Rent Control Laws State-by-State: The 2026 Guide

Rent control in the United States is a patchwork. A small number of states have real, enforceable statewide caps on how much a landlord can raise rent in a year. A larger number have preemption laws that forbid their own cities from passing local rent caps. And in the middle sit a few states that allow home rule, where cities and towns can pass their own ordinances and regularly do. This guide walks through the 2026 landscape in detail.

The rent control map at a glance

As of 2026, four jurisdictions have statewide rent increase caps that apply to ordinary residential rentals: California, Oregon, Washington, and New Jersey (through its municipalities under home rule). The District of Columbia has its own long-running rent stabilization program. Minnesota does not have a state cap, but Saint Paul has enacted a local one and Minneapolis holds the legal authority to do so. New York permits rent stabilization in designated localities, most notably New York City.

Roughly 32 states preempt local rent control, meaning cities and counties cannot pass their own caps even if residents want them. The remaining states are technically open to local action but have few or no municipalities that have adopted rent control. The result is that most American renters live under no rent cap at all.

California: AB 1482 and the local layers

California's Tenant Protection Act of 2019, better known as AB 1482, is codified at California Civil Code §§ 1946.2 and 1947.12. It caps annual rent increases on covered units at 5% plus the regional Consumer Price Index, with an absolute ceiling of 10% per 12-month period. For the period running August 2025 through July 2026, the cap in the Bay Area is around 6.3%, while in San Diego County it tops out near 8.8%. Landlords can only raise rent twice in a 12-month window, and the combined increase cannot exceed the cap.

AB 1482 carves out important exemptions. Single-family homes and condominiums are exempt if the owner is not a corporation, a real estate investment trust, or an LLC where a corporation is a member. Duplexes where the owner lives in one unit are exempt. Buildings completed within the last 15 years are exempt on a rolling basis. Section 8 and deed-restricted affordable housing are exempt.

Beyond the state law, California cities have layered on stricter local rules. Los Angeles enforces the Rent Stabilization Ordinance from 1979, which covers roughly 630,000 units built before October 1978. San Francisco's Rent Ordinance, also dating to 1979, covers multifamily buildings built before June 1979. San Jose, Berkeley, Oakland, Santa Monica, West Hollywood, and more than a dozen other cities run their own rent boards with their own caps, often well below AB 1482. When state and local law both apply, tenants get whichever is more protective.

New York: HSTPA 2019 and NYC rent stabilization

New York's rent regulation universe revolves around New York City, where approximately 960,000 rent-stabilized units and another few tens of thousands of pre-1947 rent-controlled units make up nearly half of the city's rental stock. The Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 (HSTPA) permanently extended and strengthened these programs after decades of temporary renewals.

HSTPA eliminated vacancy decontrol, the mechanism that had removed units from stabilization once rent crossed a threshold. It closed the high-income deregulation loophole. It capped security deposits at one month, banned tenant blacklists, and extended rent stabilization protections to localities outside New York City that opt in under the Emergency Tenant Protection Act. Buffalo, Kingston, Newburgh, and Poughkeepsie have all declared emergencies and opted in since 2019.

Annual rent increases on stabilized units are set each year by the New York City Rent Guidelines Board. For the 2025-2026 period, the board approved increases of roughly 2.75% on one-year leases and 5.25% on two-year leases.

Oregon: SB 608 and the 2023 adjustment

Oregon became the first state in the nation to enact statewide rent control when Senate Bill 608 passed in 2019. The statute, codified primarily at ORS 90.323 and ORS 90.600, originally capped annual rent increases at 7% plus the Consumer Price Index for the West Region. In 2023, the legislature added a hard ceiling of 10% to prevent runaway caps during inflationary periods.

For 2026, Oregon's Department of Administrative Services set the maximum allowable rent increase at 9.5%. Landlords must provide 90 days written notice before any increase, and no increase may be imposed during the first year of tenancy. Buildings less than 15 years old are exempt on a rolling basis. Oregon also limits no-fault evictions after the first year of tenancy and requires relocation assistance in most no-fault cases.

Washington: HB 1217 joins the club

Washington became the third state with a broad statewide cap when Governor Bob Ferguson signed House Bill 1217 into law on May 7, 2025. The statute limits annual rent increases to 7% plus CPI or 10%, whichever is lower, mirroring the Oregon and California structures. Manufactured home communities face a stricter 5% cap. The law took effect immediately upon signing and applies to most residential tenancies, with exemptions for new construction (first 12 years), owner-occupied accessory dwellings, and certain affordable housing.

Minnesota: Saint Paul's 3% cap and Minneapolis's dormant authority

Minnesota has no statewide rent law, but it also does not preempt local action. On November 2, 2021, Saint Paul voters approved a ballot initiative capping residential rent increases at 3% per year, the strictest standing cap in any major American city. The ordinance took effect May 1, 2022. The City Council added exemption procedures in 2023 and, in 2025, exempted newly constructed buildings from the cap to address concerns about stalled development.

Minneapolis voters approved a separate charter amendment in November 2021 granting the City Council authority to enact rent stabilization. Four years later, that authority remains unused. Mayor Jacob Frey signaled he would veto a proposed 3% cap in 2022, and a June 2023 procedural vote killed the most recent draft ordinance. Minneapolis technically has the power to cap rents but has not done so.

District of Columbia: the Rental Housing Act of 1985

DC runs the largest and oldest rent stabilization program outside New York. Codified at DC Code § 42-3502, the program covers roughly 80,000 units in buildings constructed before 1976 with five or more units. Exempt categories include federally subsidized housing, owner-occupied buildings with four or fewer units, and all post-1975 construction.

The standard annual adjustment is CPI-W plus 2% for most tenants, with a statutory cap of 10%. A 2024 temporary amendment, extended in 2025, lowered the cap to the lesser of 6% or CPI-W plus 2%, with a cumulative two-year limit of 12%. Seniors and tenants with disabilities face lower caps. Vacancy increases between tenants are limited to 10%, preventing the kind of decontrol that has eroded stabilized stock elsewhere.

New Jersey: home rule and roughly 117 local ordinances

New Jersey has no statewide cap, but it also does not preempt local rent control. Under home rule authority, about 117 municipalities covering nearly two-thirds of the state's renter households have adopted their own ordinances. Newark, Jersey City, Elizabeth, Paterson, Hoboken, and Union City all regulate rent. The specific caps, exemptions, and enforcement mechanisms vary significantly from town to town.

New Jersey's Newly Constructed Multiple Dwellings Law (N.J.S.A. 2A:42-84.1 et seq.) shields buildings built after June 25, 1987 from local rent control for up to 30 years, provided the developer files proper notice with the municipal construction official before the certificate of occupancy issues. A 2024 Appellate Division decision reinforced that failure to file this notice forfeits the exemption entirely, a growing source of litigation as early-generation buildings age out of protection.

Preemption states: where cities cannot act

In at least 32 states, state law forbids local governments from enacting rent control. Florida's preemption sits at Fla. Stat. § 166.043 and allows a narrow emergency exception, but only if the local government formally declares a grave housing emergency and voters approve the measure, and any such ordinance automatically expires after one year. Texas preempts local rent control through Chapter 214 of the Local Government Code. Arizona, Colorado (which has repeatedly considered repealing its preemption without success, most recently with HB23-1115 in 2023), Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin, and others all bar local rent caps by statute.

What preemption means in practice: even when a city council wants to act, residents vote for it, and a housing crisis is documented, the city is legally powerless. Advocates must win at the state capitol first, which has proven difficult in almost every preemption state.

Recent changes and the 2024-2026 wave

The landscape is shifting. Washington became the third statewide-cap state in May 2025. Colorado activists mounted serious repeal efforts in 2023 and 2024 that fell short in the State Senate. Several New York cities have opted into ETPA coverage since HSTPA. Saint Paul has amended its ordinance twice to address developer concerns, and its revisions have become a reference point for other cities considering caps. Minneapolis remains a wild card. Meanwhile, preemption states have largely held the line, and in several cases have strengthened their statutes to block workarounds.

What to check in your city

Even if your state has no rent cap, local rules often matter more than tenants realize. Just-cause eviction laws exist in jurisdictions with no rent control at all, including Seattle, Portland (since 2019), and New Jersey statewide under the Anti-Eviction Act. Security deposit caps vary by state, with limits ranging from one to three months of rent. Habitability standards, fair housing protections, and required notice periods for rent increases are set at the state or local level and apply regardless of rent control.

Several cities maintain rent registries that record every covered unit, its base rent, and annual increases. LA, San Francisco, Berkeley, and Santa Monica all run public or semi-public registries. Saint Paul and Washington DC maintain their own databases. Check the registry before you sign a lease or raise rent, because an unregistered increase is often legally void.

The bottom line for 2026: most American renters are not protected by any rent cap, but the small group that is benefits from some of the most detailed housing regulation in US law. Knowing which camp you are in, and which specific statute governs your unit, is the first step to understanding your rights.