Other Election News: Rent Control and Affordable Housing

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It wasn’t just the next commander in chief who was decided in polling places across the nation on Tuesday. Voters also had their say on all sorts of state and local housing initiatives.

While not as exciting as, say, Russian hackers and FBI investigations, those measures will affect everything from how much rent can go up in some of the nation’s most expensive counties to whether homeowners shell out more for property taxes to create additional affordable housing.

Below is a roundup of some of the most significant measures that were on the ballot.

San Francisco Bay Area rent control: the winners and losers

Voters in five of the priciest counties in California voted on whether to limit how much landlords can jack up rents on certain units. The measures passed in Richmond and Mountain View.

In Oakland, property owners must go before the rent board to raise rents above the consumer index (basically inflation). And in nearby Alameda County, landlords must go through mediation to raise rents by more than 5%.

Property owners in those counties also will no longer be able to evict tenants willy-nilly in many buildings. They must cite a valid reason (e.g., the tenant’s falling behind on the rent).

Residents in nearby Burlingame and San Mateo, however, shot down similar rent-control proposals.

More affordable housing on the way

From Boston to San Diego, with plenty of cities in between, voters supported building more affordable housing units for their city’s poorest inhabitants.

In Los Angeles, developers will be required to set aside a certain number of condos or apartments in new buildings for low-income residents. And property taxes will rise to create 10,000 more units for lower-income and homeless residents.

Meanwhile, in Boston, property taxes are slated to go up 1%, in part to pay for the construction of new affordable homes.

In addition, about 1,000 affordable units are to be built in Orange County, NC. About 5,000 are slated to go up in Silicon Valley’s Santa Clara, CA. And 1,300 are expected to rise in Portland, OR.

Voters also supported measures to create more affordable housing in San Francisco, the North Carolina cities of Asheville and Charlotte, and beyond. An affordable housing trust fund is to be set up in Baltimore, to offer loans and grants to plan, build, and maintain the homes for lower-income locals.

In San Diego, city denizens voted to bump up the number of housing units for low-income residents that builders are allowed to develop, build, or buy from 10,500 to 49,180.

Those living in Rhode Island decided to issue bonds to fund affordable housing and urban revitalization.

And back in Alameda County, voters approved a nearly $600 million bond to be used to create more affordable rental housing and pay for a down payment assistance and home loan program

New sales taxes on buying a home? Not in Missouri

Missouri residents voted down a measure that would have allowed the state to institute a new sales tax on services like trips to the doctor and barbershop as well as buying or renting a home. Phew!

Source: realtor.com