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California Approves Statewide Rent Control

nytimes.com

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Re: California Approves Statewide Rent Control

#471

Post by coliveira »

AmericanChopper wrote: post #442
human20190310 wrote: post #322

There is no functioning market to begin with. Housing prices and rent are through the roof in California, yet supply is not rising to meet demand, largely because existing owners oppose new construction. Turnabout is fair play. If owners organize politically to control supply, tenants can organize politically to control prices.

> yet supply is not rising to meet demand, largely because existing owners oppose new construction. So when over-regulation drives up prices, the appropriate response is to introduce new regulations to fight the other regulations? Because that’s exactly what this is. It won’t even improve the problem. The problem is that there are more people who want to live in California than there is housing. The reason for that i…

Talking about "regulation" doesn't really say anything. All laws, good and bad are regulation. There is regulation passed by businesses, and very few passed by citizens. When you cry about regulation, it is similar to crying about the water being wet or over having to breath. In modern society, very few things are done without regulation. Even basic rights that we take for granted, such as freedom of speech, are guaranteed in the US because there is a piece of regulation, passed more than two centuries ago, called "constitution".

Re: California Approves Statewide Rent Control

#473

Post by dgzl »

human20190310 wrote: post #322

There is no functioning market to begin with. Housing prices and rent are through the roof in California, yet supply is not rising to meet demand, largely because existing owners oppose new construction. Turnabout is fair play. If owners organize politically to control supply, tenants can organize politically to control prices.

California is also one of the most taxed and regulated states. Do you think that is a coincidence?

Re: California Approves Statewide Rent Control

#474

Post by AmericanChopper »

human20190310 wrote: post #459
AmericanChopper wrote: post #442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> yet supply is not rising to meet demand, largely because existing owners oppose new construction. So when over-regulation drives up prices, the appropriate response is to introduce new regulations to fight the other regulations? Because that’s exactly what this is. It won’t even improve the problem. The problem is that there are more people who want to live in California than there is housing. The reason for that i…

> So when over-regulation drives up the costs, the appropriate response is to introduce new regulations to fight the other regulations? Yes. The effort to reduce regulations on construction has failed. As such, retaliating against the beneficiaries of those regulations with counter-regulations is appropriate. It's not pretty or efficient, this is a fight between different interests, not a group problem-solving effort…

If over regulation drove up prices, what exactly do you expect from more regulation?

Re: California Approves Statewide Rent Control

#475

Post by jeffdavis »

BurningFrog wrote: post #173
bhauer wrote: post #21

I am a landlord in Oregon, but not California. The curious, although ultimately predictable, outcome of the new rent control measure in Oregon is that while I have historically had an arrangement with my property management to be restrained in annual rent increases, they are now advising a default annual increase of the maximum allowed (7 percent before inflation). This is because larger adjustments cannot be made if…

If the marked could bear annual 7% increases, why didn't you make them before? What will probably happen is that you'll have a hard time filling your property after 1-2 years at the latest, and everything goes back to normal.

A new rent control law changes the market. If the tenant leaves, they will need to sign a new lease, and the leasor will build in extra rent because they are worried they won't be able to raise it enough later.

In other words, it scares all the landlords at once, and they all raise prices a little because of it.

Re: California Approves Statewide Rent Control

#476

Post by dgzl »

jackvalentine wrote: post #424
dgzl wrote: post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for that, I didn't know this term. However I disagree with the idea that two wrongs make a right. Forcing the suffering around like that just creates more problems than it's worth.

In this case two wrongs may not make a right, but at least it shares some pain with the rent-seeking property owning class and may in time cause them to accept change. It's a bit fatalistic but if we're going down anyway, we're going down together!

I hate that mentality. It achieves nothing good in the long run.

Re: California Approves Statewide Rent Control

#477

Post by test6554 »

bgorman wrote: post #27

One thing I have noticed as I have become more aware is that many of our laws are aimed at trying to freeze a moment of time, often by piling on contradictory policies on top of each other. Subsidize home loans Ban new construction Ban rent increases It is no wonder why housing prices/rents continue to rise in these markets. In software engineering sometimes conclude that a rewrite is necessary. How can we completely…

When working with legacy code, one first writes automated tests.

Re: California Approves Statewide Rent Control

#478

Post by [deleted] »

jdavis703 wrote: post #341

There's three paths: 1) Rent cap landlords. The landlords will cry Big Government. 2) Abolish single family-only zoning and legalize backyard cottages, townhomes and small apartments. The homeowners will cry Big Government. 3) Do nothing. Watch as more people start living in tents or endure super-commutes that snarl your traffic and worsen climate change.

[deleted]

Re: California Approves Statewide Rent Control

#479

Post by closeparen »

jacobolus wrote: post #345
closeparen wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many landlords are not paperclip maximizers. REITs are, but small time families often charge below-market rents to the long term tenants they personally like or can’t be bothered to replace. They feel comfortable doing this because they can always revert to market rate later. With that long-term optionality going away, some will revert to market rate or as close as legally possible right now.

So in other words, landlords love to reserve the right to kick a tenant they stop liking out at the drop of a hat for no specific reason, by jacking the rent up as high as they want. As compensation for this power, they are willing to charge well below market rates to help indigent tenants. If they lose this “right”, they insist on becoming pure profit maximizing machines?

More like a household renting to a family friend, a student, an artist, someone who helps with child- or elder-care, etc. Homeowners put situations like that on the "market" in large part because they're allowed to change their minds later when the lease is up.

Re: California Approves Statewide Rent Control

#480

Post by t34543 »

SquishyPanda23 wrote: post #297
phil248 wrote: post #138

I'm shocked at the ideological fervor here and the fact that virtually no one seems to have looked at the details of the actual bill. This is nothing like the rent control ordinance in SF that has caused $3000 units to get stuck at $500 rents. That will never happen under this law. The allowable increases are so much higher than "normal" rent control laws that any given unit will catch up to market rates in a matter…

> I'm shocked at the ideological fervor here Really? This is pretty common on HN. This is IMO one of its weaknesses. There are certain topics that bring out political rants. One is regulation and another is housing prices in the bay area. This story brings out both.

Plastic, climate change, and identity politics also bring out radical behavior.
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