The Impact Of Removing Rent Control

"...There was a mass exodus from Cambridge after [rent] controls were lifted in 1995. Their reasons for moving were varied – rent increases, condo conversion – but the vast majority of tenants who sought relief from the city’s Housing Assistance Office and local tenant organizations had had no previous plans to move. A January 1998 Atlantic Marketing research study commissioned by the city showed that rents increased by 54 percent in formerly rent-controlled apartments and the rate of condo conversions soared to mid-1980s levels."