Housing Market 2023: As Rents and Evictions Rise, More Cities Are Debating Rent Control
Written by
Nicole Spector
Edited by
Cory Dudak
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Eviction rates are rising across the nation, with filings up more than 50% than the pre-pandemic average in some cities, according to the Eviction Lab. At the same time, rents are soaring.
In July, rent prices grew 0.31 percent year over year, according to Rent.com’s August 2023 report. Consequently, more cities are considering rent control, which limits the increase in rent landlords can implement on private housing.
For example, California (which already has rent control policies in a number of cities), will soon vote on a measure that would enable cities to expand rent control in 2024.
Naturally, affordable housing experts are strongly advocating for more rent stabilization laws, but there is also strong resistance in some of the most expensive cities in the U.S. In Seattle, where rents are skyrocketing, the City Council recently voted against implementing rent regulation policies. And this summer, two New York City landlord groups filed a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn New York City’s rent stabilization law, which limits rent increases for more than one million units in the city, according to USA Today.
As of now, numerous major cities in the U.S. enact rent control, but these limits are often not enforceable statewide, and many Americans are cornered into paying untenably high rents. Currently, 33 states preempt local governments from adopting rent control laws, according to the National Apartment Association.
“Rent control is a negotiation about exactly how much we are willing to accept landlords’ desire for endless profit at the expense of tenants,” Alex Ferrer, a housing researcher with the Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy at the University of California, Los Angeles told USA Today.
The national median rent price is presently $2,038, according to Rent.com. That’s awfully high when considering the national median salary is only $54,132 — before taxes, of course.
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