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Can San Francisco just hurry up and build some more high rises already?
Or people could just stop moving to SF already. Supply and demand works two ways, and it's not like the SF housing shortage is a secret.
Can San Francisco just hurry up and build some more high rises already?
I don't believe they expect the current or a future tenant to actually pay $8000/month. It's conceivable that they might lower it to far below $8000 as soon as the current tenant is gone, and then rent it out to someone else -- maybe the landlord just doesn't like this tenant.
Of course, none of this is allowed in a rent-controlled unit, and all pre-1979 apartments in San Francisco are rent-controlled, so my guess is that this hundred-year-old multi-unit building is actually a set of condos, and the owner of one had been renting it out to this tenant; in such a situation, rent control is generally not in effect, for the same reasons it's not in effect when one is renting out a single-family house.
Or on the other hand, maybe the landlord has someone lined up already to pay $8000 a month. Either way, this is pretty insane. That kind of insanity is what just made me leave California entirely.
When I was at school participating in a legal clinic I had lots of clients facing eviction and we had plenty of tricks to use. Most popular was to demand a jury trial, which could take a month or two to organize, during which time the tenant wasn't paying rent and so could save enough to move. The basic procedure: http://www.courts.ca.gov/27723.htm
I honestly wonder if anyone will pay that? If the landlord ends up having to rent it for something less, isn't this basically just using the rent to force out the tenant? Or on the other hand, maybe the landlord has someone lined up already to pay $8000 a month. Either way, this is pretty insane. That kind of insanity is what just made me leave California entirely.
This unit also was listed for $8k/month and is about a block away: http://www.apartments.com/1818-mason-st-san-francisco-ca/3pq...
In no way am I defending the landlord, and I know nothing about the rents in that area of SF, but the news clip fails to state when the last increase was. It also doesn't mention how large the apartment is, or what a comparable rental in that area would be. The renter says he's been living there a long time. If the rent hasn't increased in 20 years, there may be an expectation of an increase at some point. That doesn…
It has become extremely competitive for those rent controlled units and those units distort the rental prices for the non-rent controlled units (the market prices are forced upwards while the rent controlled prices are fairly stagnant).
Also, landlords would obviously like to be able to collect more rent for the same unit if that's what the market would allow, thus there is financial incentive to find/create loopholes in that ordinance.
Can San Francisco just hurry up and build some more high rises already?
Or people could just stop moving to SF already. Supply and demand works two ways, and it's not like the SF housing shortage is a secret.
Finding a place to live there absolutely sucks and I hope someone eventually makes progress towards fixing it but I'm not sure telling people to stop taking good jobs is going to fly.