What a New Betting Market for Housing Prices Means for Home Buyers and Sellers
Opinion | The Affordability Problem in One Chart
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2026/02/03/landlords-affordable-housing-new-york/
Rent Control has it all in New York City - from bankruptcies, to politics, to mice, and even vacancies, $26,310$ of them. In Boston, rent control is experiencing a bit of political resurgence. It was banned in 1994, but recent candidates for mayor have included it within their platform policies.
We probably already come into the discussion on rent control with some familiarity about its impacts. From our principles of economics class we recognize that there are likely both winners and losers in most cases — those who can find a unit and those who can’t (not to mention the impact on landlords). We’re probably also familiar with the typical high level commentary on the topic (right). That it’s the second best to destroy a city. That it leads to under investment….
The various voices in the debate around rental control spand the continuum from — we shouldn’t do it, we should reduce exclusionary zoning if we want to improve affordable housing,
To help focus our conversation in therefore, I’d like us to consider the following three categorizations of questions.
Housing Market Spillovers: Evidence from the End of Rent Control in Cambridge, Massachusetts