Want Fewer Homes? Try This. Sacramento tries to fix the housing shortage it created. Please stop.

Wall Street Journal ^ | February 23, 2020 | WSJ Editorial Board

[karpov]

Governor Gavin Newsom is pleading with his Legislature to fix California’s government-created housing shortage. As usual, Democrats are responding with a jack-hammer against business that will cause more problems.

Berkeley state Senator Nancy Skinner last week introduced legislation that would let local governments fine developers that leave homes unoccupied for at least 90 days. Local governments would also be allowed to use eminent domain to acquire vacant properties and then rent them or sell them to a nonprofit.

The bill targets so-called house flippers who buy and fix up homes—usually in foreclosure—and then resell them for a profit. But it would also punish landlords who may now be more inclined to leave properties vacant because the cost of upkeep and improvements exceed the rent they can charge under the state’s new rent-control law.

“My bill is designed to give local governments more tools to incentivize those corporations to actually put people in these homes,” Ms. Skinner says. Except that it would do the opposite. It costs $750,000 to build a new low-income apartment in San Francisco, but investors can renovate and sell a foreclosed home in Berkeley for less. There would be less incentive to invest in or improve the housing stock since the government could seize properties for a pittance.

[Brian Griffin]

“gets the tax assessor to come out and jack up the ‘value’”

Here in Florida, our tax vultures simply feast based on the building permits issued.

[Mariner]

“But it would also punish landlords who may now be more inclined to leave properties vacant because the cost of upkeep and improvements exceed the rent they can charge under the state’s new rent-control law. “

It’s a terrible law.

But the above is a reasoning fantasy. I doubt anyone could find an example.

[ETCM]

automatic buyer at the new appraised tax value

As long as "developer" has paid the appropriate bribes and knows the right people, that works great. For others, the state will reappraise and pay pennies on the dollar...

[Seruzawa]

Aren’t these illegal takings?

Whatever. Leftists don’t believe in private property.

Looters. Ayn Rand had it right.

[Mark]

Reminds me of when Africa got rid of farmers and no one knew how to farm.

[BubbaBobTX]

They should have asked Mini Mike to teach them how to farm. He said it is easy.

[roadcat]

Many people are very leery of renting out property.

When my wife's elderly mom started having difficulty with dementia, we took her into our home and left her home vacant. Others told us it was nuts not to rent it out to others. We said no way, it's in San Francisco and rent control is horrible. We have friends who used to be landlords in SF and gave it up due to rent control problems. We left the house vacant for several years while we cleared out mom's junk, and remodeled it. Selling it gave us plenty of profit to make up for not renting it out (went $300K over asking). Shortage of housing in SF is caused by rent controls.

[zaxtres]

I have the perfect solution. We build one HUGE house over the entire United States of America and everyone gets their own bedroom. Bathrooms would be limited to one per 5,000 bedrooms complete with a Sheldon style bathroom schedule.This way we can say no one is homeless in the United States of America and that this country is every one’s home that lives here. We could rename the country Noah’s Ark of America. /s