This is not "approve by California" yet.
It passed in the assembly, but must also pass in the senate and be signed by the governor before it actually is law!
California Approves Statewide Rent Control
521–530 of 1001 posts
Re: California Approves Statewide Rent Control
#522I'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…
The Urbanist has an article on how modern rent control proposals differ from older ones, and the ramifications thereof: https://www.theurbanist.org/2019/08/05/the-case-for-rent-con...
Re: California Approves Statewide Rent Control
#523There 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.
> Turnabout is fair play. The biggest myth is that this kind of stuff actually helps the less-powerful. In reality, it just means they are hurt twice: government artificially suppressing supply, and government manipulating prices which has bad side effects for mamy even if its good for a few. Also, in reality, the powerful often don't get hurt, and arbitrary market manipulations just introduce new ways for them to ge…
> manipulating prices which has bad side effects for many even if its good for a few.
There are way more renters than owners. Prices have been going up more than 5%. Owners are most definitely not the "less-powerful" here.
So in reality the gov't might be artificially surpressing supply (though it's mostly due to owner pushback), but the "manipulating prices" (trying to keep rent growth from getting out of control) is helping less-powerful.
I get the point about how this can default owners to just increase prices. Well they were going to be doing that anyways! Especially with surpressed supply!
Arguing that "overall price increases with this law" > "overall prices increase without this law" is non-intuitive and probably just not true.
(thought experiment: if raising 5% every year with the law made sense, why would it not make sense to raise it 5% every year without the law? This law doesn't prevent other owners from offering _lower_ rents, if the market calls for it)
Re: California Approves Statewide Rent Control
#524Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe, but construction may not even be necessary. Shipping containers can now be easily retrofitted into stylish apartments. They can easily be stacked eight stories tall. 95% of the work can be done in overseas factories and is subject to the same globally competitive downward price pressure as every other manufactured good. Build them in Shenzen at a wholesale cost of $30,000 per pod, ship them to San Franciso for…
Who the fuck wants to live in a shipping container?
A shipping container is 320 square feet. Two pods can be joined into a single 740 square foot unit. That's a total cost of $80,000. Let's round to $100,000. Assume a rental yield of 12%.
$1000 a month for a brand new 740 square foot apartment in the middle of San Francisco. Plus with modern finishes that are frankly much nicer than anything you'll find in the low-end SF rental market. I'd imagine quite a lot of people would sign up.
Re: California Approves Statewide Rent Control
#525Earlier quoted context omitted.
I guess it shows how out of touch you guys are. When I moved here EVERYONE told me to find a rent controlled place. After hearing some horror stories I think you would be crazy to live in a non-rent controlled place. Heck, I’ve never heard of non-rent control before moving to the US. No surprise there’s so many homeless people. PS: look at what your free market did to the US healthcare.
Of course everyone told you to get a rent controlled place. The government is mandating your landlord gives you money, so why not take it? The point still stands that rent control is a terrible way to keep rent down, it causes a ton of problems.
I think that’s a bit hyperbolic, land lords are not paying tenants even if they are operating at a 33% deficit.
These laws are not reducing rent, only slowing the increase yr/yr
Re: California Approves Statewide Rent Control
#526There 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.
> tenants can organize politically to control prices.
That's fine for existing renters, but think about people who would like to move there to pursue a job, or live in a state friendlier to gay people or for whatever reason. They're going to find it harder to find a place to live, in all likelihood.
Re: California Approves Statewide Rent Control
#527There 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.
Let's just not even talk about the fact that regulation is the reason why housing is scarce, let's just assume California is 100% at capacity. How the hell does rent control increase turnabout? It just let's people who got in at the right time have their status as a resident enforced indefinitely, when there are plenty of people who are willing and able to pay far more in order to live there.
Getting in at the right time is a big part of free markets and capitalism. It's the same as someone complaining that Zukerberg or Henry Ford just got in at the right time and didn't deserve their wealth.
Re: California Approves Statewide Rent Control
#528There 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.
Yes. Price controls are a race to the bottom.
Re: California Approves Statewide Rent Control
#529Earlier quoted context omitted.
Certainly it gets abused. People keep their apartments even though they're not living in them, because otherwise the rent would go up. I know someone who did that for 20 years with an apartment on Russian Hill. She would sublet the place for a year or two and then come back.
> She would sublet the place for a year or two and then come back. That's generally illegal, unless the subtenant is paying no more than the tenant is in rent. Every tenant who does this in San Francisco can be, and ought to be, immediately evicted. There is zero economic/social justification for abuse of rent control.
If you report the sublet, that tenant is likely getting kicked out. So now someone has to find a new place to live.
Yes, subletting for more than main tenants rent is illegal, but considering how hard it is to find apartments, most subletters just let it be.
Re: California Approves Statewide Rent Control
#530There 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?
California has also been creating high paying jobs at a fast pace, could that be a coincidence?