Not so fast... 1. Property taxes are controlled by the State and are the primary reason why rents are so high. I know this because I own property and it's one of the main reasons I have to charge a higher rent than I would like. Property Taxes in NYS are so high it's ridiculous, in fact it makes up about 25% - 50% of the rent...Think about that for a second...If property taxes in NYC just vanished overnight landlords could charge about 1/2 of what they charge. So a 1 bedroom that's insanely expensive at like $2,500 a month could drop to about $1,250 a month and renting a room would only cost about $600 instead of $1,200.
The government wants a piece of the pie, like the mafia, and the land owners just pass the burden to the ppl renting. Then the government, along with their snarling SJW's useful idiots, blames the "evil businessman/landowner" for taking advantage of the poor helpless middle/lower class person.
Seriously, the instant you become a landlord everything becomes 20/20. Before you assume I am a greedy capitalist asshole, I was lucky that I had a tax abatement and was able to only charge $400 a month to my friend (probably the best deal in the entire city for the space I was renting), I charged this ridiculously low rent because I knew what it was like to not own property and felt "privileged". My "friend" who I gave this deal to destroyed my brand new floors and wrecked my bathroom and got paint everywhere even though I went out of my way to buy her those under-furniture-pads that she apparently never used, she also cracked my stone kitchen countertop, so I'm now going to have to spend thousands fixing the damage done.
These are the main reasons people charge high rents: A) The government is charging US high rents B) We need to clean up after the damages of tenants and C) We need to pay insurance. D) We would like to at least make at least a tiny profit after saving up for years and spending so much money on an investment. E) Tenants simply do not care if you give them a better deal, they treat your place like shit and destroy everything and act entitled.
Also, raising the minimum wage will just be the same story. I'm not sure if liberals/progressives have thought this out...If I own a hardware store and I now am forced to pay my workers $8 more per hour, I'm going to have to: A) increase the prices of everything in my store or B) Lay off some people and/or make people working for me double their efforts and work thus driving up competition for employment C) go out of business if I can't afford that change.
So now these people who are making a lot of money in California will be spending a fortune to buy laundry detergent and milk and basic needs in California and competing much more ferociously to get jobs if they even exist that they will be miserable at because the managers are going to be trying to get blood from a stone.
Everything would probably be much better off if the government stopped taking everyones money to fund pointless wars around the world and all these idiotic social programs.