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Check out two federal policy solutions for addressing the housing affordability crisis: one to boost the housing supply and another to help address the demand side of the problem.

Last month, in Montgomery County, Maryland, the County Council debated – and then ultimately passed – rent regulation. A detailed rundown of all the particulars in the final version can be found HERE, but the three most important components of it are summarized below.

“Do we bring it up every two years? There’s other things we can talk about with regard to housing. Why are we letting this take up oxygen?” Massachusetts House Majority Leader Mike Moran (D-Brighton) said in a recent news report.

We know that rent control laws lead to a reduction in the available supply of rental housing in a community, and that is just one of the reasons we warned against adopting these unhelpful policies in St. Paul, Minnesota. Now we are seeing the impact of rent control policies on construction as well.

Three governors in states facing serious housing affordability challenges began the year announcing plans to address the housing shortages in their states.

Many parts of Florida are facing housing affordability challenges and policymakers in cities across the state are looking for solutions to tackle the rising cost of housing. Under pressure from tenant activists, some local leaders considered policies that, although well-meaning, would have done more harm than good.

Misguided policies like rent control are shown time and time again to dissuade investment while failing to meaningfully help those in the most need. Since passing a rent control ballot initiative in November 2021, St. Paul has experienced first-hand the widespread challenges resulting from rent control. Residents are recognizing that although rent control may be well-intentioned, whenever and wherever enacted, these policies fail in delivering effective housing solutions.

At the root of housing affordability challenges is a severe shortage of homes of all types – single-family homes, townhouses, apartments, etc. And without action, the problem is only getting worse with the current demand for housing outpacing existing supply and recent construction. Two recent studies examined the drivers of housing underproduction and provided policy recommendations on ways to address housing affordability.