Posted on 04/15/2010 4:47:46 PM PDT by Kaslin
Redistribution: Is the Los Angeles city council hellbent on sticking it to the little guy yet again, this time by cutting the housing stock? It couldn't come up with a better blueprint for that than its new scheme to freeze rents.
Wednesday, Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon introduced a motion to freeze rents, solely, he claims, because he cares about "fairness."
According to him, "a one-year hold on increases in rent (will) help our working families, and give the council time to consider longer-term fixes to ensure fairness in our rent control ordinance."
As if they needed a year to get a clue. Alarcon's plan, which sounds wonderful at first hearing, will in fact stiff ordinary people as landlords lose their incentive to stay in the housing business.
And freezing rents will do just that. Landlords will lose revenue as their costs continue to rise.
The basic market reality is each unit rented represents a contract between a willing buyer and a willing seller who agree on price. When the city council interferes, based on the idea that landlords only raise costs out of malice, the result is a less willing seller.
From there, it just gets worse. Units not subject to the law will go up in price to make up for those rented below market rates.
Investment in apartments will fall. Not only will it mean it's harder for a tenant to get a sink repaired, but capital improvements on buildings will decline. America's second city will look shabby.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
Rent controls! Brilliant! Why hasn’t anybody ever thought of that before???
In Seattle, rents are collapsing. One friend who paid $1,100 a month got a letter from the complex management firm that if he renewed his lease for another year the rent would go down to $800. My daughter lives in a building between Downtown Seattle and Capitol hill. She pays $700 rent for her large studio and just found out that a lady on a lower floor with a smaller unit that has been there a few years just renegotiated her rent down from $1,200 a month.
Why would tenants want a rent freeze?
Please remember to excerpt 50% of IBD. Thanks.
Sorry, I did not realize the article was so short
With rents frozen the poor will now have the extra cash to enjoy the opera and art galleries L.A. is so famous for.
I would expect an upswing too in the number of poor people taking violin lessons and art appreciation classes at the community colleges.
That is a good question.
This nation is still in a deflationary contraction. And rents will fall when that happens. To freeze the rents DOES NOTHING to help the little guy. It is just the usual feel good liberal nonsense that makes matters worse.
It will make the rents in the surrounding area more appealing over time. I wonder how many months it will take for the renters to move out and give themselves a break.
Clueless politicians.
I guess this will stimulate the economy for real estate attorneys that handle condo conversions.
Suck it up LA. You live in Kalifornia. What did you think was gonna happen when you keep voting all those LIBERALS in?
Ya coulda moved to Montana.
Rent control makes perfect sense as part of the Cloward-Piven strategy applied on all fronts.
The landlords who pay no attention to rent control in LA are those renting to illegals and virtual bording houses where they charge by head. The illegals can’t complain..and there are no real leases to base the complaints on. But legitimate legal landlord face the problem every day. Once again..illegals and their landlords are a privileged exempt class.
Another reason I left SoCal for N. FL.
Yes! What a great and unique idea! Helpin’ the “little guys” by pushing their housing into foreclosure! Socialists are so thoughtful and smart.
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