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Nope, nope, you have it right but in the context of this discussion you have it wrong. :-) There is rent control and rent stabilization, two separate items un

Nope, nope, you have it right but in the context of this discussion you have it wrong. :-) There is rent control and rent stabilization, two separate items under the rubric of "rent regulated housing". See, those terms have political and legal connotations that don't necessarily perfectly match with the colloquial or intuitive phrase "rent control". Rent control is specific to a tiny percentage of buildings and units, relevant to the situation where a) the tenant is in a rent-controlled building [ build before 1941 ] and b) the tenant or their descendants have been continuously occupying the unit since 1971. That's your rent control. Rent doesn't ever go up. The stereotypical picture here is of an older woman in her 70's or 80's living in a three bedroom walk-up apartment in Greenwich Village paying $500 a month while other units rent for $6500 or some such. Rent stabilization is a different matter. About one million units in NYC (out of 2 million, perhaps?) are rent stabilized. That means a lot of things, but in summary it means the rent can't go up by a percentage set yearly by a board of individuals called the Rent Guidelines Board. Now it gets interesting because in NYC, a rent stabilized unit can be cheap, well below market, depending on how long the tenant's been there, or it can be high. A unit can actually fall out of rent stabilization if the tenant makes above 200,000 a year and the unit hits 2700. It gets more complex: the landlord can make improvements to the building and use that to increase the rent to a degree; rent stabilized units are typically pre-war units/buildings but not exclusively, as a now-expired (this year) program called 421a gave developers tax breaks in exchange for rent stabilizing their units (even if their starting rent was market rate). As an aside, and back to the original point -- here in NYC we're in the throes of some major class conflict and it centers enormously around 'affordable housing' in this city of 8.5m (up from 8m in 2000). Our mayor was elected on the platform of providing cheaper housing. Gentrification is a huge topic here, subject to daily barrages in rags like the Gothamist (whose comments section has commenters with about 50% the average IQ of the people here, I might add). So approximately 50% of our housing stock falls under some form of housing regulation. Source, I'm a NYC resident and landlord; also, this: http://www.nycrgb.org/html/resources/faq/rentcontrol.html#difference http://www.nycrgb.org/html/resources/faq/rentcontrol.html#di...

busterarm 11y ago
I know the difference between rent control and rent stabilization. I wasn't saying there weren't units under regulation, I was just speaking specifically rent control. Rent stabilized units are mostly a short-term deal as the unit distribution changes within a building and their prices approach market-rate. Source, I'm a NYC resident and rent controlled tenant.
nicwolff 11y ago
"That's your rent control. Rent doesn't ever go up." Huh? Controlled rents go up whenever the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal says they do; right now they're in the process of increasing by as much as 9.6% by 2018 http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/01/nyregion/facing-increase-rent-controlled-tenants-complain-of-being-singled-out.html http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/01/nyregion/facing-increase-r... and since 1975 they've gone up 707% http://www.nyshcr.org/Rent/PublicHearingInformation/SAFR-Prelim-with-tables.pdf http://www.nyshcr.org/Rent/PublicHearingInformation/SAFR-Pre...
- mancerayder 11y ago
  Fair enough. I stand corrected on that sentence. A few nuances need to be pointed out, though. While they increase, they increase to levels set by the city based on a calculation that incorporates costs of things like taxes, utilities and whatnot.[1] In addition the owner has to apply for the increase, which is laborious and more than half the time never even is done. But the point is that they started at very low levels, and even if things eventually catch up, rent controlled units are typically quite below even rent stabilized units in rent asks. If a genie appeared and magically offered you a choice between a stabilized unit and a rent-controlled one, equivalent in every other way, without knowing any other facts you'd most likely pick the rent-controlled one, even if there's been a 7-fold increase since the 70's as you point out, because you'd be more likely to pick the cheaper of the two. 1 - "New York City Local Law 30 of 1970 stipulates that Maximum Base Rents be established for rent controlled apartments according to a formula calculated to reflect real estate taxes, water and sewer charges, operating and maintenance expenses, return on capital value and vacancy and collection loss allowance. The Maximum Base Rent (MBR) is updated every two years by a factor that incorporates changes in these operating costs." (http://www.nyshcr.org/Rent/FactSheets/orafac22.pdf http://www.nyshcr.org/Rent/FactSheets/orafac22.pdf)

busterarm 11y ago

I know the difference between rent control and rent stabilization. I wasn't saying there weren't units under regulation, I was just speaking specifically rent control. Rent stabilized units are mostly a short-term deal as the unit distribution changes within a building and their prices approach market-rate. Source, I'm a NYC resident and rent controlled tenant.

nicwolff 11y ago

"That's your rent control. Rent doesn't ever go up." Huh? Controlled rents go up whenever the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal says they do; right now they're in the process of increasing by as much as 9.6% by 2018 http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/01/nyregion/facing-increase-rent-controlled-tenants-complain-of-being-singled-out.html http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/01/nyregion/facing-increase-r... and since 1975 they've gone up 707% http://www.nyshcr.org/Rent/PublicHearingInformation/SAFR-Prelim-with-tables.pdf http://www.nyshcr.org/Rent/PublicHearingInformation/SAFR-Pre...

mancerayder 11y ago
Fair enough. I stand corrected on that sentence. A few nuances need to be pointed out, though. While they increase, they increase to levels set by the city based on a calculation that incorporates costs of things like taxes, utilities and whatnot.[1] In addition the owner has to apply for the increase, which is laborious and more than half the time never even is done. But the point is that they started at very low levels, and even if things eventually catch up, rent controlled units are typically quite below even rent stabilized units in rent asks. If a genie appeared and magically offered you a choice between a stabilized unit and a rent-controlled one, equivalent in every other way, without knowing any other facts you'd most likely pick the rent-controlled one, even if there's been a 7-fold increase since the 70's as you point out, because you'd be more likely to pick the cheaper of the two. 1 - "New York City Local Law 30 of 1970 stipulates that Maximum Base Rents be established for rent controlled apartments according to a formula calculated to reflect real estate taxes, water and sewer charges, operating and maintenance expenses, return on capital value and vacancy and collection loss allowance. The Maximum Base Rent (MBR) is updated every two years by a factor that incorporates changes in these operating costs." (http://www.nyshcr.org/Rent/FactSheets/orafac22.pdf http://www.nyshcr.org/Rent/FactSheets/orafac22.pdf)