Posted on 11/15/2022 6:00:56 AM PST by AbolishCSEU
Almost a week after the midterm elections, San Francisco's Proposition M, a vacancy tax on landlords, is projected to pass. The San Francisco Chronicle called the race Monday afternoon. (SFGATE and the San Francisco Chronicle are owned by Hearst but operate independently of one another.)
The ballot measure is a warning shot at landlords who are sitting on multiple vacant units, but it includes some notable carve-outs that critics say will blunt its impact. Starting on Jan. 1, 2024, property owners with at least three units that have been vacant for more than 182 days (six months) will be taxed between $2,500 and $5,000 per empty unit. In ensuing years, that penalty will increase to as much as $20,000 per empty unit. The penalty money collected will go to a housing activation fund, which will subsidize affordable housing, including for individuals over the age of 60 in the city.
Single-family homes are exempt from the vacancy tax, as are landlords with only two empty units. Out of roughly 40,000 empty units in the city, the San Francisco Controller's Office estimates that 4,000 units are likely to qualify for the vacancy tax. One of the leading proponents of Prop. M, District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston, lauded its passage.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
“you don’t even know what a write off is”
“but they do”
So SF wants to emulate the “bombed-out” NYC look of the 1970s.
Wow, gee...sorry SF taxman, my building just burned to the ground. Oh well, I’ll just take the insurance money and turn the land into a parking lot for $150/mo per space.
FRUITS AND NUTS AND IMBECILES
is this even legal?
As of July the average rent in SF is $3,397 for a 740. Sq Ft apartment
I don’t see how anyone can think that putting a tax on vacancy can solve the problem of homelessness in a housing market that is that inflated.
A land lord is not going to rent a unit at a huge loss and stay in business
By contrast the average rent in Cleveland Ohio is $1,227 for 807 Sq Ft.
Yeah and the city will create a “Division of Tennant Occupation” and send inspectors to knock on doors to confirm that somebody actually occupies the unit.
Or something like that.
A little at a time they dilute the meaning of “private property.” Soon the collectivity will own it all and no one will have noticed. And that will be communism A LA USA.
I can see a scenario where a typical 100-unit apartment building is converted to a condominium, with the building owner establishing 50 separate LLCs that would each own two units.
Property owners do not own their property, it seems.
__________________________________________________________
I have several rental houses. Small homes for young families just starting out usually. While I own them free and clear it costs me about $500 a month for taxes and insurance. If I had mortgages on these properties my rent would be hundreds of dollars more expensive. My 3 br ranches usually rent for about $1200 but sometimes after someone moves out it will take well over a year just to pay for the rehab expense. I could charge more rent I guess but am loathe to do it. I would rather keep a tenant for a long time than make a couple hundred bucks extra every month.
I’m still a believer in rental properties as an investment but it is getting more and more difficult and more expensive to own anything that can be taxed. The government likely makes more on my rentals than I do, they certainly make more on my gasoline purchases than the oil company. I just don’t understand how we got to this point of socialism here in the good old US of A.
I didn’t like working for an employer but I don’t like working for the government either. When you have rentals that is what you are doing, you work for the government but instead of getting paid by them you pay them.
want better housing for low-income people. make evictions easy if the rent is below so much per sq foot. Also, allow 7 days with cause eviction so that a destructive Tennent can be gotten rid of fast. the laws can be written so there are still protections for the Tennent. also, instant evictions when there is no contract with a homeowner. the reason why low-income rentals are hard to find is that they are not verry profitable and are high risk investments because of how the laws for renters around the country are written.
Might as well burn them down because Democrats are going to take them anyway.
exactly. the lls will have an “agreement” to rent each other’s apt for a nominal fee. Again, it took me just shy of two months each time I had a vacancy to find a suitable tenant here in a once Xerox bedroom community (upstate NY).
Out of 150 responses, maybe 2 or 3 were not criminals and actually had a job/income. AG Tish “Peekaboo” James is trying to outlaw tenant screening completely.
Expect a lot of these to be “under construction” for a long time and then miraculously “all ready to go” just before a tenant moves in.
They’ll always find a way.
And when a politician, at any level, is effected by this new tax, a carve out will be provided. And then every landlord will be able to take advantage of it.
I predict a lot of long hot summer of ‘23. Mostly electrical fires.
Sign a one day lease with your cousin every 6 months...
It’s gonna suck to be home/apartment insurers for sure.
That city is no longer a place in which to do business.
The penalty money collected will go to a housing activation fund.
aka hobo towns that become no go zones.
Because San Francisco is so geographically small, at about 40 square miles, it has a unitary city and county government. Here in CA, property tax revenue goes to the county. So in addition to the plummeting sales tax revenue for SF, I guess the voters want to take a nice big hit on property tax, too
San Francisco drives middle-class property owners out of the city. Bye bye stability...
Sold, deserted, and torn down rentals provide more land for ‘elites’ to build even larger mansions .
more drugged out freaks for them to have crazy sex with...
San Francisco - perfecting the hellhole.
Is this where John Pelosi lives?
What ever became of the idea in Los Angeles of demanding that motels/hotels notify the city every day of their empty rooms by 2 PM so the city could shove homeless into there???
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.