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Rent controls do sometimes specify how much rent can be raised year over year. Drop it too low one year, be stuck with relatively low prices in the short term.

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They regulate rent increases in Oakland at least. Of course our landlord took the maximum allowed rent increase each time, as if it were the required increase rather than the maximum.

I don't live in the bay area and pay half the rent for three times the space in Boston... not exactly a small town... the Bay Area was already unattractive for me financially and I have an advanced degree in an engineering field.

I, like many of my peers, moved out of Oakland this year over the summer. For a while, I was considering staying around and trying to lock in a lower rent on a larger space, but rents really didn't budge.

Your effective rent _did_ drop, but landlords did it by offering 2-3 months of free rent on a one-year lease (with old rates applying.) It doesn't take Nostradamus to see what happens in 12 months: maximum allowed rent increase and no more sweetheart deals, meaning an effective increase of like 35% (or move again to try and get another deal somewhere else.)

It wasn't worth it to me, so now I'm paying less than half my previous rent for around 2x as much space in SLC.

I don't recall non rent-controlled apartments dropping rents all that much in the Bay... ever.

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