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

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. Review -This is a very important book, essential reading for social scientists, elected officials, community activists, and the real estate industry. Rent Control will spark a much needed debate on opportunity and equity in housing policy... This book is a fresh, provocative, and bold accounts of the impacts of rent control in the United States and Canada. It is important because it gives the most balanced account available of the economic, political, social, and legal impacts of rent control. It is the best book of its kind, and the authors did an admirable job.- --John I. Gilderbloom, APA Journal -Rent Control... is a welcome improvement on the usually rancorous discussion of its subject... This book is not the last word on rent control, but it deserves to be the first word.- --Planning -Government regulation of rental payments and related tenure rights for rental housing has long been one of the most controversial regulatory measures in market-oriented economies... The material presented is probably best described as the applied policy analysis of rent regulation in North America. Given the controversial nature of the subject matter, the authors are commended for the balanced approach they bring to the analysis... In summary, urban policy analysts and policy makers, especially at the state and local levels, will benefit from this highly informative, balanced and well-written analysis of second-generation rent regulation in North America.- --Thomas S. Nesslein, Urban Studies -Policymakers and administrators in states and cities contemplating rent control will find this an extremely important and useful book.- --M. Leanne Lachman, Political Science Quarterly "This is a very important book, essential reading for social scientists, elected officials, community activists, and the real estate industry. Rent Control will spark a much needed debate on opportunity and equity in housing policy... This book is a fresh, provocative, and bold accounts of the impacts of rent control in the United States and Canada. It is important because it gives the most balanced account available of the economic, political, social, and legal impacts of rent control. It is the best book of its kind, and the authors did an admirable job." --John I. Gilderbloom, APA Journal "Rent Control... is a welcome improvement on the usually rancorous discussion of its subject... This book is not the last word on rent control