Posted on 09/11/2019 6:28:05 PM PDT by karpov
California lawmakers approved a statewide rent cap on Wednesday covering millions of tenants, the biggest step yet in a surge of initiatives to address an affordable-housing crunch nationwide.
The bill limits annual rent increases to 5 percent after inflation and offers new barriers to eviction, providing a bit of housing security in a state with the nation’s highest housing prices and a swelling homeless population.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who has made tenant protection a priority in his first year in office, led negotiations to strengthen the legislation. He has said he would sign the bill, approved as part of a flurry of activity in the final week of the legislative session.
The measure, affecting an estimated eight million residents of rental homes and apartments, was heavily pushed by tenants’ groups. In an indication of how dire housing problems have become, it also garnered the support of the California Business Roundtable, representing leading employers, and was unopposed by the state’s biggest landlords’ group.
That dynamic reflected a momentous political swing. For a quarter-century, California law has sharply curbed the ability of localities to impose rent control. Now, the state itself has taken that step.
“The housing crisis is reaching every corner of America, where you’re seeing high home prices, high rents, evictions and homelessness that we’re all struggling to grapple with,” said Assemblyman David Chiu, a San Francisco Democrat who was the bill’s author. “Protecting tenants is a critical and obvious component of any strategy to address this.”
A greater share of households nationwide are renting than at any point in a half-century. But only four states — California, Maryland, New Jersey and New York — have localities with some type of rent control, along with the District of Columbia.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Guaranteed 7% increase each and every year, no longer have to wait for increases in minimum wage or COLA increases, you can just pop that bugger every year on the same day.
The heroic, tireless, exhausting efforts of Howard Jarvis are insulted because what causes rent increases are mainly ...
PROPERTY TAX INCREASES.
To know what happens next, one need only know how beautiful Santa Monica was lowered into hell when rent control was imposed in the 1970s while property taxes continued to climb leaving property managers without budget for upkeep. Bankruptcies ensued, failed plumbing, leaky roofs, electrical failures, paint flaking and peeling inviting graffiti, then rats and disease.
California has the highest taxes in the nation and the most greedy govt labor union in CALPERS.
Once the system is imposed, the numbers can be easily changed.
cal may have the highest taxes but not property the rate its around 1.17% and varies slightly by county. Prop 13 started it at 1% of the appraised values from 1977. it has gone up less than 2% since then because the law limits the amount of increase, if you continue to own the property. By % cal is one of the lowest property tax states.
Kalifornicating idiots. Whatever happened to the days when politicians were tarred and feathered.
The people that voted for these morons are beyond stupid. As we all know it’s all about abortion and nobody gives a sh*t about everything else.
That was my exact thought. Instead of seeing 10% increases in rent every couple years, tenants will now see a steady 7-8% every year. Then, California will “fix” this new problem by setting a price-per-square-foot ceiling, or whatever crazy idea they conjure.
“...They want to control where and how you live, what you eat, where you work, how you get educated....everything....”
That’s what good communists do.
They’re out full-bore and hell-bent to destroy this nation as we know it.
A true libertarian would support multi family and oppose the NIMBYs who fetishize single family zoning which is a straightjacket on the natural course of things: when demand is high and you can no longer build out, you build up! In a sane world, LA country and SF county would look like Singapore.
you need a dictionary. there are two words in my name. True libertarians like abortion rights and a passive approach to national security. i left for those reasons.
You are going to see a whole bunch of residential rental property go on the market tomorrow.
Good luck with them selling it, price of real estate is out of control houses have been sitting on the market for a year or more!!! Millennials are not buying homes, not getting married, not having kids, ect. ect.!!!!
I am part of a real estate investment networking group, the experts have been predicting a huge downturn in CA for a few years now. The CA Legislature has just sped up the process.
As an owner of rentals in Oregon, which did this same idiocy last year, I am loving rent control.
The control means no new rental units. My vacancy rate has been close to zero as more and more people compete for the same units. We get 7% plus inflation instead of California's 5%, but even 5% is more than I have ever been able to get anyway.
Bottom line is that they have just made housing more scarce, which benefits owners of existing housing greatly.
That was my exact thought. Instead of seeing 10% increases in rent every couple years, tenants will now see a steady 7-8% every year.
I doubt it. When I lived in Berkeley under rent control during college the rent increases were ridiculous. Like $5 a year on my studio in the early ‘90s. It was impossible to get a 1/2 bed apartment because everybody kept them after college. There were 40 year olds in my apartment building across the street from the dorms. I believe Berkeley rent control changed after I left but expect the pinkos in Sacto will make this hell on landlords.
Yep, there were years in the 90’s that I didn’t increase tenants rents at all. Those days are over.
Personally, I always try to get a seat in the "no muttering" section.
Din’t [sic] this work our well for NYC - to this day even?
There’s a difference between 1% of a million and 1% of 100k.
Tax assessors set the tax assessed value year over year.
Why have tax assessed property values soared?
It’s a shell game.
State has been ripping counties who in turn rip property owners..
I was in CA during the Prop 13 campaign. I got an education on property taxes I didn’t want but was forced to endure.
The same happens up and down the West Coast. In WA State, the property tax rate is also at 1% but my property taxes have tripled, how is that?
Tax assessed value.
Welcome to Commufornia.
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