Answer to Question #152454 in Sociology for Sahil

Question

Answer all three questions:
1.Why do you think rent prices have been increasing so much in NYC/Jersey City/Newark? (ie why is there rising demand for land with limited supply?)
2.According to Polanyi, why would a free market in local real estate and apartment rentals result in social disaster (slide 11)? Give specific examples.
3.Why are rent control laws necessary for NYC/Jersey City/Newark?

Answer 1

1.The current trends show that the New York housing market continues to be hyperactive in cold weather with sales higher than normal levels. The New York real estate market continued to be sizzling hot in October 2020 with both sales and prices increasing by double digits as compared to last year. Also, New York City which has been the epicenter of the pandemic. The fallout from the pandemic has led to people moving to suburbs, bidding up home prices in those places. On the other hand, those sticking around in the city have often been able to find a better home for less. Manhattan home prices have dipped, while Brooklyn is defying gloomy economic conditions with a competitive scene that continues to push real estate prices higher.

2.According to the economy is immersed in social relations, i.e., it cannot be a separate, autonomous sphere vis-a-vis society as a whole. One must point out, however, that the author did not intend to create a new concept, nor did he seem in the least concerned with giving it an explicit definition. Perhaps that is the reason why the concept of embeddedness has been the object of a number of contradictory interpretations. Still, the best way to understand the true meaning and the implications of the concept is to try and grasp it in close interconnection with Polanyi’s entire theoretical and conceptual edifice, which is to say, by capturing its role, function, relationship and place in the author’s thinking.

3.Rent control laws are one way cities regulate the housing market. The aim of these price controls is to maintain a base of affordable rental housing for low- and moderate-income tenants. Rent control laws often follow affordable housing shortages, for instance, amid wars or economic downturns.