According to Rent Jungle, the Richmond residential rental market is cooling off, not spiking as rent control advocated would have us believe. The average apartment rent over the prior 6 months in Richmond has increased by $9 (0.4%), less than 1% annualized, and two bedroom apartments have increased by $26 (1.2%), both far less than the 3.1 percent increase in the Consumer Price Index over the past year. One bedroom units in Richmond have actually decreased by $21 (-1.1%)!

Sales prices for home have also leveled off, according to Zillow, which rates the Richmond market as “cold.”

All this just over a month before Measure L, Rent Control hits the ballot in Richmond. It appears that the case for rent control is a little like preparing to fight the last war. The justification for it has gone away, but proponents are still determined to set up a multimillion dollar bureaucracy consisting of dozens of new public employees answerable to no one to limit increases that are no longer happening.