What concerns me about rent stabilization, after living in Manhattan for 20 years, is that from my personal experience, it leads to slum lords. In St Paul, when the 3% rent control was voted in 4 of the major builders were forced to withdraw plans to build because it killed financing. Within a couple of weeks, the mayor of St Paul announced a proposed budget with a 15% hike in taxes. That would give landlords a 12% gap in income. The budget was not approved.
If the city council wants to approve rent stabilization at 3%, would they require taxes to be limited to no more than a 3% hike? They don't seem to understand basic economics. Are the people who support stabilization homeowners or renters? Are they simply voting for their own interests, or for the good of the city? Right now Minneapolis has about a 6% vacancy rate, and growing. Are we overbuilding big apartment buildings that will have to charge more to balance their budgets by growing vacancy rates?
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