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Housing Costs blog
Zoning may be the biggest price control you never got to vote onLocal land-use rules cap how much housing gets built, and a cap on supply is a price control by another name. Here is the case, the objection and the fix.Edward Brooke won Massachusetts as a Republican and changed public housingBrooke was the first Black senator elected by popular vote, and he used the seat to change the law on fair housing and public-housing rents.Jack Kemp argued that growth could win the war on povertyKemp took supply-side economics into neighborhoods Republicans had written off, and his agenda still deserves a hearing.A mortgage worksheet that shows what two points of interest really costWork the payment formula by hand on a $300,000 loan and see why a two-point rate gap costs $366.40 a month, and what really sets mortgage rates.From Diocletian to Nixon, Every Price Control Ends the Same WayFrom a Roman emperor in 301 to a Republican president in 1971 to the oil lines of the 1970s, price controls keep producing shortages, and here is why.Proposition 13 and the Tax Revolt That Rattled Every StatehouseIn June 1978 California voters capped property taxes and every statehouse took notice. The story, what the measure did, who copied it, and the criticisms.Running for city council, what the job covers and how to win a wardZoning, policing, property taxes, water bills and permits are decided at city hall. Walk through the job, the forms of government and a ward voter-contact plan.Work Out Your Own Property Tax Bill With Mill Rates and ExemptionsYour property tax bill is assessed value times a rate, minus exemptions. Here is the calculation, a worked example with exact arithmetic, and how to appeal.