Rent control is a factor, though. If expenses go higher but you are not permitted to raise rents enough to cover them, you margin goes down. If it passes after the fact it devalues your holdings as it increases risk to any potential buyer.
Of course. I don’t know why I wrote rent control, but I would never want to buy in a location that either is, or is likely to go rent control. I guess around here you’d want a somewhat upper middle class area that is gentrifying up. Because a lot of middle class areas are headed down in socioeconomic levels. And that is where, in the future, politicians will come whoring for votes by stagnating rents.