons