Joel Lived in a Block with a Mixture of One-Family

question 73

Multiple Choice

Joel lived in a block with a mixture of one-family and two-family homes. He finished the third floor of his home for his family and when his children left home, he rented the space out as two apartments. Six months later, the town enacted a zoning ordinance restricting occupancy of the building to a maximum of two unrelated families. Joel's best argument for waiving the ordinance is:

• A) there is not much difference between there being two families and three families in the building.
• B) he cannot meet the costs of maintaining the building unless he rents both apartments.
• C) he is not going to add any more occupants to the building.
• D) he was using the third floor as apartments for rent before the zoning ordinance was enacted.

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Definitions:

Monopolistic Competitor

In market economics, a monopolistic competitor refers to a company operating in a sector filled with competitors, yet it has enough differentiation to have some control over its pricing.

Downward Sloping

A description of a curve or line that shows a decrease in one variable as another variable increases, commonly seen in demand curves.

Demand Curves

Graphical representations showing the relationship between the price of a good and the quantity demanded by consumers.

Perfect Competition

Perfect Competition is a market structure characterized by a large number of small firms, identical products sold by all firms, no barriers to enter or exit the market, and perfect knowledge of prices and technology.