If Prop 13 is repealed but for ONE owner-occupied property per taxpayer, I see longtime multifamily owners banding together in cities such as Santa Monica and SF and flexing their municipal muscles to abolish “rent control” by threatening to pull their flats/apts out of residential use or reconvert their properties to SFRs. It is only because of these many thousands of building owners’ artificially low property taxes (as CAR has mentioned before here, approx $1800 annual tax for a $1.5M+ property) which allows them to comply with rent control laws in these cities.
If the Piggs think rents in SF are high now, I shudder to think of what they would be if Prop 13 was piecemealed in this fashion. Regardless, a repeal of Prop 13 won’t affect the desirability or number of applicants for each soon-to-be-vacant unit. Prospective tenants will continue to line up to apply for digs where the ad just appeared on CL this morning and will pay whatever the market will bear. The residents who will be hurt by it are those many thousands of long-term tenants who have enjoyed “rent control” all these years and who would have moved out of the city long ago were it not already in place. This (large) group will undoubtedly find themselves having to relocate.
