Are you renting in New York? The City is about to have a very public conversation about housing. The proposed “rental ripoff” hearings planned for the mayor’s first 100 days signal a familiar pattern: when affordability becomes acute, the political response is scrutiny before supply. It makes for good headlines. It rarely makes for more housing.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth. NYC doesn’t have a pricing problem as much as it has a math problem. Demand keeps compounding, capital keeps showing up, and supply remains constrained by zoning, timelines, and politics. You can interrogate landlords all you want, but unless you build more housing, especially at scale, prices don’t come down. They just move, consolidate, or go dark.

Markets adapt faster than policy. Capital is patient, renters are not, and New York remains a magnet for talent and wealth despite the noise. The city’s housing future won’t be decided in hearings. It will be decided by whether we choose growth over theater and supply over slogans.

https://nypost.com/2026/01/05/us-news/rental-ripoff-hearings-blasting-abusive-nyc-landlords-to-take-place-during-mamdanis-first-100-days-in-office/