The State Full Of Sun-Baked “Progressive” Bobbleheads That Doesn’t Learn From History…

Half of Californians say housing prices are making them think about leaving the state, and an awful lot of them think rent control is the answer:

About half of the state’s voters – 48 percent – said they consider the problem of housing affordability “extremely serious.” Concerns are more prevalent in areas seen as ground zero for the crisis, including the Bay Area, where 65 percent of voters described the problem that way.

The issue has led to an intensifying debate over rent control in California. In Los Angeles County, 68 percent of voters said they support stronger limits on rent increases, while 63 percent in the Bay Area said so.

The majority of support for rent control is among renters, who have seen prices grow nearly 4 percent since last year, according to data compiled by the real estate listing service Apartment List. California’s median rent for a one-bedroom is now at $1,750, while a two-bedroom is $2,110, Apartment List found. Among the most expensive cities are San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, San Diego and Sacramento.

Of course, being progressives, they don’t bother with history – and I doubt the history of rent-control in places like New York City is covered in the textbooks progressives are allowed to read.

But in New York, it worked a little like this:

  1. Rent controls were established
  2. Their incomes constricted by rent control, landlords fell behind on the little things, like routine repairs.
  3. City officials leaned on the landlords to make the repairs, prices and income be damned, and threw on fines to make the whole mess even less affordable.
  4. Sick to death of being stuck between a regulatory rock and a cost hard place, the landlords tried to sell out.
  5. Local regulations – like the ones Ray Dehn proposes in Minneapolis – make selling a rental property a daunting prospect.   Landlords unloaded properties at firesale prices or, if the neighborhood was bad enough and the debt intractable enough, walked away – creating either gentrification-ready areas of cheap buildings or, for less desirable locations, acres of vacant buildings ready to be turned into crack dens.
  6. Alarmed by the decline in “affordable housing” caused by their own policies, the city’s government ratcheted up the regulations even more; as the saying goes, the beatings will continue until morale improves…

Given the mindless “progressivism” of California government, this will hasten the state’s decline.  The bad news?  It’ll also increase the number of Californians bringing their bobble-headed politics to sane states.

8 thoughts on “The State Full Of Sun-Baked “Progressive” Bobbleheads That Doesn’t Learn From History…

  1. In creative writing classes, they keep repeating “show, don’t tell”. This rule can also be applied to politics and economics. To show what is happening to the over regulated economy of California, do the following:

    1) Navigate to Budget Rental to get a quote on a 16′ foot moving truck -> https://www.budgettruck.com/
    2) Enter a San Francisco as the pickup city.
    3) Enter some place like Dallas as the drop off city.
    4) Get a quote. In this case, my quote was $2012.40 for a one way weekend rental.
    5) Now enter Dallas as the pickup city.
    6) Enter San Francisco as the drop off city.
    7) Get a quote. In this case, my quote was $149.
    8) Now subtract $149 from $2012.40. The result will be the cost of an over-regulated blue state economy.

    The comparison between rental rates for San Francisco and Dallas are stark but the same method works for just about anywhere else.

  2. Whenever I see a vehicle with a tag from a reprobate controlled state, I wonder if they are refugees escaping to Real America, or reprobates escaping from the steaming pile of shit they helped make, and bringing a carpet bag full of seed material to start the process again.

    I never have to wonder about Cali plates though…the reprobates out there are convinced kids get inducted into the klan in 1st grade down here. Its always regular folks getting as far from the madness as they possibly can.

  3. Continuing the story from New York . . .

    7. The landlord went to the tenants, explained the problem, and offered to convert the building to a co-op. The landlord would convey title to a non-profit corporation. Each tenant would buy a share of stock in the corporation. The tenants, as shareholders of the corporation, would elect a board of directors to hire a building superintendent and the board would set association dues to cover taxes, insurance and repairs. The corporation would lease apartments but only tenant/owners would be eligible to get leases from the corporation.

    8. The tenants who could afford it, took the deal. Those who could not, sold and moved. The directors hired the former landlord as the super because he was familiar with the building. Rent stayed cheap because association dues paid the difference to make the building was nice again.

    9. That building became unaffordable to ordinary people. By forcing the building off the rental rolls, the city exacerbated the affordable housing crisis.

  4. I would have hoped that residents of California would remember that San Francisco and Berkeley have (a) had rent control since WWII, I believe and (b) have some of the highest rents in the state. But evidently working from evidence is not what Californians do, and I wonder how Silicon Valley survives with that mindset.

  5. Fed easy money and government housing policy is about ***force***.

    Life is about supply.

    Democrats are about ______.

    Libertarians are about _____.

    The bond market will _____.

  6. There are always two sides to the rising cost of housing. The homeowners make a good return at the expense of renters. In NY City, the owner class was tiny. In CA, the homeowner class is large. If they see rent control as hitting their bottom line (and they will), they might be an effective force opposing home rent/price controls.
    I don’t know much about Cali politics, but there is a pattern there of older Californians exploiting new arrivals to make $. A lot of the homeowners who are sitting in $500k suburban ramblers they bought for $30k a half century ago are themselves the children of Okies.
    Not that there is anything wrong with that, it all works out in the end as long as the size of the pie keeps growing.

  7. Concerns are more prevalent in areas seen as ground zero for the crisis, including the Bay Area, where 65 percent of voters described the problem that way.

    And 95% of the voters are responsible for creating the economic and political climate that has caused the problem in the first place.

  8. Pingback: In The Mailbox: 09.20.17 : The Other McCain

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