Rent regulation comes in several flavors: traditional rent control (hard caps on rents), rent stabilization (caps on annual increases), vacancy decontrol (caps released between tenants), and just-cause eviction. New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and a growing list of states have rent regulations; St. Paul, Berkeley, and Portland have enacted recent expansions.
Empirical research on second-generation rent stabilization (annual-increase caps) finds mixed effects: stabilizing tenancies and reducing displacement, but reducing rental supply and quality over time, and benefiting longer-tenured tenants more than newcomers.
Defenders argue rent regulation is a necessary tenant protection in tight markets. Critics argue it discourages new supply, the only durable solution to housing scarcity.