Condo Boom Requires Conversion Moratorium?

Not likely... At least not likely in a legal, constitutional, acceptable, intelligent way...

The riot-inciters at BeyondChron are trying to drum up support for a moratorium on condo conversions with many half-truths and lots of activist opinion, but very few reasonable facts.

"In the past two years alone, Rent Board statistics show that over 800 rental units have been withdrawn from the housing market under the Ellis Act, with another 650 units converted to ownership through owner move-in evictions. Meanwhile, Supervisor Bevan Dufty and others have responded to this sharp loss of rental housing not by addressing it, but rather by encouraging additional condo conversions."

This writer's angle here implies that there is a evil developer out there taking these units off of the market. There is a demand for housing in San Francisco and when your demand outweighs your supply, people will do what they need to do to find affordable options. They also want to be in control of their own housing destiny. Why lie in wait only to be forced by the sale of your building to find housing in 30 days?

This is still a free market, and there will always be people who are not content sitting back and milking a landlord for their rent-controlled entitlement. Supervisor Dufty is not 'encouraging' condo conversions, rather he is addressing a need and desire by approximately 2500 unit owners to bring their units up to current code and also to be provided with a separate title and mortgage. Just because a unit becomes a condo, doesn't mean it will never be rented again. It just means that someone is likely owner-occupying it at this point in its life cycle.

"According to Ted Gullicksen of the San Francisco Tenants Union, at least 500 rental units are annually converted to ownership without the filing of an eviction notice. The lack of such notices means the Rent Board has no record of this rental housing loss, but the impact is the same: San Francisco has lost nearly 2500 rental units in the past two years alone!"

Well, if there's no EVICTION, there's no need to file and EVICTION NOTICE, now is there, Teddy Boy? If a unit is vacated by a tenant, a landlord is free to do as they wish. Remember, it's a free market. The biggest loss here is that there are 2500 fewer tenants for Mr. Gullickson to drag along on his protests of whimsy. Never mind how much nicer San Francisco looks now that buildings are being cared for by their owners.

"Simply put, the case for allowing rental units to convert to condos no longer exists. There is no longer a scarcity of ownership opportunities in the existing condo market, and conversions no longer offer an “affordable” means of obtaining homeownership."

Oh, really? Have you looked at the condo market vs. the TIC market lately? There is still a great disparity between the prices of the two. Sounds like an "affordable means of obtaining homeownership" to me. But I guess I'm letting those darn facts get in the way of my emotion...

"The Board of Supervisors will consider legislation next week to change the condo lottery to shorten the waiting period even for those who have evicted tenants. The Board should reject this legislation and instead consider imposing a conversion moratorium that could protect those currently in the process but deny future applications. If the votes are not there on the Board, a June or November ballot initiative imposing a condo moratorium is a virtual certainty."

THERE'S NOTHING ANYWHERE WITHIN THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS THAT SHORTENS THE WAITING PERIOD! What don't you fools understand about this? There is one item in front of the board that grants SENIORITY to owners who have been waiting the longest in the lottery. There's nothing that changes the 200 units per year restriction. You have got to be a complete retard to think that this changes anything for tenants, and only really affects a few folks who have OWNED their units for 10+ years.

If the votes are not there on the board (to pass something tenant-friendly), another illegal, unconstitutional, unreasonable ballot initiative is likely to appear. If you own a TIC, you should find a way to be vocal about this stuff. The activist community has yet to actually pass an initiative that has survived court appeal, but it still accomplishes some of their goal, which is to make the whole homeownership process more and more painful. The effect, of course, is to drive down supply, which in turn drives up prices.

It's really sad that the ignorance and misinformation continues.