The rent-control ordinances that cities sometimes enact usually try to restrict rent increases to the amount of the owners' cost increases. a) What is the cost to a landlord of renting an apartment to you for $500 if someone else is
willing to pay $600? What is the benefit of renting to you?
b) What effect will a rent-control ordinance have on the cost to landlords of letting an
apartment unit stand idle, or of using it themselves, or of allowing relatives to live in it rent-
free?
c) What concept of cost do you think supporters of rent controls have in mind when they
speak of basing maximum rents on landlords' costs?