Residential Rent and Eviction Control Resources
The San Francisco Business Times reports on newly elected Supervisor Aaron Peskin’s plan to reform rent control by amending state law (i.e., Costa-Hawkins). While a broader affordable housing agenda has developers keying certain sales to income levels, cities generally cannot require property owners to dedicate new construction to rent ceilings because of preemption by Costa-Hawkins.
Zumper.com reports that the average cost of a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco actually dropped to $3,500 in November of 2015, from an all time high of $3,670 in October. Also noteworthy in the report is that Oakland became the fourth most expensive rental market in the country for the first time.
While these tentative results are subject to change (as the remainder of the ballots are counted), the San Francisco Department of Elections has posted the unofficial results from last night’s election. No big surprises: Ed Lee is still Mayor, Airbnb’s $8 Million was apparently well spent defeating Prop F, with the issue of reforming short term rental law returning to the Board of Supervisors.
Former Supervisor Aaron Peskin defeated Ed Lee appointee Julie Christensen for the District 3 seat, which could mean efforts toward expansion of the applicability of the Rent Ordinance.
The UBS Global Real Estate Bubble Index report assesses the risk of price corrections in real estate prices in global financial centers, evaluating home prices and rents, tracking historical figures, in the context of wages and the economy generally. In its 2015 report, UBS noted that, “When inexpensive financing is combined with bullish expectations, real estate prices eventually uncouple from the real economy”. It identifies San Francisco prices as “overvalued”, finding it to have the highest risk of price correction for any American city.
Bisnow reviews Proposition A (affordable housing bond), Proposition D (Mission Rock development), Proposition F (Airbnb regulation), Proposition I (Mission Moratorium part 2), and Proposition K (development of surplus City property), all of which will have an effect on San Francisco real estate.
And remember to mark your calendars for election day this November 3rd.
In what is hopefully just a satirical thought experiment, Curbed SF explores the financial benefit for San Francisco workers of living in Las Vegas and commuting to work in San Francisco. The short answer is the hypothetical working class hero saves $1,344 per month and lives in a larger apartment.
While the idea of living somewhere else to be able to work in San Francisco somewhat misses the point of contemporary urban planning, regarding humans as something other than labor-producing commodities, and the City of San Francisco itself (we work here because we like living here!), point taken: San Francisco is really, really expensive.
The SF Chronicle explores the story of a Duboce Triangle family trying to recover possession of the second unit in their home from a decades’ old, long-term tenant, with the Ellis Act.
The tenant is paying $365 per month for the two-bedroom unit, and while the landlords have offered a six-figure payment to get the place back, the Ellis Act currently requires a payment of only about $5,500, following the recent, successful challenge to San Francisco’s second attempt to increase the relocation payment amount, earlier this month.
While the Chronicle notes the “irresistible narrative” of one of the owners – a curator at the De Young – evicting an artist, Zacks & Freedman’s Andrew Zacks was skeptical that the tenant added to the “artistic fiber” of the City, challenging sympathizers to “try to find him on the Internet”.
San Francisco landlords prevailed in their lawsuit against San Francisco’s recent Ordinance 68-15, an amendment to the Rent Ordinance that significantly increased the amount of relocation assistance payments owed to tenants displaced by Ellis Act evictions.
Ordinance 68-15, “Campos II”, was a “sequel” to last year’s Ordinance 54-14 (“Campos I”) – an amendment that also increased relocation assistance payments and which was overturned at the state level in the decision Jacoby v. CCSF. In determining that the Campos II relocation payments were “unreasonable”, Housing Court Judge Ronald Evans Quidachay interpreted a case 2006 appellate decision, Pieri v. CCSF, which first determined that a requirement that landlords pay “reasonable” relocation assistance to displaced tenants (regardless of the tenants’ income level) was not preempted by the Ellis Act. The City is expected to appeal the decision.
Read more about Judge Quidachay’s ruling at The Chronicle and The Examiner
The San Francisco Business Times reports on a recent Zumper analysis that attributes a third of San Francisco’s legendary rental rates to the spending of venture capital on firms in the Bay Area. As the Business Times notes, when firms get funded, they hire. At the same time, this increase in cost of living makes it more difficult to hire, so maybe there are actually limits to San Francisco’s soaring rental rates.
BeyondChron reports on the City’s increased funding of Ellis Act eviction defense. While the overall theme of the article is that Ellis Act evictions are on the decline, any recent downward trend is more likely attributable to the passing of an enhanced relocation payment regime earlier this year. This may be keeping new Ellis efforts at bay until hearing on the validity of the new ordinance on September 24th.
