Work

Rent control and the supply of affordable housing

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: We generate the first cross-city panel dataset of rent control reforms and estimate their effect on rental housing supply across varying levels of affordability. To generate the reform data, we use machine learning algorithms to analyze over 76,000 newspaper articles from 7,000 news outlets spanning 27 metropolitan areas and over 4,000 census designated places across the US between 2000 and 2021. We then combine these data with the number of rental units within each city that are affordable to households of different incomes, created using Census microdata. Finally, we estimate the effect of rent control reforms on the supply of rental units using a two-way fixed effects model with place specific time trends and a difference-in-differences model with multiple treatment periods, following the approach outlined by Callaway and Sant’Anna. We find that rent control is associated with a reduction in the total number of rental units in a city. Stratifying our models by affordability, we estimate an increase in the availability of rental units affordable to extremely low-income households, offset by a decline in units affordable to higher income brackets. Our findings underscore the dynamics at play in the implementation of rent control regulations, suggesting differential impacts across income segments and highlighting the nuanced trade-offs inherent in such policy interventions.

Source: Journal of Housing Economics

DOI: 10.1016/j.jhe.2025.102063