National City sets rent control on mobile homes at 5%

[Dan H.]

The proposed new law requires a second reading before becoming law.  Maybe the politicians will demonstrate some intelligence and kill this ill advised law, but I suspect not.

My view is the politicians are stupid.  There is no association of rent cap with CPI.  Note if you raised rent 5% but CPI is 8%, in inflation adjusted dollars you are losing money by owning the mobile home.  What do you think the result will be?  I believe mobile home parks will get shutdown and redeveloped into a more profitable use of the land.  This would remove from the market perhaps the most affordable units.  It will result in less housing and less inexpensive housing.

I question the intelligence of the politicians.  I realize intelligence has never been a requirement to be a politician, but this is so easy to see the outcome.  

It is similar to when the board of supervisors passed the most stringent Covid eviction moratorium in the county.  I predicted it would result in crazy rent increases and it has.  New risk has to result in increased profit to counter the increased risk.  

The mobile home parks will close.  It will lead to many people living in those homes having to find new homes but there will be none at similar (artificially low) price point.  The tenants will provide their sob story for losing their home and they can thank the rent control policy that they advocated for (so they can only blame themselves).  

[Tristin Crum]

There is a similar issue occurring in Eugene, OR. Oregon has statewide rent control and that is 7% plus CPI and that is published every September for the following year. For 2023 in Oregon rent can be increased by 14.6%. This system takes into consideration economic factors.

The City of Eugene is attempting to pass a 5% limit and if a landlord goes over that limit up to what the state allows, the tenant can demand 3 months of market rate rent in relocation fees, meaning a landlord would have to pay the tenant $4500 to $8000+ in relocation fees.

They have also capped screening fees at $10.00 per applicant, which a lawsuit was recently filed over, they are attempting to limit deposit amounts, they want to make it so that a landlord cannot require over a 500 credit score and will only be able to require a certain amount of income for qualifying. 

The city is making being a landlord so confusing and cumbersome that those who choose to continue being landlords will need to hire property managers simply to comply with all the confusing laws and ordinances.

Eugene already has a low 1.5% rental vacancy rate. They are passing many other so called "renter protections" along with this one, ultimately it will push landlords out of the market, there will be less rental units, competition will increase for rental units and thus rents will increase. This will not help tenants but these activist city council members refuse to consider that. Portland has their own crazy local laws.

Unfortunately there are also calls at the state level to amend the rent control formula because of the 14.6% cap in 2023. I would not be surprised if this happened, it will also lead to less rental units statewide and less investment in the state.