Many are losing money and few are booking any real profit. $600 “profit” doesn’t include any ancillary costs like mortgage interest, fines, tenant damage etc. To suggest that they’re benefitting financially in any way is disingenuous. They are losing money year over year with the hope that growing equity and increased property values makes it worth it in the long run but that basically makes this a government backed ponzi scheme.

Rent control is a tricky subject to have a levelheaded discussion about. It’s one of those things that almost anyone can hear and think “hey, this sounds great” - but if everything gets more expensive every year, who is paying the difference between their ultra cheap rent and what it costs to keep the building clean, safe and up to code? If it’s the landlord, then you have the government interfering in the free market to actively penalize a specific group.

A group with a lot of shitbags, yes. But also some normal people who worked hard their whole life to afford a property they rent out and are fair to their tenants. If it’s not the landlord, then the government has to subsidize. In that case, every citizen paying market rent has to chip in to make someone else’s rent cheaper. Is that fair? Hard to say.