Why should landlords extract more from their renters, just because they can?
The landlords' operating costs haven't gone up significantly either. They own the property outright, the same maintenance crew is around, they're down a leasing agent and manager from a year ago, and property tax increases are capped in this city. Any rent increase they can push beyond inflation directly lines their pockets.
aka, they are charging the market rate, which other people in the market are willing to pay for the use of the building.
The increase in rental income for landlords mean that there should be pressure to build more buildings to let out. Market forces _should_ cause stablization, if only it is allowed to work long term. Short term, there will be pain, because you can't build a new building instantly, but this pain is what causes new buildings to spring up. Market-distorting forces, such as building density/height regulation, and local residents' complaints (NIMBYism) is the cause for the lack of stablization imho.