Palm Beach Libertarians Offer Solutions to Soaring Rent and Housing Costs

May 18, 2022

The Libertarian Party of Palm Beach County (LP Palm Beach) has proposed practical solutions to address the soaring costs in Palm Beach County’s housing market, affecting both renters and residential buyers. LP Palm Beach Chair, Karl Dickey, stated this morning, “Recently, the county government was exploring the idea of instituting rent controls, and thankfully, they dismissed the idea as it would have only benefited high-income renters. We agree with county Mayor Weinroth that we need more inventory, and we have better solutions.”

The county government would not have been able to institute rent controls even if they had wanted to, as it would have been unlawful and unconstitutional. Numerous studies, including one from Stanford University, indicate that rent controls would have only caused scarcer housing and higher prices—the direct opposite of its intent.

While Palm Beach County is not immune from the law of supply and demand, the county government and its inclusive cities could help increase affordable housing by eliminating restrictive zoning, which further reduces housing supply and raises housing costs. Government’s restrictive regulations reduce housing supply, which is mostly responsible for the shortage of housing available to meet demand.

Researchers at Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania have found that housing price differences between cities are not due to variations in land prices or construction costs but to regulatory differences, primarily zoning and building restrictions. Similar research from the Lincoln Land Institute found that “house prices in cities with stricter regulatory policies rose 30 percent to 60 percent relative to less-restrictively regulated cities over a 15-year period.” According to the National Association of Home Builders, every “$1,000 increase in home price leads to about 232,447 households priced out of the market for a median-priced new home.” Adrian Moore, in an article about Sarasota, Florida, pointed out that government subsidies further cause housing prices to rise. Moore writes, “What really drives housing affordability is supply and demand. We have no shortage of demand in Sarasota. Supply is the problem. Like so many places, Sarasota has throngs of people who have moved here, purchased their home, and now want to put a stop to any more growth. They got theirs, and now they want to shut the gate on everyone else. This stance is unfair and morally bankrupt. Moreover, it simply violates the property rights enshrined in our Constitution, which are crucial to our way of life.”

Another important solution to help reduce costs for renters and homeowners is to reduce government spending, reduce millage rates, reduce property taxes on investor property, and lower rent for tenants. As we enter budgeting season for local governments, local politicians must resist the temptation to further intrude on the real estate market and instead loosen regulations while reducing their spending to lower property taxes via the millage rate. Local governments are already poised to receive some of the largest taxable incomes they have ever seen due to the large number of parcels selling for record prices. Reducing the millage rate is practical and helpful.
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Dickey added, “We should not be running to the government seeking solutions every time a crisis rears its ugly head. It is often the government that creates the problem in the first place, and even more often, government’s ‘solution’ will make the crisis worse and more prolonged. Loosen restrictions on the real estate market, reduce government spending, and let the market work itself out. We have other helpful measures and look forward to the county government, as well as its 39 cities, towns, and villages, adopting more practical solutions.”