181–190 of 342 posts
> The 9.2% drop in the average one-bedroom San Francisco rent of $3,360 still leaves it unaffordable for the vast majority of city residents. Yeah, that's not much of a drop.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Many REITs have scooped all large apartment complexes in the bay area. So, they have been jacking up rents ad infinitum. Now these REITs got their comeuppance. One on Villa St is owned by Avalon Bay $AVB
The mega-REITS who bought all the affordable apartments in the bay area deserve what is coming to them. I rented a slummy 500 sq ft apartment (literal roaches in the kitchen) in Mountain View for $2000/month back in 2015 and just last fall, fully 3 years after moving out, I got a shakedown letter from them demanding I pay up some $300 "overdue balance" or else they fuck up my credit score. This is the first I ever he…
This article seems to be based on only a few transactions, as not a lot of people are actually moving right now. I manage a couple of properties in the Bay Area, so I keep a close eye on these things. What I'm seeing is not a drop in rents, but an increase in $0 deposits and many weeks of free rent upon move in (sometimes 6+ weeks). Landlords are very reluctant to lower rents, because with the statewide rent control…
> Landlords are very reluctant to lower rents, because with the statewide rent control that limits increases to 5% a year, we're incentivized to keep the rents high and give months of free rent, just so our base rate doesn't drop. God what a short-sighted policy. Not that I expect rent control to go well but that's nuts.
We'll see where this takes us, but obviously if the population is dropping by 20% a year, keeping the theoretical option to charge a rent of 4k when the actual value is 2k won't matter.
Also, I'd like to add that landlords are incentivized to charge high rents anyway. Even without rent control there's not going to be $800 rents in San Francisco anytime soon, sorry.
This is just a holding pattern, right now. There's a slim chance that things could go back to normal, say with a quickly developed vaccine through decisive national leadership, and a lot of luck. In that case, those prices will look sensible again.
I think the odds of that are extremely low... but they're not 0%.
Probably, though, prices are going to crash. Some landlords will accept the inevitable and start charging less to rent out their rooms; if things are really caving in as people expect, landlords may be reluctant, but if it's that or lose money on empty rooms, they'll lower prices. And if things get that bad, then landlords will be lowering prices.
Think of all the AirBnB hosts making 0$, all the landlords with mortgages depending on some kind of rent to meet their bills. They'll lead the way, and others will follow, just to keep up.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Landlords are very reluctant to lower rents, because with the statewide rent control that limits increases to 5% a year, we're incentivized to keep the rents high and give months of free rent, just so our base rate doesn't drop. God what a short-sighted policy. Not that I expect rent control to go well but that's nuts.
Rent control has a lot of unintended consequences. It is supposed to be a short term band-aid for bad zoning policies, but the zoning policies actually have to be fixed if you want to remove the band-aid.
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You can't even evict people right now due to the emergency regulations. I wonder why the landlords are even bothering right now? Wait until after, evict for non-payment (one of the only easy ways to evict), then either try to collect or send back rent to collections and claim it as a loss and move on.
We were once evicted from an in-law unit without cause. They wanted the space back for use as a home office. (I suspect that’s extremely common these days) In hindsight, we should have held out for a “make us move” offer. $10K’s is typical for that sort of situation in Berkeley. We’re too nice, and moved without a fight, in return the landlord came up with some BS reason to withhold our security deposit.
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He probably can at the end of the lease, but usually not in the middle. I've done it, but it seems to take an open-minded management company. It also depends on things such as how much money/time/effort the landlord want to put into "turning" an apartment, the number of corporate long-term rentals a complex has, what the landlord thinks is going to happen in the near future, and even what property management software…
Right, I asked. And they literally laughed at me, which is what I expected.
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Do you know when the mortgage payment forgiveness for publicly backed mortgages runs until? I heard it was 6 months or 1 year (not sure which). Do we expect a reckoning after this ie. if the economy is still suffering then
It's a year. If things are still bad then it's likely to be extended longer. Especially if the Dems win the election in the fall.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Landlords are very reluctant to lower rents, because with the statewide rent control that limits increases to 5% a year, we're incentivized to keep the rents high and give months of free rent, just so our base rate doesn't drop. God what a short-sighted policy. Not that I expect rent control to go well but that's nuts.
It seems to work alright to me. We'll see where this takes us, but obviously if the population is dropping by 20% a year, keeping the theoretical option to charge a rent of 4k when the actual value is 2k won't matter. Also, I'd like to add that landlords are incentivized to charge high rents anyway. Even without rent control there's not going to be $800 rents in San Francisco anytime soon, sorry. This is just a holdi…
As a former NYer, I'm hearing stories from friends who got out when offices closed. Many relocated back to their parent's homes (mostly to suburbs in Indianapolis, Cleveland, or NJ) or to family vacation homes (in Maine, Poconos, or Florida). Selfishly, I hope these friends thrive in these new locales, whether that's through remote work or finding new opportunities. I hope they get out of their inflated NYC rents and…
> Selfishly Not to pick on you cause I agree, but I feel like this is a problem with a lot of analysis of this phenomenon. A lot of people really really really hope this happens and the growth of megacities reverses. WFH/Remote job growth is the mechanism they are counting on because outside the cities there is so little economic dynamism, outside of a few firms in a few locations that are almost the only game in tow…
Any job can be enhanced with additional tech literacy, but I don't believe we will achieve a world where the majority of work is telecommutable. Spending my salary enriches the local economy a little bit, but I am taking advantage of a lower cost of living without making much of a major investment. In my current arrangement, I'm not going to rent office space, hire an intern, work with local businesses, or do other actions expected of a small business.
In my "selfish" prediction, some of those employees are caught in a dilemma when lockdown orders are lifted. Spoiled by the potential of life outside of the megacities, they start businesses in their new locales. And yes, maybe these small businesses will lease offices, warehouses, or plants locally. Maybe then we'll see nimble companies competing against the SF/NYC incumbents.
Optimistically speaking, we may even greater diversity in tech, as locals join the workforce and industries that were suffocated by SF/NYC costs find space to grow. In particular, I'm always perplexed that agritech, manufacturing, design, and entertainment feel the need to stay SF or NYC-based.
This article seems to be based on only a few transactions, as not a lot of people are actually moving right now. I manage a couple of properties in the Bay Area, so I keep a close eye on these things. What I'm seeing is not a drop in rents, but an increase in $0 deposits and many weeks of free rent upon move in (sometimes 6+ weeks). Landlords are very reluctant to lower rents, because with the statewide rent control…