Introductory economics classes often teach that rent control is bad policy. Artificially capping prices, the argument goes, discourages production – in this case, the creation and maintenance of apartments. That leads to housing shortages and higher rents marketwide.
Yet the idea continues to gain traction and is garnering new attention across the United States.
Zohran Mamdani, who took office as New York City mayor Jan. 1, is insisting on freezing rents for some 2 million New Yorkers. On his first day in office, Mr. Mamdani also signed three housing-related executive orders: one boosting the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants , and two more establishing task forces to speed up housing construction.
Why We Wrote This
Across the United States, jurisdictions are seeking to enact rent regulations as housing costs have continued to rise. But finding long-term solutions – including building millions more homes – won’t be easy.
Nationwide, jurisdictions are seeking to enact rent regulations as housing costs have continued to rise, particularly in large cities. City councilors in Los Angeles, for example, voted in November to reduce the annual rent increase limit for most of the city’s apartments from 8% to 4%. Washington state capped annual rent increases at up to 10% last spring. Washington, D.C., which already restricts rent increases, is considering a ballot initiative that would freeze rents entirely for two years. And later this year, Massachusetts residents will likely vote on a ballot question that would cap rent increases at the rate of inflation, up to a maximum of 5%.
Many cities have regulated rents for decades. But the recent surge in new initiatives has reignited debate about the government’s role in the free market. Supporters pitch rent regulation as a necessary measure to redress an affordability crisis. Many economists remain skeptical, arguing that such tactics raise costs over the long term, exacerbate shortages, and lower housing quality.
Manuel Pastor, an economist and a sociology professor at the University of Southern California, reflects a different, more middle-ground viewpoint among some housing policy experts.
“This is one of those debates where the ideological heat does not really match the empirical fire,” he says. “Rent stabilization is one tool … Why would you put that tool away?”
Why are supporters pushing for rent control now?
Those who advocate rent control argue that housing costs for working families have reached a level at which the government must intervene to reduce them.
“Something has got to give,” says Tara Raghuveer, who heads the Tenant Union Federation, a national organization that supports federal rent control. “The only urgent solution that makes sense at scale is rent control.”
In 2023, half of renters in the United States qualified as “cost-burdened” – meaning they spent more than 30% of their income on housing. (Some 27% spent half their income on housing). Most of those “burdened” renters lived in one of the nation’s 50 biggest cities.
Rent regulation is also popular with voters, and that may be driving political action. In a 2024 Redfin survey, 82% of respondents supported limits on rent increases.