Rent Control in the United States

Abstract

The United States has a long history of rent control with repeated introduction, relaxion, and abolition in response to the housing market trends. Rent control provides existing tenants with a guarantee of continued housing, but it also entails costs such as reduced labor mobility, mismatches between tenants and housing units, higher rents for unregulated housing units, reduced real estate values, reduced property taxes, and less construction of new rental housing. It is not sure for existing tenants can enjoy the benefit in the long term, and new tenants bear costs due to the reduction in rental housing units. Lessors of regulated housing could reduce costs to zero with effort, and those of unregulated housing can enjoy windfall benefits. In either case, the impact is wide-ranging and different for many stakeholders, so the introduction and implementation of rent control requires great care.