Costa Hawkins Repeal

[Mattaniah Yip]

My husband and I own a non RSO duplex in LA. We were looking to buy another multi family  this year. But with just learning that Costa Hawkins will likely be repealed in November, we are holding off to see what the outcome is.  

Curious, what are other landlords are doing with the likelihood of Costa Hawkins being repealed. Please share your thoughts. 

Here is an article I came across today featured in the Wall Street Journal.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/california-apartment-landlords-dump-properties-ahead-of-rent-control-vote-1526404269

[Chris Mason]

Not to be too cynical, but every year for a while now we've had headlines saying that Prop 13 and/or Costa Hawkins was going to be repealed. 

One route to a law repealing Costa Hawkins is through the legislature, which was tried already earlier this year and didn't even make it out of committee.

The second route is via California's direct democracy route (ballot proposition that leads to a constitutional amendment, which is what Prop 13 was), and all we have so far is activists saying they're sure they can do it. They say that every year. 

Journalists these days get paid ultimately for clicks and generating ad revenue. Informing the public discourse is no longer a money maker for journalists, unfortunately. Articles about the 'imminent' end of the world and doom and gloom, etc, tend to get a lot of clicks. It may very well be the case that I'm the person ignoring the little boy who cries wolf on a daily basis, I can't deny that. But until I see some actual dead sheep indicating that the little boy isn't full of crap this time, I feel OK with my assumption.

My $0.02.