Surprise: Mamdanis socialist NYC rent freeze benefits wealthier tenants the most

Mayor Zohran Mamdani has declared the rent freeze “a historic victory” that provides “the relief that working people across our city deserve.”In reality, a large number of those tenants could actually well afford to pay more.Ironically, they also tend to get the biggest savings.And the fact that they have a sweet deal pushes up prices for those facing today’s non-regulated rental market.Here’s the key: The Mamdani initiative has frozen the rent for all 960,000 rent-stabilized tenants, but Census records show 30% of them earn $100,000 or more; that’s 288,000 affluent households enjoying the rent freeze.There’s no requirement to be poor to score a rent-regulated apartment, a fact Mamdani, who lived in a rent-regulated unit before moving into Gracie Mansion, conveniently overlooks.So affluent households in the city’s top neighborhoods have benefited from rent regulation for decades while newcomers to the city crowd into small apartments and face high market-rate rents.Note, too, that those $100,000-plus households are raking in more than the citywide $85,000 median income for all households, whether homeowners or renters, including those in market-rate apartments.One might ask how many of them earn even more than that.But the city’s Rent Guidelines Board, which conducts its own housing research and which just approved the rent freeze, isn’t curious about such questions.In its 2025 Income and Affordability study, part of the basis for deciding on rent increases, the RGB masks the number of high-income rent-stabilized tenants by citing only a single gross figure: “For all rent stabilized tenants, the median household income was $60,000”The board prefers such questions as how many rent-stabilized tenants are still paying off student loans — a core Mamdani voting group.But there’s good reason to believe the extent of rent subsidies for the rich are even more significant in well-off neighborhoods such as the Upper West and Upper East Sides.It�...