More than 30 years ago, New Mexico enacted an ordinance prohibiting rent control measures in the state.
Now, a leading Democratic senator wants to repeal the law.
Sen. Linda Lopez, D-Albuquerque, announced she plans to introduce legislation that would allow local municipalities to decide whether they want to initiate rent control measures in the hopes the move could lead to more affordable housing options for New Mexicans being financially squeezed out of the rental market.
Lopez said her proposal would “leave it to local communities and municipalities if they so choose to implement rent control for their local communities.”
She said accessing affordable housing and rental facilities is a statewide issue, adding the legislation — which she is still crafting — will “provide ways to help New Mexicans keep a roof over their heads.”
With housing and rental prices rising around the state — by as much as 40 percent for a one-bedroom apartment since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, according to data complied by apartmentlist.com — advocates for affordable housing are looking for ways to ease the financial burden on people struggling to pay the monthly rent or mortgage.
The reasons for the prices hikes are familiar: inflation, job growth in certain regions and rising homeowner costs, including mortgage payments that are pushing many prospective homeowners into the rental market.
“There’s been a steady skyrocketing of rental prices,” said Bex Hampton, an organizer with the People’s Housing Project, a volunteer grassroots organization advocating for affordable housing options.
She said Lopez’s measure would not enact rent control measures statewide. But she added it “would give local communities like Albuquerque the right to enact rent controls if they choose to do.”
Last month, the Albuquerque City Council voted 7-2 against a proposed memorial to ask the Legislature to do away with a ban on rent control initiatives.
Based on November data from apartmentlist.com, the average price of a one-bedroom apartment in Albuquerque is $1,086 per month, while the average price of a two-bedroom apartment is $1,346.
In Santa Fe, those average rent prices are $1,197 and $1,421, respectively.
Ramona Malczynski, a member of the United Graduate Workers of the University of New Mexico, said the rent on her three-bedroom house near the university will go up from $1,275 to $1,400 in January. While she said she understands her landlord’s right to raise the rent, the bump represents a roughly 10 percent increase.
She said as she and her partner are contemplating moving into a larger place and starting a family. But rent increases around the city are making that prospect less likely.
“We had been thinking of moving for a couple of years, but now we can’t move because anywhere around here is the same price for same place,” she said. “We would have to room in a studio to get something we want to afford.”
New Mexico is one of more than 35 states that have some sort of prohibition on rent control measures. Many histories on the concept of rent control say it started in the United States sometime between World Wars I and II and was driven in part by post-war demand for limited housing options.
Reilly White, an associate professor of economics at the University of New Mexico, wrote in an email Monday that rent stabilization measures gained popularity in the 1970s in response to the inflationary period of the era. “Today,” he added, “rent control can be found in some expensive cities with a large tenant population.”
In a phone interview, White said there are pros and cons to rent control initiatives.
The pros: “It can help stabilize rental markets in the short term and that can encourage rentals to be more affordable,” he said.
The cons: Rent control measures can discourage investment and maintenance of rental properties.
“One of the dominant factors in rent is supply and demand,” he said. “To get builders to build more property, they have to feel they are going to be compensated for their investments. So rent control discourages investors from building new properties and discourages investors from keeping up properties they have. It tends to have a negative impact on those places and property in the long term.”
Christopher Erickson, a professor of economics at New Mexico State University, said rent control measures “effectively are attacks on the landowner. You are forcing the landholder to charge less, which means they have less take-home pay, if you will.”
He said such measures may have the unintended consequence of reducing housing rental options as those landlords choose to sell those sites or convert them to condos.
Rent control, Erickson said, is an “understandable but not very well thought out idea.”
Lopez’s announcement preceded Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s announcement Monday of the awarding of more than $20 million in grants to 41 groups in the state to help provide housing stability services.
The Housing Stability Program includes funding for mediation between landlords and tenants, money for legal services or attorney’s fees related to eviction proceedings and “housing navigators” who help households access Emergency Rental Assistance program or find housing.
