> Under the new rules, Los Angeles landlords whose buildings are covered by the city’s rent stabilization laws — about three-quarters of the market — will be allowed to increase rents by between just 1% and 4% each year, depending on inflation. Currently, landlords are allowed to increase rent between 3% and 8% annually.
Isn’t this just going to pass costs from existing tenants to future tenants who will be given much higher up-front rents?
> Additionally, the study showed that landlord expenses were increasing, in large part because of rising insurance costs and the need to make repairs and upgrades. With few exceptions, the most recent rent stabilized properties are nearly 50 years old and half of them were constructed before 1950.
> Citing a need for landlords to invest in their buildings, the city housing department recommended to the council that it change the limits on rent increases to a maximum 5% annual jump with a floor of 2%, depending on inflation.
There is going to be a lot of deferred repair work. I wonder how many of these will turn into safety issues. What happens if a landlord cannot economically repair some issue they’re required to fix? If they’re caught between rent increase caps and regulations requiring fixes, do they just risk having their property seized?
> But councilmembers whittled down those numbers last week in its Housing and Homelessness Committee, which Raman chairs. Her committee pushed forward a more aggressive plan that would have banned increases altogether if inflation was low enough and capped the hikes at no more than 3%.
To me, it’s insane to even consider banning rent increases altogether. I am surprised this was seriously discussed.
PaulHoule•1h ago
The popularity of rent control shocks me a bit. Even left leaning economists like Galbraith and Krugman think it is a bad idea, but it's hard to convince the public of it.
I don't know to what extents markets are broken down or that people don't believe in them. Maybe people don't think it matters if people want to build new housing because NIMBYs won't let them anyway. I think people don't believe that building new housing lowers prices because so often when a new development is built you see big billboard and newspaper ads with an eye-popping price that you can't ignore. Maybe you are a landlord and you're renting a place out for $800 a month and you see something not much better at $2200 a month and think "Maybe I'd better raise the rent".
toomuchtodo•1h ago
It's straightforward imho. Rent controls help people today, where they rent and live today. Supply cannot grow fast enough, nor forever, to keep prices within an affordable band in some situations. Does this mean newcomers will not get rent control benefits? Yes, but they are not stakeholders today; the people who live there today are. Otherwise, landlords can perpetually raise rents faster than wage growth, or even worse, what those on fixed incomes can afford. Broadly speaking, there is no right to profit, and I'm confident you can find a majority who would support affordable housing as a right in most major urban areas.
With immigration inflows slowing, this should alleviate housing demand in some areas, taking pressure off some markets. It's also helpful that there was regulatory action against algorithm driven price collusion and rent increases such as RealPage.
> I don't know to what extents markets are broken down or that people don't believe in them.
Perhaps enough that both NYC and Seattle have recently elected Democratic Socialists as mayors, and Los Angeles is restricting rent increases. "A recent survey by the Cato Institute and YouGov paints a troubling picture: 62 percent of Americans aged 18–29 say they hold a “favorable view” of socialism, and 34 percent say the same of communism."
This whole “stakeholders today” mentality also applies to the homeownership ladder. In that sense, it seems somewhat fair for renters to get a little piece of that pie despite being unable to purchase a house, even if neither system makes a whole lot of sense.
Homeowners who bought a house before 2022 are in the exact same boat as a renter blessed with a rent controlled unit. As long as they don’t move again, they’ll enjoy housing costs that are well below current market rates with their 3% fixed mortgage rate and rapidly appreciating values.
I don’t really think rent control is optimal policy and I simultaneously find it interesting that people who are bought in on the 30 year fixed rate mortgage system are against the idea of rent control when they effectively get the exact same benefits, more benefits in fact since they can transfer partial equity and effectively stay on top of housing inflation just by entering the system early.
Regarding communism and socialism, I think these ideas become popular as the working class gets squeezed so hard that it becomes clear that capitalism won’t give them a better outcome than even the worst case scenario of “everyone is poor” soviet style communism. Even the worst communist regimes managed to at least provide and guarantee basic housing.
Capitalists who want to avoid socialism/communism should do more to make sure the working class has good conditions, because one possible alternative is that a government enters power that abolishes the concept of private property.
(I also don’t mean to criticize on well-implemented socialist policies. For example, I think Mamdani’s free bus program makes a lot of logical sense and is backed up by an extremely successful pilot project. I don’t think the rent control policies make quite as much sense and serve as more of a band-aid and a method to attempt to equalize the playing field against people who own single family homes who are given wildly preferential treatment by the US government and its financial systems).
toomuchtodo•55m ago
Strongly agree with all points. To your point about 30 year fixed rate mortgages vs rent control, we can already see what happens when stakeholders have fixed housing costs via New England. They stay put, and not enough housing is built for new people to move there (Maine and Vermont especially). We seem to be okay with this though, because they are mortgages and properties owned by individuals, instead of rent control across an urban area constraining landlord profits. We simply accept that new workers cannot move to these areas, but rent control is verboten.
Deaths already outnumber births in 21 states, and this will increase over time due to rapid fertility rate declines. Immigration tolerance as an input is the sticking point imho, as there will always be demand to live in major urban areas, and we're really just arguing who gets to live there.
I feel like a lot of our broken political ideas basically come down to too many layers of bad policies and regulations such that the only ideas you see are the art of the possible. I think Newsom does believe in abundance, build build build, but it takes dismantling regulations on state and local levels one at a time, and so it becomes politically popular for the LA city council to do what it can in the short term.
techblueberry•1h ago
> To me, it’s insane to even consider banning rent increases altogether. I am surprised this was seriously discussed.
My guess is if you look at the incentives of the people making the decisions, it’s completely rational. Maybe we as a society should change the incentives.
nosianu•1h ago
> To me, it’s insane to even consider banning rent increases altogether. I am surprised this was seriously discussed.
* For one:
People who vote for this may very well agree with you, but as always, even when you see that something would be good overall you yourself may be forced into contradicting behavior.
Examples for this are all over. You may know that lining up on an exit is best overall, but with everybody charging you will be forced to join the herd. You may know and agree that ricing prices (rents) should lead to more construction, but if you decide only based on your own situation, your choice is volunteering to pay more when you could vote the opposite and have an advantage.
I think it is unwise to blame people, our entire system is based on, and forces people into selfish behavior even when they know it.
* But also:
The idea that higher prices (rents) should lead to more construction is based on the premise that there is a functioning market based mostly on price alone. But for housing that is usually far from the truth, and rising prices may not lead to significantly more construction at all. Instead, higher prices may just be absorbed by various parties (not necessarily the house owners alone). Land ownership has rarely been much of a free market, especially not in places that are popular (can make a land owner lots of money).
In this case, letting the prices fluctuate just means more pain for renters without the gain (of more construction and then lower rents).
yks•42m ago
I am surprised that rent increases aren't banned everywhere, and that things like Prop 13 haven't been voted in elsewhere outside of California. Because the fundamental proposition of "I reap handsome benefits, but some unnamed future newcomers to my country/state/city will have it tough" appears to be quite irresistible.
ChrisLTD•45m ago
Allow people to build more housing. It's simple. These rules will help current renters at the expense of future Los Angelenos, make building more housing less desirable for developers, and will let local politicians pretend they solved the issue while actually doing the exact opposite.
SilverElfin•1h ago
Isn’t this just going to pass costs from existing tenants to future tenants who will be given much higher up-front rents?
> Additionally, the study showed that landlord expenses were increasing, in large part because of rising insurance costs and the need to make repairs and upgrades. With few exceptions, the most recent rent stabilized properties are nearly 50 years old and half of them were constructed before 1950.
> Citing a need for landlords to invest in their buildings, the city housing department recommended to the council that it change the limits on rent increases to a maximum 5% annual jump with a floor of 2%, depending on inflation.
There is going to be a lot of deferred repair work. I wonder how many of these will turn into safety issues. What happens if a landlord cannot economically repair some issue they’re required to fix? If they’re caught between rent increase caps and regulations requiring fixes, do they just risk having their property seized?
> But councilmembers whittled down those numbers last week in its Housing and Homelessness Committee, which Raman chairs. Her committee pushed forward a more aggressive plan that would have banned increases altogether if inflation was low enough and capped the hikes at no more than 3%.
To me, it’s insane to even consider banning rent increases altogether. I am surprised this was seriously discussed.
PaulHoule•1h ago
I don't know to what extents markets are broken down or that people don't believe in them. Maybe people don't think it matters if people want to build new housing because NIMBYs won't let them anyway. I think people don't believe that building new housing lowers prices because so often when a new development is built you see big billboard and newspaper ads with an eye-popping price that you can't ignore. Maybe you are a landlord and you're renting a place out for $800 a month and you see something not much better at $2200 a month and think "Maybe I'd better raise the rent".
toomuchtodo•1h ago
With immigration inflows slowing, this should alleviate housing demand in some areas, taking pressure off some markets. It's also helpful that there was regulatory action against algorithm driven price collusion and rent increases such as RealPage.
> I don't know to what extents markets are broken down or that people don't believe in them.
Perhaps enough that both NYC and Seattle have recently elected Democratic Socialists as mayors, and Los Angeles is restricting rent increases. "A recent survey by the Cato Institute and YouGov paints a troubling picture: 62 percent of Americans aged 18–29 say they hold a “favorable view” of socialism, and 34 percent say the same of communism."
Citations:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-11-17/internati... | https://archive.today/GmuD8
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/08/21/key-findi...
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/08/21/key-findi...
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/how-immigration-affects-u... | https://archive.today/bHGiG
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-12-19/immigrati... | https://archive.today/b5sI8
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
https://www.cato.org/blog/81-say-they-cant-afford-pay-higher...
dangus•1h ago
Homeowners who bought a house before 2022 are in the exact same boat as a renter blessed with a rent controlled unit. As long as they don’t move again, they’ll enjoy housing costs that are well below current market rates with their 3% fixed mortgage rate and rapidly appreciating values.
I don’t really think rent control is optimal policy and I simultaneously find it interesting that people who are bought in on the 30 year fixed rate mortgage system are against the idea of rent control when they effectively get the exact same benefits, more benefits in fact since they can transfer partial equity and effectively stay on top of housing inflation just by entering the system early.
Regarding communism and socialism, I think these ideas become popular as the working class gets squeezed so hard that it becomes clear that capitalism won’t give them a better outcome than even the worst case scenario of “everyone is poor” soviet style communism. Even the worst communist regimes managed to at least provide and guarantee basic housing.
Capitalists who want to avoid socialism/communism should do more to make sure the working class has good conditions, because one possible alternative is that a government enters power that abolishes the concept of private property.
(I also don’t mean to criticize on well-implemented socialist policies. For example, I think Mamdani’s free bus program makes a lot of logical sense and is backed up by an extremely successful pilot project. I don’t think the rent control policies make quite as much sense and serve as more of a band-aid and a method to attempt to equalize the playing field against people who own single family homes who are given wildly preferential treatment by the US government and its financial systems).
toomuchtodo•55m ago
Deaths already outnumber births in 21 states, and this will increase over time due to rapid fertility rate declines. Immigration tolerance as an input is the sticking point imho, as there will always be demand to live in major urban areas, and we're really just arguing who gets to live there.
https://www.newsweek.com/map-shows-21-states-where-deaths-no...
https://www.bostonfed.org/news-and-events/news/2024/12/nowhe...
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45883901 (additional citations)
techblueberry•1h ago
techblueberry•1h ago
My guess is if you look at the incentives of the people making the decisions, it’s completely rational. Maybe we as a society should change the incentives.
nosianu•1h ago
* For one:
People who vote for this may very well agree with you, but as always, even when you see that something would be good overall you yourself may be forced into contradicting behavior.
Examples for this are all over. You may know that lining up on an exit is best overall, but with everybody charging you will be forced to join the herd. You may know and agree that ricing prices (rents) should lead to more construction, but if you decide only based on your own situation, your choice is volunteering to pay more when you could vote the opposite and have an advantage.
I think it is unwise to blame people, our entire system is based on, and forces people into selfish behavior even when they know it.
* But also:
The idea that higher prices (rents) should lead to more construction is based on the premise that there is a functioning market based mostly on price alone. But for housing that is usually far from the truth, and rising prices may not lead to significantly more construction at all. Instead, higher prices may just be absorbed by various parties (not necessarily the house owners alone). Land ownership has rarely been much of a free market, especially not in places that are popular (can make a land owner lots of money).
In this case, letting the prices fluctuate just means more pain for renters without the gain (of more construction and then lower rents).
yks•42m ago