Source: American Institute for Economic Research
by Jason Sorens
“To a man with an antitrust hammer, everything looks like a monopoly nail. In a recent Substack, antimonopoly campaigner Matt Stoller blames the rise in rents and anemic housing supply growth since 2007 on growing concentration in the home-building industry, rather than local land-use regulations, an explanation he attributes to ‘noisy’ YIMBYs. Is he right? Let’s start with what he is right about. A number of markets have seen growing concentration in the home-building industry since 2007. But this trend is a result of conscious government policy in the wake of the financial crisis to regulate mortgage lending more tightly, as Kevin Erdmann at the Mercatus Center has ably documented. These policies drove many builders out of business.” (08/28/24)
https://www.aier.org/article/does-a-builders-cartel-explain-rising-rents/