By: Diane Benjamin

See an event tomorrow at the bottom.

Rent/stabilized controls in New York City has led to 61,000 vacant apartment (2021). The number doubled in one year because landlords aren’t allowed to raise the rent for new tenants. https://www.thecity.nyc/2022/10/19/60000-rent-stabilized-apartments-vacant-warehousing-nyc-landlords-housing/

That story has lots of reason for why apartments are vacant. This excerpt describes one:

Landlords say that the current price restrictions on stabilized housing robs them of the capital needed to make necessary repairs in older housing stock. They also have their eye on a federal lawsuit filed by two major industry groups, Community Housing Improvement Program (CHIP) and the Rent Stabilization Association (RSA), challenging the entire rent-regulation system as unconstitutional. 

Now jump to Argentina: https://www.cato.org/commentary/javier-milei-ended-rent-control-now-argentine-real-estate-market-coming-back-life

In 2020, as the pandemic raged and economic uncertainty loomed, Argentina’s Peronist government introduced sweeping controls over both rental prices and lengths of tenancies. The idea was to provide renters security against unexpected, sharp rent hikes.

The new president Javier Milei repealed that law in December 2023. More excerpts:

Across Buenos Aires and beyond, Milei’s deregulation has vastly improved the rental landscape for tenants too. Just 18 months ago, Bruno Panighel, a 29-year-old financial consultant from Córdoba, was struggling to find an apartment with his girlfriend. “I set alerts on all of the major rental websites of Argentina. You could barely find a hundred one- or two-bedroom apartments in all of Buenos Aires,” he recalls. Worse still, the few options available were painfully expensive. “Prices were so high that in many cases it was cheaper to live at a hotel. I made the calculations myself,” Panighel says.

With the 2020 rent control law now scrapped, apartments have poured back into Buenos Aires’ rental market, offering a plethora of new options. On Zonaprop, one of Argentina’s largest real estate platforms, traditional rental listings have skyrocketed—from 5,500 before the reform to 15,300 today, a staggering 180 percent rise. A third of that increase occurred within just one month of Milei’s deregulation.

Real (i.e. inflation-adjusted) rents have fallen, short-term workarounds are declining, and tenants are finding properties suited to their needs. Panighel and his partner now live in a two-bedroom apartment with a long balcony under a yearlong lease. Slowly but surely, the city is coming back to life for those seeking a place to call home.

Capitalism works. Both Bloomington and Normal interfere with it frequently. Developers are sitting back waiting for subsidies now because they can.

Argentina was close to having hyperinflation before Milei won. See what else he did that has now created a budget surplus and low inflation: https://americansforprosperity.org/blog/how-milei-cut-argentinas-inflation/

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All of this brings me to the ever brilliant Krystle Able who demands rent control:

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She of course never considers “immigrants” just might be contributing to the housing shortage.

Mental health services now consists of “affirming” what delusions exist – especially in people too young to make decisions for themselves.

Even though there is bus service to the west side Walmart, she thinks a food desert exists. Maybe she wants government owned grocery stores like Zohran Mamdani advocates – she’s thrilled a true socialist is running for NY City mayor. See her Facebook page.

“Residents” aren’t entitled to Medicaid or ACA subsidized coverage. Citizens are Krystle.

I wonder if she’s going to attend instead of working her full time job as Normal Township Supervisor. How many people can’t attend because they have jobs?

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I wonder when these socialist will be begging for government money? https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2025-07-08/bloomington-normal-community-land-trust-is-staying-busy-as-it-prepares-for-its-first-home