Fair enough. I find granting value to societal stability to be troubling, since it tends to privilege people who are already privileged - wealthy whites, for example.
I mean no offense, but I'm sure that the Latino families in The Mission and the Asian families in Japantown, Chinatown, and the Outer Sunset/Richmond [0] greatly appreciate the stability that rent control provides in a city that's inexplicably rabidly anti-development. :)
[0] To the knee-jerk downvoters: look up the demographic stats for those districts before you downvote. :)
One man's problem is another man's social policy. I don't see this preference as anything more than a societal decision to give some value to social stability.