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.
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Mark Paul
The fastest way to ease the housing crisis? Rent control
Op-ed by Tram Hoang, a senior associate at PolicyLink, a national research and action institute and Mark Paul, associate professor at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University. Massachusetts is losing its working families. Not just to...
‘Frustrated by the extremes,’ lawmaker urges rent control talks
“The same thing is happening with rent control,” Paul said. “When we see states considering it, developers are saying ‘we’re going to leave’ but that really hasn’t played out.”
Study ties Portland rent control to higher property taxes, but economist questions findings
Paul, the Rutgers expert, is interested in studies examining the connection between rent control policies and property tax hikes. But he said this one isn’t up to snuff.
Some Studies Challenge Long-Held Views on Rent Control
As rents soar across California and housing affordability slips further out of reach for millions, an intensifying debate over rent control is being fueled by a growing stack of academic research. For decades, real estate interests and conservative economists have...
Rent-control measure’s changes to SF clear, but its effects aren’t
“Things like rent control are mainly going to redistribute profits from builders and existing landlords to tenants,” said Paul, who called San Francisco’s own measure a “common-sense approach” for boosting housing affordability.
Rent Control Is on the Ballot Again. Here’s What to Know
“We can design smart rent control policies to deliver both affordability and stability for renters while also maintaining a healthy market for people to continue building.”
Mark Paul – Proposition 33 Would End State Limits on Rent Control
“Most mainstream economists are taught these theoretical models where perfect competition exists, there’s no such thing as market power, you know where landlords have more power than renters”
Why President Biden’s rent stabilization proposal won’t solve the housing crisis
President Joe Biden proposed legislation on July 16 aimed at implementing nationwide rent stabilization for the next three years, targeting units overseen by landlords with 50 or more units to prevent annual rent increases exceeding 5%.
What Biden’s “Rent Cap” Is, and Isn’t
“We have policies in place that have helped build the middle class through federal support for housing,” Paul says. “However, that federal support for housing is really only applied to the segment of Americans that can afford to own a house.”