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Rent collections are down in New York

politico.com

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Re: Rent collections are down in New York

#71

Post by itake »

CursedSilicon wrote: post #42
jandrewrogers wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I anecdotally know of a few cases in Seattle where tenants with high incomes that could easily pay just don't. There is a subculture that actively encourages this type of behavior and the laws are setup such that there are almost no consequences for it. I've also met people who bragged about doing it. While rare, it is still common enough that it has become a real problem and has become socially acceptable in some ci…

As someone who also lives in Seattle, I'd be curious to see any verifiable citations to such a wild claim

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/seattle-area-landlord-tr...

One news article mentioned he worked in the medical field and when he was approved to move in, his income was $300k+).

The state actually ended up helping cover the lost rent and paid for the tenant’s legal bills for fighting the eviction.

https://www.discovery.org/a/nightmare-tenant-in-bellevue-con...

Re: Rent collections are down in New York

#72

Post by mmooss »

abhinai wrote: post #46
CursedSilicon wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who also lives in Seattle, I'd be curious to see any verifiable citations to such a wild claim

He said “anecdotally”. In any case, I was wondering that if I know a friend who does this, how could I ever present a verifiable citation for it? You may have to rethink your ask.

Sure, but the comment upthread could provide evidence that "it is still common enough that it has become a real problem".

Re: Rent collections are down in New York

#73

Post by mmooss »

nradov wrote: post #51
senectus1 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

sure because a property owner is going to not rent out a property and just take the month on month hit for having an empty property. They'll either rent it or sell it. There is a middle ground, just need to find that point.

Apparently you haven't been paying attention to what's happening in the rental market. Landlords in cities with strong tenant protection laws will absolutely leave a unit vacant for months until they find someone with a high income ratio and credit score. This leaves poorer people stuck with no options.

Do you have evidence? There is evidence that RealPage software illegally coordinated (maybe coordinates) landlords in keeping units off the market in order to reduce demand and increase prices for everyone.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/technology/realpage-doj-s...

Re: Rent collections are down in New York

#74

Post by itake »

CursedSilicon wrote: post #56
abhinai wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He said “anecdotally”. In any case, I was wondering that if I know a friend who does this, how could I ever present a verifiable citation for it? You may have to rethink your ask.

Anecdotes aren't usually admissible as evidence, is the thing

https://www.discovery.org/a/nightmare-tenant-in-bellevue-con...

I’m on phone but if you search “Kim Seattle landlord” you can get more details of various articles on the situation.

Re: Rent collections are down in New York

#75

Post by albedoa »

abhinai wrote: post #46
CursedSilicon wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who also lives in Seattle, I'd be curious to see any verifiable citations to such a wild claim

He said “anecdotally”. In any case, I was wondering that if I know a friend who does this, how could I ever present a verifiable citation for it? You may have to rethink your ask.

Okay. I can anecdotally tell you that user jandrewrogers does not know of any cases in Seattle where tenants with high incomes that could easily pay just don't. Our anecdotes cancel each other out.

> how could I ever present a verifiable citation for it?

There would likely be at least one (1) report of such a wild claim due to how wild it is. We wouldn't need anecdotes!

Re: Rent collections are down in New York

#76

Post by itake »

cyberax wrote: post #70
CursedSilicon wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who also lives in Seattle, I'd be curious to see any verifiable citations to such a wild claim

There are such people. I have a unit in Seattle that sits empty because I don't want to risk getting stuck with such tenants. In Seattle, you can't: 1. Evict people from November to April (it's "winter"). 2. Evict people with schoolchildren during the school year. 3. Run background checks on prospective tenants. 4. You _must_ rent to the first qualifying tenant. 5. You must offer 3 months in rent as compensation if y…

I explicitly bought in Lynwood so I’d have the option to rent out my house and avoid king county

Re: Rent collections are down in New York

#77

Post by mmooss »

margalabargala wrote: post #55
nradov wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would you like us to imagine? So far everything that we've tried at scale other than liberal democracy and capitalism has inevitably led to war, famine, and genocide. Western liberalism appears to be the only system that empirically works. Some would claim that "socialism with Chinese characteristics" works better, but if you look below the surface prosperity in first-tier cities the actual economic situation is…

Arguably, benevolent dictatorships tend to be the best. Singapore is a good example. The trouble is making a system that can guarantee the "benevolent" part in the longer term.

Make an argument, beyond one city (if it's true there - Singapore might be better off, on some of the best real estate in the world, with free elections)? All the most free, wealthy, safe, creative, innovative societies in the world are democratic.

And on what basis does some dictator get to tell others what to do? OK, I am the dictator and I'm telling you to give me 10% of your income and never post this nonsense in HN again. :)

Re: Rent collections are down in New York

#78

Post by itake »

woodruffw wrote: post #54
nradov wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tenant "protection" laws are the type of idiocy that economically illiterate progressive politicians always produce. They end up having the opposite effect by making property owners less willing to rent out to anyone. The only effective way to protect tenants is to set public policies that encourage new housing development. When there is a housing surplus, the laws of economics force landlords to treat tenants well.…

There's an economic floor for the price of housing: the amortized cost of the building and its maintenance, plus taxes and overhead imposed by governments, utilities, mortgages, etc. In other words: even in a plentiful housing market, there will always be someone who struggles to pay rent (including transiently), because a rational housing market can't offer $0 rents. Tenant protection laws exist to protect that pers…

Yeah… these laws for private landlords to subsidize housing for other families.

If you only have 1 rental property and your tenant doesn’t pay, that’s a 100% loss of revenue while your family personally bears the cost of supporting this other family.

Whereas corporate landlords can absorb these losses by raising rents on 100 doors to cover the families that refuse to pay

Re: Rent collections are down in New York

#79

Post by itake »

archagon wrote: post #62
nradov wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tenant "protection" laws are the type of idiocy that economically illiterate progressive politicians always produce. They end up having the opposite effect by making property owners less willing to rent out to anyone. The only effective way to protect tenants is to set public policies that encourage new housing development. When there is a housing surplus, the laws of economics force landlords to treat tenants well.…

Do you own your own house? Are you rich? I’ve known acquaintances who got de facto evicted without warning just because their landlord decided to make a few extra bucks. Were that to happen to me, I would not be able to rent in my current city at all due to the recent influx of wealthy tech workers. (Read: extremely high rents with ridiculous income requirements.) Fortunately, my city has robust tenant protections an…

I think you’re leaving details out of your story. If the landlord wants to make a few bucks, then they keep their good tenants (lowers vacancy rate, keeps repairs low, etc).

Kicking out good tenants cost landlords money.

Re: Rent collections are down in New York

#80

Post by archagon »

itake wrote: post #79
archagon wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you own your own house? Are you rich? I’ve known acquaintances who got de facto evicted without warning just because their landlord decided to make a few extra bucks. Were that to happen to me, I would not be able to rent in my current city at all due to the recent influx of wealthy tech workers. (Read: extremely high rents with ridiculous income requirements.) Fortunately, my city has robust tenant protections an…

I think you’re leaving details out of your story. If the landlord wants to make a few bucks, then they keep their good tenants (lowers vacancy rate, keeps repairs low, etc). Kicking out good tenants cost landlords money.

It’s pretty simple. There’s a tech boom or similar, a bunch of rich workers move in, rents go up. Landlord spikes rent by 30% to take advantage. You can see this happening in r/sanfrancisco today, for non-rent-controlled units.
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