Residential Rent and Eviction Control Resources
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.
Richmond became the first city in Contra Costa County to adopt rent and eviction control policies last year. However, Ordinance 21-15 N.S., adopting rent and eviction controls, was later repealed by referendum petition as of November 5, 2015. Per the Richmond election code, the City Council may not adopt the same ordinance for one year.
After spending $8 million dollars to defeat of San Francisco’s Proposition F, with some anticipating it will spend as much as $100 million next year to fight similar ballot measures, Airbnb is already in the process of organizing “grassroots lobbyists”, mobilizing its own users to work as advocates. Airbnb is planning on funding these “city-based guilds”, as well as providing them with Airbnb staff support, in an effort to fight similar legislation in other cities.
Meanwhile, the website InsideAirbnb.com has been “adding data to the debate”, by providing information, not only on the number of listings in a particular city, but also on whether the listing is for a single room or an entire rental unit. And this distinction is important where Airbnb and other hosting platforms have diverted a significant portion of housing units, compared to what has been made available to renters in recent years.
Following its removal of the lawsuit from State to Federal court, the City and County of San Francisco moved for judgment on the pleadings of the San Francisco Apartment Association’s challenge to the City’s new “buyout legislation”.
The SFAA challenged the legislation just days before its operative date, on several constitutional grounds. Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California dismissed the case on the City’s motion, finding that the buyout legislation did not violate San Francisco landlords’ rights to free speech, due process, equal protection or privacy, ultimately characterizing the burdens under the legislation as reasonably related to the City’s legitimate interest in protecting tenants by remediating disparities in bargaining position. SFAA is appealing the decision to the Ninth Circuit.
With the “Jane Kim Amendment” to the Rent Ordinance effective as of this Monday, the Rent Board has now published the required foreign language forms that must be served along with termination notices. You can read about other “Eviction Protections 2.0” requirements here.
The Alameda City Council held a debate this week on instituting rent control. Implementing rent control ordinances is becoming an increasingly popular idea in many Bay Area Cities (with some cities joining the ranks and others deferring on the issue).
The Alameda City Council decided to implement a moratorium on rent increases and evictions without just cause for 65 days, during which they will presumably be evaluating the effects on a city whose rents have increased 54% from 2000 to 2013, while its median household incomes for these renters have only increased by 29%.
The San Francisco Business Times reports that a man who attended the meeting to support tenants “became rowdy” (perhaps hoping for a longer term solution), received a bloody nose and had to be arrested. Landlord-tenant law in the Bay Area is a full-contact sport, apparently.
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.
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.
Curbed SF digests a recent Urban Land Institute report noting the lack of confidence that Millennials have in future home ownership, with only 24% “very confident” that they will be able to buy the home they want within the next five years. The report identifies a low rate of new home construction and the trend of Baby Boomers retaining their current homes instead of downsizing over time.
SFGate discusses some of the factors cited in the recent Paragon Real Estate Group Q3 report on residential real estate investments in San Francisco. As a result of scarcity, the boutique market with uncommonly older and smaller buildings, historically low financing rates, and high rents, San Francisco housing inventory continues to be a good investment, despite the limitations imposed by the Rent Ordinance.
