Why Rent Control Might Be A Bad Idea 

People sometimes forget that there are the corporations who own multiple buildings with multiple units, and there is the little old lady who has a duplex and rents out half to supplement her social security. We need to make housing affordable without bankrupting the smaller players. We can't let the corporations have a monopoly, or what has happened to the price of insulin will also happen to the cost of housing.

I’m closing in on my retirement and I’d like to move from Minnesota to a warmer climate, but the prices on homes are stupidly ridiculous and Mortgage prices has been skyrocketing on a roll(currently over 7%) do I just invest my spare cash into stock and wait for a housing crash or should I go ahead to buy a home anyways

I rent out a house and my tenant has not seen a rent increase for the past 4 years since he moved in. He’s an excellent tenant and I want to keep him.

Recession is most likely the result of an external factor. For the first time in decades, the United States is losing its clout as a federal reserve currency. They don't have any more economies to use to control inflation, and less money is being spent on stock and oil trading than in the past. They all lend support to the idea that a new multilateral world order is in the works.

Currently, I live in a small one bedroom apartment in a rural area of a state that is ranked the fourth cheapest for living costs. Even then, I still pay almost $900 in rent, no utilities included. I moved here in October, and was just told by the maintenance man that I will be paying $1065 a month or more when I renew my lease. This may sound affordable depending on where you live, but the minimum wage in my state is still $7.25, and as a server, I make $5 an hour. I hold two jobs just to pay for living expenses, and I still spend over 50% of my monthly income on rent. Something has to give, or we’re going to be dealing with an entire generation that’s stuck living with their parents. EDIT: Since this got over 300 responses, I feel the need to clarify some things. Im not sure whether anyone will actually see this but oh well. 1. I am a 20 year old female. A lot of people were speaking as if I were older, and referred to me as male for some reason. 2. I am currently in college. I have 2 years to go. I also have zero student loans/debt because my first 2 years of college were paid for by two scholarships and a pell grant. I recently transferred to a large state school that is renowned for my particular major. 3. I will not disclose the city or area but I live in a bedroom community near one of the two major cities in Oklahoma. According to Google, my rent payment is about average. 4. I do not plan on buying property here because I do not wish to stay in this state. I might even move out of the country once I finish my degree. I would not like to be tied down by property at 20 years old. My credit is very good for my age (700+), so I could probably buy property, but it really wouldn’t make a lot of sense to do that. 5. As some people mentioned in the comments, I am a server, and make $5 an hour PLUS TIPS. I work different days of the week and the tips vary so I could not state an exact amount. Some people also correctly pointed out that servers are allowed to be paid under the federal minimum wage, which is true. Servers can be paid as little as $2.13 an hour, in fact, it’s very common.

I don’t usually comment but US housing is almost impossible to obtain for people with disabilities. Also, there are no affordable housing options and a lot of people who who work every single day still cannot afford housing. This is not a presidential problem. This is American Problem.

A two bed/bath apartment in Arizona went from $1300 in 2017 to $1900 in 2021, a change in management added fancy electronic door locks, Amazon lockers, and picked up trash as extra charges which were not optional Normal jobs are not giving $500/month increases, it's just sad

I'm in Tokyo, living on the East side. By law, my rent never increases. Once you're in your unit, you're rents are grandfathered in. Here, it's tenants who have the power, not the landlords. Also, units are well maintained. My rent today is exactly what it was nearly 20 years ago, and I'm paying 75000 yen (with today's dollar and the yen is rather weak, so I'm paying around $550). I have friends of mine from Australia, and they state that their rent increases are tied to inflation. So, if inflation is say officially 8%, then their landlord can increase rents a maximum of 8%. I'll quickly add that it's not that my salary is very high, but I am able to say a lot of money due to 1. the low rents here, as well as 2. Japan socialized healthcare and 3. not needing to purchase a car since Japan's trains are so very efficient and cheap.Using public trains I can travel from the East side to the West side of Tokyo for under $2.00. The money one is able to save without these three expenses is phenomenal !

Welcome to another episode of "Life Sucks as Millennial/Gen Z"! And let's face it, if you look closely, some of these new/higher-end places are cheaply built/maintained. It takes a lot of work to even find a quality place let alone one that's affordable!

A third of my apartment complex is purposefully empty here in Charlotte, NC. Not because there aren’t people looking, but because they can’t find enough people willing to pay close to 2k for a 1 bedroom apartment. The supply is so far off from the demand, it is either submit to a massive rent cost, or be homeless/have 3+ roommates

Housing prices can drop 50% and I still couldn't afford one. It's insane. Everyone thinks that the homeless somehow choose it.

I suggest you offset your real estate and get into stocks, A recession as bad it can be, provides good buying opportunities in the markets if you’re careful and it can also create volatility giving great short time buy and sell opportunities too. This is not financial advise but get buying, cash isn’t king at all in this time!

It’s crazy & our politicians are doing nothing about it. A two bedroom apartment in Atlanta shouldn’t be 2000 a month smh 🤦🏾

Prices are insane. It’s unaffordable and unattainable. I’m tired of the greed. To pay for an average rental you have to make $85k to live comfortably. It’s crazy. Something needs to be done or we are going to be in big trouble.

I live in NYC, I get emails for “affordable housing” all the time. Todays email was for an apartment building in Brooklyn where the minimum income to qualify for the lottery was $91k a year…… let’s just let that sink in

If they are going to cap the rents they should cap the mortgages as well. People should be able to afford to own a home not just rent one.

my daughter lives in Charlotte NC, and she pays over $1400 for rent which is higher than my mortgage, this is crazy

Yes rent should be capped. Job wages are not keeping up with rent prices. 2-3% pay increases just isn't cutting it in today's world it needs to be at least in the 20-30% range pay increase every year, maybe more. The government needs to do something about it now.

If prices keep climbing, people will eventually have enough and take matters into their hands.

I’m » hoping there will be a housing crisis so I can buy cheaply when I sell a few houses in 2024. As a backup plan, I've been thinking about purchasing stocks. What advice do you have for choosing the best buying time? On the one hand, I continue to read and see trading earnings of over $500k each week. On the other side, I keep hearing that the market is out of control and experiencing a dead cat bounce. Why does this happen?

My rents up 15.5% from last year, it's wild

politicians: "printing money and debasing money will have no effect on the economy!" the economy: ...... politicians: "its not our fault, its some, its "other people" fault, absolutely not the result of our policies/actions! society need to give us more power to fix things" the media: "trust the system, it mean well and knows better"

I pay $1400 for a one bedroom apartment in Dallas. I paid $1300 for a 2 bedroom in Dallas in 2018...

Rent price cap and house purchase price cap would need to go hand in hand.

Rent is going up but some of these jobs don't even come close to paying you a reasonable pay to be able to cover the costs that rent is being charged. Then these apartments wants you to bring in 3 times the rent based off of your gross pay. It should be if you could afford to pay the rent you pay it and if not then kick the person out. Even senior citizen buildings are charging ridiculous amounts. Some of these houses and apartments are not up to date and needs some major renovation for the prices they are charging. Especially when most of these places are infested with mices, mold on the walls, and water damage. Some of these places do a terrible job trying to patch up and cover up the mold, cracks in the walls and floor, and water damage.

They keep telling us "why why why why" for everything and no fix . Dont give af why things are high. How can we solve it

Yes rent should be capped and should be based on income apartments/ housing.

The strange thing is that despite the post-covid exodus, massive tech layoffs and tons of empty rentals, rents in SF are not going down.

'Funny you think we're so dumb that you have to tell us people are greedy.

Yes it needs to be capped. Young adults like myself (18-25 years) are struggling to move out because rent is outrageous along with the cost of groceries and everything else and wages aren’t keeping up. There are enough apartments the problem is nobody can afford it

Working full time in a corporate job, it doesn’t make sense that you can’t afford an apartment. Texas is supposed to be one of the lowest prices to rent but my rent is over 40% of my monthly income not including utilities. That is not sustainable. Jobs are not increasing pay to match rent prices.

What about the landlords increasing costs? My homeowners insurance went from 2000 a year to 6000 a year. My taxes also went up. Who is going going to pay these increased cost?

I live in Chicago. Recently I found out the management company that runs my building wants to increase my rent by 15%! This rent would leave me nothing to live on, so I'm forced to move after 17 years of living in this building, which is not ideal for a woman my age (82). So I am looking. At least I have 5 months' notice, but rents everywhere in Chicago are increasingly prohibitive. Waiting lists for affordable housing are anything from 10 to 25 years (per Chicago Housing Authority). No rent control, no rent stabilization. We tried to vote for rent control a couple of years ago, but the real estate concerns managed to get it rejected. Stupid people live in Chicago, in my opinion. As an ex-New Yorker, I know how rent control and rent stabilization help people be able to afford to live where they work. Not so in Chicago. Here you have to wait for years for affordable housing, get on waiting lists, and wait, and wait and wait.

In NYC, you can't get an apartment in a decent neighborhood that isn't a tiny roach-infested studio for under $2,300, and the prices are only increasing. Something's gotta give.

I own rental properties and I've been trying to keep rents as close to the same as possible, but everything has gotten out of control expensive. Property taxes, new taxes on rentals, crazy high water bills, HOA increases, repairing anything, or buying new appliances. Everything is literally double. If people can't afford to rent, they definitely can't afford to own

It absolutely should be capped. We desperately need to create a proper formula.

We wouldn’t need as much rent control if we had looser zoning that allows even market rate building. And even rental assistance would go further if there was more housing supply.

On Long Island in New York you'll be lucky if you find a 1 bedroom or even a studio for $1500 a month. Even people making nearly $30 an hour struggle with that after taxes and other expenses.

I think there should be rent caps, or rent hike restrictions. Like you can't raise rent more than once in a calendar year or 12 month period with the same tenant. Or you can't raise rent without some kind of verfied improvement (like an appraisal almost),specific square footage requirements for certain price points, no way like 750 sq ft should cost 2k. Just something to stop the corprate greed. Many raised rent because they could not because of any actual increase to maintain the property, stating " the market demands it".... which is bs, cuz who sets "the market", there are alot of vacant apartments due to the rent hikes so it's not a demand issue, atleast not anymore and rents still aren't going down

Im a landlord that has rent control. I always raise the rent to the allowed maximum to cover my expenses to operate my units. Property taxes, water and insurance are few items that continue to go up consistently.

I personally prefer softer levers. I think breaking up some of the landlord monopolies, and providing some public housing at slightly below market prices would go a long way. Zoning reform would also encourage lots of small-scale building of density, as opposed to how currently only big devs can build anything that's not a detached single family house.

It started with Condo buying and rental owners watching what they were paying monthly and they wanted in on it and jacked rents up to monthly condo prices.

I love how economist only job is to justify a system that screws over the middle class.

I deal with this on the daily in Phoenix. People are coming together as families again, due to high rent. Multi-generational homes are making a come back.

Notice how every state in yellow with rent control also has the highest incidence of rent burden.

I’ve been taught since I was a kid “save your money and budget”. However, I always end up using the money I save to makeup for rising costs/rent and other unforeseen expenses. It seems like an unending cycle and I’m already tired.

As a landlord, I don't mind rent control as long as there is tax control. Only reason I had to raise the rent so much the last 3 years is the taxes went up in a manner I've never seen before. Things are finally stabilizing this year, and I don't forsee needing to increase rent for next year.

Things behind the rent also matters as the price of the buildings is insane in places like New York city not to mention property taxes. Necessity apartments for low income jobs should be paying zero property tax. This will drop rent prices significantly. Of course we need to build more apartments too.

Good information. Makes us more aware of how others are also going through life.

Cap the rents with different limits depending on area and then tax multiple home owners and foreign buyers who are simply parking their money overseas. This will eventually stop the buy to Let home buyers and restore the Normal Supply and Demand for homes.

I’m a landlord and haven’t raised the rent on my tenants; however, I do understand why some landlords would need to raise it. Both insurance and property taxes have gone up drastically the past two years on my rentals, so and I can see why some landlords might make up those costs with raising the rent.

Renter in a rent stabilized unit: I feel protected and can afford to live in my community Experts: Rent control actually hurts renters and marginalized communities! Hmm, right.

WE DO NOT WANT TO RENT FOREVER! Try cutting OUT foreign investors and raising taxes for out of state buyers / corporations before rent control.

'THE RENT IS TOO DAMN HIGH" - Jimmy McMillan

70% of the U.S. economy runs on consumer spending. If more is spent on rents, less will be spent on local businesses that results in more people losing their jobs and more reliance on government programs. The higher cost of housing is hurting the economy. Governments need to find solutions!

If you're gonna raise rent they should be required to check out salaries and credits to support it and improve the unit or complex. You can't justify raising rents and not giving tenants a return I their payments. And if it's taxes then it needs to be legally controlled

They want rent control but don't want property tax control or insurance control. If the cost of property tax and insurance increases where do you think these cost will be past on?

It’s tough being a renter. Luckily, my dad has two rent properties in GA and he charges below average because he knows the price hikes.

This is why RV living is so popular on RU-vid lmao. I mean some RVs and vans are literally bigger than the shoebox apartments in NYC yet cost far less per month.

Government needs to build government owned housing like Singapore, Venice, etc. Private business will always do what they do and seek to maximize profit over people.

We need rent control in Miami fl BIG TIME $2500 dollars for a apartment unbelievable

More housing. More density. We absolutely need more duplexes, triplexes, and apartment buildings

When we have HOAs, single family zoning, lot size minimums, etc that effectively act as supply caps, one of the main arguments against a rent cap (it discourages the market from increasing supply) becomes irrelevant

Rents in Middle Tennessee are GOING UP not down

Yes, let's explore these rent control options. But a 5% limit just means 3 years down the line rent is still going to be up the same 15%. We could be building 20X the amount of homes around areas where prices are high to dramatically increase supply to meet demand and lower prices by building vertically. But we're not, and have made it ILLEGAL to do so in nearly all places in this country with single-family zoning, building setback laws, and minimum parking laws.

Rent control is always a good idea and anyone who says otherwise has a stake in the rental market and is only looking for ways to squeeze more money out of their captive customers.

Rents are ridiculously high these days and something needs to be done about it.

Who's funding the studies that say that rent control is bad? 🤔

If you cap rents - you're going have to get in line and wait for an available apartment.

Capping rent would be bad for investors. There is still high demand for housing. Everyone is waiting for a recession, but we should accept that the economy is still great compare to 2020.

Only works if they don’t raise property taxes

my lease is up next month and I’m actually excited 😅

Their lying about rent going down I rented a nice 3bed house last year for 1400$ a month I can’t find one bed apartments for that this year a3bed house I can’t find under 2600$ that’s almost double

Supply will never catch up with demand when you have corporations buying up all the supplies..

Me in a small town in the Midwest have never complained of prices 😂🤯

Landlord laws currently favor the most irresponsible and unskilled landlords, even to the point of being able to use the police as their private army to evict tenants. It is clear that the industry needs to be price controlled at the very least and needs regulations and way more licensing to prevent slumlords from amassing properties by taking away their power to rent them out if they cannot maintain them properly. Most landlords pass on the cost of repairs they never properly conduct to tenants, it is only right to treat them as fraudulent business owners.

What a lot of renters don't realize is when you vote for things like a 15 year bond for a school, that increases property taxes, which means it impacts your rent. Home owners perceive this more since they get the property tax statement each year and see exactly what part of their mortgage is going towards property taxes. Maybe part of the solution for rent control is to be more transparent about how that rent payment is being used so people realize their rent may be increasing for a reason.

Rent should never be more than 30% of your income. If not, legally there should never be more than a 3-5% increase in rent annually.

Here in Tampa🗣 invitational homes owns thousands of homes for rent . They literally reset the market and apartments are now pushing 2k for a 2 bedroom and a studio is squeezing 1700 rn . It’s beyond bad

ask why isn't buying a house cheaper if rent is so high

DOJ still are worried about Jetblue mergers with Spirit, yet rent is out of control. Lol

They need to triple housing production. We are making a fraction of the houses we made years ago, so of course prices will go up, as long as demand is higher than supply. Also, the hundreds of thousands of homes owned by single organizations. Oregon is trying to introduce a law requiring a maximum of 100 single family households and to sell any excess and they will be incentivized to sell to first time homebuyers. I'm all for it.

Rents are up purely out of greed, that's it. A massive amount (the majority, I'd say) of rental properties have been owned by their owners for well over 10 years, which means their mortgages have been the same low rate for at least that long, but yet they continue raising the rents even tho their costs are more or less the same. I used to live in an apartment building that had been owned by the same person for over 30 years, meaning his mortgage was either fully paid, or just a few hundred dollars a month. Their property tax was only a couple grand a year. So there was no need for them to raise everyone's rents by 10% the last couple years I was there, they were already making a LOT of money, they just got greedy.

I live near a city that has a lot of section 8 properties. The city is filled with high crime and parts of it are where you don’t venture because of it. The stigma of poor brings crime needs to be addressed before the large majority of people would support this. I live in an upper middle class town that is a suburb and I’m sure they are doing everything they can to keep people out. Even the city that has a lot of section 8 apartments are demolishing them and making way for expensive houses and condos which is sad because they are going to get pushed to the next town that doesn’t have the resources. I don’t know what a proper solution would be that could address this.

I solved the rent problem by car camping 😫

Yes. This shouldn't even be a question.

I stay with family. Am I happy? Not really… I would love my own space.. someone is always home!!!! I’m in school and I work full time. I only make 32k a year… it’s not enough to rent a place.

If rents are too high, cities, counties and states should build properties themselves. They have the big advantage that they usually own a lot of land. So they do not need not buy land like a private developer. That is not communism. Cities would still make a profit.

Yes 100% and the cap should be affordable on the minimum wage.

My friends grandfather told us, as long as there’s a new iPhone to watch these videos prices to everything will never go down

We tried rent control already in the 70s during the last inflation crisis. We repealed that law for a reason.

Rents are going down,but they make up the money with the damn fees that they charge. And in places with no fee controls/ rent control, damn it’s a bloodbath. You get taxed all this money but they give more money to Ukraine than to you.

Rent keeps going up up up and eventually the rich will be looking for a place to rent from someone richer then themselves

In Toronto, price is capped and can only be increased at 2-3% per year. USA should adopt it if they want to see lower inflation

Rent should be illegal. Landlording is just limited resource hoarding and hostage taking. If you don't live in or work a property, you don't own it.

Hmmmm maybe because the entire country is only allowed to build single family homes and all Americans are against dense mixed use housing. This makes housing spread out and led to a shortage

I don’t know where we all are going with this. At this point, more people will be living in the streets. For the most powerful and richest country in the world, it’s just sad! The elite doesn’t think of the rest. Capitalism at its finest!

Back in the seventies I rented a place in South Lake Tahoe for $150 a month. Right now I know people in their thirties, all who have full time jobs, and their best option was to rent a four bedroom house in Tempe. Its crazy out there.

Why would having rent going up to any amount be a good idea from a basic common sense standpoint? Especially since we know wages rarely go up. I don't get why people are so slow

Capping doesn’t help if the cap keeps moving up!!!