October 2024: Q3 San Francisco Apartment Insider

As we enter the first weekend of October, the apartment market has more enthusiasm than in the past quarter. A decline in the cost of money, large companies pushing (some demanding) more office time for employees and a flourishing equities market – the DOW is up 56%, the NASDAQ is up 126% and S&P 500 is up 93% - in the past five years has helped with buyer motivation.

As we are in a big election cycle, there are always measures on the ballot (or recently enacted) that impact your business. In local politics we have good news. The 2022 San Francisco ordinance authored by supervisor Dean Preston giving renters (who face eviction) an additional 10 days to cure their property owners’ requirements has been struck down by a state appeals court. The law will now revert back to the three day notice.

Statewide, the voters will vote for the third time to repeal Costa Hawkins. In 2018 and 2020 voters opposed similar measures (sponsored and funded by the same organization) repealing Costa-Hawkins by large margins. This November Proposition 33 would repeal Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act and it would prohibit the state from limiting “the right of any city, county, or city and county to maintain, enact or expand residential rent control.”

Under Costa-Hawkins, California cities cannot impose rent control on housing built after Feb. 1, 1995, or on single-family homes or separately owned multifamily units, like condos. Costa-Hawkins also says landlords are allowed to reset rental prices when tenants move out.

Also, the Governor signed AB 2347 which goes into effect in 2025. Currently, tenants have five days to file a response to an unlawful detainer action (excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and judicial holidays). AB 2347 amends the eviction timeline by giving tenants five extra days to respond (ten days in total).

On to the numbers.