Originally published in Entrepreneur

By Joe Edgar

Oregon recently made real estate history, becoming the first state in the union to implement rent control statewide.

I know the Oregon real estate market well since I grew up there and bought my first rental property when I was 14. Given that, I know that Oregonians mean well with this new law; they want to control the out-of-control cost of living in their state.

But I have to disagree with rent control as the solution. In fact, this effort to help and support the state’s most vulnerable residents will unfortunately negatively impact them the most.

Why? Because rent control simply doesn’t work. Rather, it drives down construction, discourages investment in new rental properties and generally disrupts the rental market in fundamental ways.

And this is far more than just an Oregon story. Similar rent control bills have recently been considered in California, New York and Colorado as well, and the city of Chicago is working on its own related regulations.

It won’t work in any of those areas either.

Read the full article in Entrepreneur.

Joe Edgar is CEO of TenantCloud.