Understanding Rent Control
Rent control (also known as rent stabilization and/or rent caps) is a form of government-enforced price control that limits rents that property owners may charge in market rate rental housing. While the intent of rent control laws is to assist lower-income individuals, history has shown that rent control exacerbates shortages, disproportionally benefits higher-income households and ultimately drives up rents.
From apartments and duplexes, to single-family homes and townhouses, we need more housing choices for everyone. Americans are searching for innovative, proactive solutions to the housing affordability crisis, not antiquated policies like rent control that may sound appealing but in practice have harmful results.
Most of the nation’s existing rent control laws were first instituted in the post-WWII economy, when America struggled to find enough housing for returning soldiers. Today, rent control is mistakenly perceived as a method to improve affordability in the face of stagnant household incomes. While rent control policies are often well-intentioned, numerous studies and real-world examples demonstrate that such rules and regulations lead to unintended consequences harming residents, property owners/managers, and the greater community.
A Stanford Graduate School of Business study released in 2018 tracked the effects of rent control in San Francisco since the city's expansion of regulation in 1994. The study found that rent control reduced the supply of housing in the city by 6% and was responsible for a more than 5% increase in rental prices. Additionally, rent control incentivized the conversion of apartments into condos, further decreasing supply and raising rents.
