Press Release
“No, the Rent Guidelines Board Is Not Considering Raising Rents by 16%”
Today, the staff of the Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) presented two reports with a great deal of data about the economics of rent stabilized housing in New York City, the third and forth in an annual series. In the past, a single data point from one of these reports has been reported on in the media as if it were the Board’s recommendation: the “commensurate rent increase” formula, which tells board members what kind of rent adjustment would keep landlord’s profits stable from year to year.
Make no mistake: this is just one data point, one that is particularly favorable to landlords, and in no way constitutes the Board or their staff’s recommended rent increase. In fact, the Board noted this year that “the commensurate adjustments described below do not constitute staff or Board recommendations for guideline adjustments. The various data points presented in this, and other, Rent Guidelines Board annual research reports…, can all be considered to determine appropriate rent adjustments.”
The Board’s job is to consider both tenants’ and landlords’ economic realities when making their annual rent adjustment decision, not to ensure that landlords immense profits remain stable from year to year. The board draws on seven reports, supplementary data sources requested by RGB members, public testimony by landlords, tenants, and advocates to make their final rent adjustment decision, which impacts over a million families in New York City.
We urge reporters and the public to understand this data in context: New York City real estate – including rent stabilized housing – remains highly profitable in historic terms, with landlord incomes up by nearly fifty percent since 1990.