Will Newsom-Peskin Eviction Task Force Make A Difference?

Wow. In what I will say is the most misguided article every published by BeyondChron, Randy Shaw makes that case that "If San Francisco voters ban condo conversions, potential purchasers will look among the thousands of newly built condos coming on the market rather than commit nearly the same amount of money to being a lifetime owner of a TIC."

Doesn't anyone do their homework anymore?

This guy needs to be slapped. A ban on condo conversions would do nothing but drive already high prices on ridiculously low inventory through the roof. Supply and demand, my friend.

The basis for this article is a new task force formed by Mayor Newsom and Supervisor Peskin to look into ways to help stem the tide of evictions. Supply and demand, my friend.

If you don't build more housing and you limit people's ability to sell what's out there, you reduce supply. The demand just doesn't go away in this town. Period. You want something to complain about? Ban condo conversions and we'll talk a week later about how condo prices went up 20%.

So they go looking for other ways to help slow evictions. Let's call a TIC a condo and limit their formation! Wrong again, my friend. You can't limit how a buyer takes title. Just can't do it.

And their sales pitch: "The incentive for the real estate industry to make [a compromise] deal is an increase in the annual number of conversions allowed from the current 200 to as many as 800. This would be of enormous benefit to those seeking homeownership through condos and TIC’s, and reduce if not eliminate delays caused by the condo lottery. Former State Senator John Burton sought to broker such a deal in 1999. Burton got the state Apartment Association to sign off, but it was then vetoed at the last minute by the SF Association of Realtors"

I will be the first to admit that not all of my peers are the sharpest tools in the shed, but let's be real here. Do you think any semi-intelligent Realtor association is going take part in any sort of legislation that reduces property owner's rights? Not a chance. Not even for something that is deemed a compromise.

On one hand, I'm tempted to just stop posting articles from BeyondChron due to their complete lack of journalistic integrity or ability to do their background research, but on the other hand it gives me yet another chance to point out why prices are so high in this town. When the only people fighting for tenant's rights have no clue what it is their fighting against or even what a TIC really is, tenants should be very afraid.

Once again, I will remind all of you, I do not condone evictions. I especially do not condone evictions for the sake of speculative real estate sales. But this is still a free market and I believe in property owner's rights to make decisions about their properties. Remember, these properties do belong to the owners, not the tenants as Ted Gullickson would like to believe.

I'm off of my soapbox for the day. Maybe.