As New York City considers a rent freeze, a look at how cities and states across the U.S. keep costs in check.
If a house or apartment is rent stabilized or rent controlled, it means that a landlord can only raise the rent by a prescribed, limited amount.
Beyond that, the terms mean something different everywhere…
How much to raise the rent?
New York City has one of the oldest rent regulation systems in the country. Most of its stabilized buildings were built before 1974, and its approach to setting rent levels, through an appointed board, is fairly old fashioned.
Newer systems tend to calculate rents using formulas that are tied to inflation.
“It removes the politics,” said Kenny Burgos, chief executive of the New York Apartment Association, a group that represents stabilized building owners. “It doesn’t allow for elected officials to choose politically expedient pathways or decisions, and just ignore math.”
These formulas — like everything else — vary. In some localities, rents cannot rise as fast as inflation, while in Oregon, a statewide rule from 2019 allows rents to rise more quickly, limiting increases to 7 percent above the Consumer Price Index. Mark Paul, an economist at Rutgers University, said that permits landlords in Oregon to raise rents an average of 9 or 10 percent a year, which makes it less of a traditional rent control policy and more of an “anti-gouging” measure.