Rent control and other government instituted economic controls are what is creating the housing shortages in these popular 'tech' cities. People in general are ignorant of basic economic principals which leads to quotes like the one spouted off by your girlfriend.
Ask HN: How do you feel about people who say “Techies” are raising the rent?
11–18 of 18 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you feel about people who say “Techies” are raising the rent?
#12>keep raising rent, because they know they can.
What is bad about this? It's a scarce resource so they charge more. Ideally they charge enough to keep 100% occupancy and make the most amount of money possible.
Re: Ask HN: How do you feel about people who say “Techies” are raising the rent?
#13It's happening in Seattle. A building might be 3 floors and have 12 units per floor, built 50-70 years ago. Each of these units rents for $800-900. Now that Amazon is building 70,000 units of office space, people are predicting that another 70,000 people are going to be moving nearby for work. And so landlords are seeing a lot of people willing to pay a higher rate for these apartments. This requires evicting the ~24…
It is not the fault of the landlords. Almost anyone would do the same given the same situation and ability to make a large amount of money. The problem is that the City of Seattle allows for the creation of new housing without the creation of enough affordable housing. It would also be reasonable to index the level of income for new city-mandated apartments to the minimum wage. So if we have someone working for $15/h…
> This is where the city government should take control, and mandate more low to medium income housing, and more micro apartments.
And where will the money to build these dwellings come from?
Re: Ask HN: How do you feel about people who say “Techies” are raising the rent?
#14I feel that people who are saying that are ignorant.
Even though technically they are partially correct: techies are pushing prices up.
But, of course, that's the SF voters who are mostly at fault here: it's them who limit new housing.
Re: Ask HN: How do you feel about people who say “Techies” are raising the rent?
#15Rent control and other government instituted economic controls are what is creating the housing shortages in these popular 'tech' cities. People in general are ignorant of basic economic principals which leads to quotes like the one spouted off by your girlfriend.
Uh, No. NIMBYism and lack of policies to ensure enough low-income housing is planned and built.
Techies can't rent low-income housing under normal circumstances.
There must be low-income housing available in a city to ensure that there are places for low income folks with jobs to have shelter. Without these people, the city could not function properly.
Rent control may be necessary in extreme situations where there is a lack of housing for low-income families, but only as a last resort.
Disclosure: I'm a landlord and derive part of my income from rental property I own.
Re: Ask HN: How do you feel about people who say “Techies” are raising the rent?
#16Rent control and other government instituted economic controls are what is creating the housing shortages in these popular 'tech' cities. People in general are ignorant of basic economic principals which leads to quotes like the one spouted off by your girlfriend.
Uh, No. NIMBYism and lack of policies to ensure enough low-income housing is planned and built. Techies can't rent low-income housing under normal circumstances. There must be low-income housing available in a city to ensure that there are places for low income folks with jobs to have shelter. Without these people, the city could not function properly. Rent control may be necessary in extreme situations where there i…
I'm not saying it's a good idea, but low income workers can and do commute.
Re: Ask HN: How do you feel about people who say “Techies” are raising the rent?
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is not the fault of the landlords. Almost anyone would do the same given the same situation and ability to make a large amount of money. The problem is that the City of Seattle allows for the creation of new housing without the creation of enough affordable housing. It would also be reasonable to index the level of income for new city-mandated apartments to the minimum wage. So if we have someone working for $15/h…
> This is where the city government should take control, and mandate more low to medium income housing, and more micro apartments. And where will the money to build these dwellings come from?
The popular suggestion is to tax (land) developers. The unpopular suggestion is rent control.
Re: Ask HN: How do you feel about people who say “Techies” are raising the rent?
#18It is what it is. We're all making decisions which are in our own best interest. Tech people want to live close to work and can afford it. Is it wrong to make a high salary and spend your money at your own discretion? Landlords can charge more because there's greater demand. Charging less leaves money on the table unless you refuse to rent to people in tech. Are landlords really being greedy in this situation? Are we…
> Tech people want to live close to work and can afford it.
Aren't much of the complaints about tech people who don't want to live close to work? E.g., the large number who work in Menlo Park (Facebook), Mountain View (Google), and Cupertino (Apple) but live in San Francisco?
At least that's the impression I got from the brouhaha a few months ago over the buses those companies run between SF and their aforementioned offices.