This month had a particularly sparky start because of the buyers in question — both couples are former renters and present friends, for whom I found their first rental apartments together, and now, their first owned homes. If that's not a journey of joy, I don't know what is. And I'm w

ishing you joyful journeys, too, as this new season begins. You know you can always me from the road if you need a guide and friend!

The new rent laws have important protective provisions that will keep more rent-regulated units stabilized and affordable, curb unlawful evictions, abolish blacklisting, and limit the costs of applying for an apartment to a reasonable max, with a $20 cap per applicant for application fee and background check. That's all great news for tenants. T

he cons: some provisions will surely have consequences that hurt the parties they're planned to protect. While limiting landlords' ability to collect more than one month's security sounds like an effective way to prevent owners from making unreasonable upfront demands, it leaves landlords without an easy offset to manage the risk of taking on tenants who lack in one of the major metrics of lease-worthiness (for instance, applicants who make less than 40x the rent, international students without US guarantors, or pet owners whose large animals could do damage). Those categories of applicants could have a harder time finding a place to rent under the new laws. Additionally, the laws limit rent increases after owners make major improvements — and the hope is that that will stifle abuses of power by big developers — but the caps are so low that it will be difficult for many smaller landlords to justify renovating at all, making a decline in the quality and livability of at least some apartment stock almost inevitable.

As is typical, neither party line has perfectly accounted for the implemented realities of well-meaning laws. So it's good to read up: City & State, The New York Times(here and here), and theNew YorkPosthave the most clear and thorough coverage I've seen.