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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It’s not “Maryland Suburbs” it’s Montgomery County. And it’s not “regulatory concerns” it’s rent control.[/quote]

It has nothing to do with the new law limiting rent increases. That law exempts new/recent construction.[/quote]

Actually the rent control law is a large part of the problem.

https://montgomeryperspective.com/2025/09/19/more-evidence-that-rent-control-is-preventing-housing-construction/[/quote]
Yup.
[twitter]https://x.com/jayparsons/status/1996233590091194674?s=46&t=kf1qYlCXQnKgUhJWEIu2vg[/twitter][/quote]

Parts of the rest of Maryland also have rent control! Within Montgomery County, Rockville and Gaithersburg don’t have rent control. If this market were ripe for more multifamily, permitting would be through the roof in those places because they’re the only places in the county you can build rentals without rent control (23 years from now).

Rents have fallen in Montgomery County since the rent control regulations have taken effect. That’s a hard fact for those opposed to it. Was that all rent control? Of course not. In that time, more landlords settled price fixing cases with the government, and the local economy has weakened. But rent control is a part of the story because it banned very high rent increases, which were distorting the average rent statistics.

Rent control has probably also helped force landlords make repairs because of special restrictions on rent increases at troubled properties. Invariably; the landlords screaming the loudest about the law have troubled properties or near-troubled properties. They’re not good actors in the market. If your business plan depends on annual rent increases exceeding 6 percent a year, you never were going to build enough housing to make prices go down.

I was a skeptic of the county’s rent control law when it was introduced but the landlords have proven it necessary and time has proven it effective. [/quote]

For this to be true, economists everywhere must be wrong. Rent control is negative in the long term. It was just passed, so even if your facts are true (I have no idea if they are) it is way too early to declare victory. [/quote]

Not economists everywhere. Just the ones you choose to read. The other factor is that rent control isn’t binary. The policies differ.

For the other poster, Rockville and Gaithersburg have to pass their own laws. They haven’t done that.

Rent control has done better so far than 20 years of supply side policy. [/quote]

Where has rent control been a success?[/quote]

Montgomery County. [/quote]

+1. If developers no longer want to build multi family housing in Montgomery county, that’s a huge success. [/quote]

More importantly, rents are falling. Falling rents is the best reason of all that developers don’t want to build multi family housing in Montgomery County. [/quote]

Falling rents would explain a decrease, not a halt.

Seriously, though- can anyone point to an example where they think rent control is working well?[/quote]

Can you define "working well"? This thread is about an article indicating that rent control has led to less multifamily housing development, and many people in this thread have indicated that this means rent control is "working well." It sounds like you have a different definition.[/quote]

Increasing the supply and lowering the cost of housing.[/quote]

20 years of this approach resulted in a housing crisis (YIMBYs’ characterization, not mine). After one year of rent control, rents are lower. [/quote]

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