Rent Control in North America and Four European Countries: Regulation and the Rental Housing Market

by Michael Teitz, William Smith

Rent control, the governmental regulation of the level of payment and tenure rights for rental housing, occupies a small but unique niche within the broad domain of public regulation of markets. The price of housing cannot be regulated by establishing a single price for a given level of quality, as other commodities such as electricity and sugar have been regulated at various times. Rent regulation requires that a price level be established for each individual housing unit, which in turn implies a level of complexity in structure and oversight that is unequaled.Housing provides a sense of security, defines our financial and emotional well-being, and influences our self-definition. Not surprisingly, attempts to regulate its price arouse intense controversy. Residential rent control is praised as a guarantor of affordable housing, excoriated as an indefensible distortion of the market, and both admired and feared as an attempt to transform the very meaning of housing access and ownership.This book provides a thorough assessment of the evolution of rent regulation in North American cities. Contributors sketch rent control's origins, legal status, economic impacts, political dynamics, and social meaning. Case studies of rent regulation in specific North American cities from New York and Washington, DC, to Berkeley and Toronto are also presented. This is an important primer for students, advocates, and practitioners of housing policy and provides essential insights on the intersection of government and markets.

260 pages, Paperback

First published August 31, 1998

Reviews

[Kerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Skimmed, fascinating on Los Angeles ' moderate approach to rent stabilization during Proposition 13 property tax revolt, provides both perspectives very well - good food for thought before the arrival of the 2000s and the pandemia.

[Fred · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good overview and history of rent control. Solid history and analysis of rent control in Berkeley, DC, LA, New Jersey, NYC, Toronto, and mobile home parks including how we got it, how we lose it and ways landlord weaken it. (Only complaint might be some of their word choice when trying to be or sound unbiased mimics anti-rent control advocates) I recommend it to anyone working on rent control issues.

[Gordon Howard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent compilation of chapters by different authors on the topic - very balanced, perhaps too balanced since rent control is, on the whole, a bad a policy. But a useful counterweight to the many screeds by economists universally condemning it. One matter missing is the correlation between zoning restrictions on housing supply and the need for rent control to counteract lack of supply.