A state appeals court in New York has overturned a lower court and ruled that a November 2022 decision by the Rent Guidelines Board in Kingston to roll back rents with a 15% cut—believed to be the first government-mandated rent rollback in U.S. history—was legal and can be enacted.

As the state appeals court ruling was made, the Hudson Valley Property Owners Association (HVPOA)—a plaintiff in the lawsuit challenging the Kingston rollback—moved quickly to file a lawsuit in federal court aiming to halt vacancy surveys that could result in rent stabilization in the city of Poughkeepsie and the Village of Nyack.

In the summer of 2022, Kingston, which sits halfway between NYC and Albany on the Hudson River, opted to invoke New York's Emergency Tenant Protection Act (ETPA), which permits municipalities to declare a housing emergency that is grounds for rent stabilization if the city's vacancy rate is below 5%.