There is No Shortage of Rental Housing and Rents Are Not Rising Rapidly

The NYT told readers that a shortage of rental housing is driving up rents. This is wrong and wrong.

The NYT story is that the flood of foreclosures has forced people out of their homes and led them to look for rental housing. While this is true to some extent (homeownership rates have fallen), former homeowners would have discovered that there was a glut of rental housing.

Furthermore, ownership units can become rentals and vice-versa. This is true even for multi-family units, but 30...