Posted on 05/02/2017 7:51:11 PM PDT by Olog-hai
Yesica Sanchez recently found a notice attached to the front door of her two-bedroom apartment that said her rent was almost doubling. The divorced mother held the paper in her hand in a state of shock. […]
Oregon has become one of America’s most popular moving destinations, with tens of thousands of newcomers each year drawn by its forests and mountains, its quirky city of Portland and its job opportunities. Oregon set a historical low jobless rate in March of 3.8 percent.
But the inflow has caused a rental housing crisis across the state, with too few homes being built. Families face steep rent hikes or evictions to make way for better-heeled tenants. People have even resorted to living in tents or their vehicles. Now, lawmakers are debating remedies for what House Speaker Tina Kotek calls an “emergency that demands bold action.”
In one of the session’s most bitterly contested proposals, the Legislature is considering forcing landlords to pay tenants one month’s rent if they use one of the “landlord-based reasons” for evicting a tenant, and three months’ rent if they violate the new law and issue a no-cause eviction. The bill also reverses a 1985 ban on most rent controls in the state, allowing cities and counties to adopt their own. …
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
I just spent on day in Portland buying a car. The seller and I were chatting about living there. He was conservative as well. He said the locals say that Portland is where your children come to retire.
Stalin took the bird by its legs and slowly, one by one, he plucked all the feathers from the bird’s little body.
Then he opened his palm. The bird was laying there naked, shivering, helpless.
Stalin looked at him, smiled gently and said, “You see... and he is even thankful for the human warmth coming out of my palm.”
Ah Oregon, where they’ve learned the lessons of Stalin.
“Sanchez and her 5-year-old son moved to Oregon from Oaxaca, Mexico, four years ago, and she fretted about keeping him in a nearby bilingual elementary school.”
Back to mehico, mama.
As a resident of the dry side of the state, I sincerely hope Portland implodes sooner, rather than later, before it drags the rest of the state into its lunacy.
The surest way to prevent more housing being built is to pass this bill.
Landlords are dependent on tenants.
More housing isn't always the answer. Cities should just let market forces work, and get out of the way with rent control etc. More housing creates more congestion, rent control causes a flood of prospective tenants for fewer vacancies. It's all mad.
So in my local paper, the city announced a plan to build some housing mixed in with civic buildings on city land, and will allow it to be up to 120 feet tall. Our homes are a mix of 1-story to 3-story residential homes. We're already dealing with traffic congestion that quadrupled after a bunch of commercial buildings that went up on vacant land. And rents and home prices have skyrocketed. More people, more traffic, more agony for old-time residents and grief for landlords. Crazy. Good luck Portland, you're going to ruin it for everyone.
It those silly socialists would let the free market work and build housing as dictated by market forces abundant housing would be available at a fair market price.
Oregon has huge amounts of good land to build upon. It is the socialistic government that distorts the housing market. The local left wing governments are what has distorted the housing market and they and they alone are the reason for the insane prices for housing and rent.
This is a self inflicted wound.
Go to google earth and look at the vast amount of land around Portland, Oregon. It is beautiful and should be used. Actually if you look at the land in Portland metropolitan area itself there are huge amounts of undeveloped land.
the housing boom in Portland because is rivaling California...
Landlords and tenante both are dependent on government regulation. Much more so than home owners- and mortagers.
One year the government strips the feathers from the tenant, the next from the landlords.
I say there is yust say no yustice for jou.
....”its quirky city of Portland “
Quirky. Yes. That is being.... kind.
Oregon only has 24% of its land as private property. (going from memory, that may be incorrect) The rest is state/national forests, BLM land, National Parks, etc....
yup - the places with the most extreme housing shortages have the most anti-market rent regulations
I don’t know when it happened, but now every city and town has an economic development department that is staffed with people who think they know how to run everything. Mainly what they do is take taxpayer funded trips to bribe businesses to come to town in exchange for empty promises that the business will hire “x” number of employees if they get enough taxpayer money. It’s a total scam and everything they plan is wrong.
Nobody trusts the free market any more.
My impression is that if you went out and did a statistical survey with Portland residents....roughly 80-percent smoke marijuana on a weekly basis. And twenty-percent of the adults will admit that they’ve been diagnosed with a mental or emotional problem.
Makes perfect sense. Oregon limits any and all construction through ridiculous “Urban Growth Boundary” limitations. BUT HEY! We can limit rent increases and increase housing by establishing rent controls.
Market forces will cause more houses to be built since the price increases are due to excess demand.
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