LA Has More Vacant Homes Than Homeless People, Report Finds: LAist
▻https://laist.com/2019/11/20/los-angeles-housing-vacancy-homeless.php
Despite the high vacancy rate, researchers suggest rents in the building remain high because the owners are betting on affluent residents moving in eventually.
“When developers put up exclusive luxury buildings that rent for more money a month than the residents currently living in a neighborhood make, they are making a speculative bet on what that neighborhood will look like in the future,” the authors wrote.
The report also examined ownership records for 25 condominium buildings in Los Angeles.
Condos, unlike rented apartments, can be individually bought and sold on the real estate market. Authors claim that roughly 71% of the condos in the buildings they examined were “effectively vacant,” meaning they are not used as a primary residence. They could, however, be rented out to tenants, which is not contemplated in the data.
Report authors also found that 46% of the condos they examined were owned by corporations or institutional investors.
Report authors recommend lawmakers pursue a tax on vacant homes. They say such a penalty would discourage the practice of investing in vacant housing stock purely for financial gain.
In June, several members of the L.A. City Council proposed developing a vacant homes penalty in L.A. Their motion asks city departments to determine how many vacant homes there are in Los Angeles and why they remain vacant, though the study is yet to be completed.
The motion also says this information could potentially be used place a vacancy tax on the city ballot for voters to consider sometime in 2020.
Under state law, any such tax requires voter approval to become effective.