[User23]

Common, really? Have you got any kind of figures to back that up? Because anecdotally speaking neither I nor anyone known to me has ever rented for anywhere near ten years. I always get curious when claimed statistics greatly disagree with my experience.

[Retric]

Nationally yea, rent control is one reason. NYC has people living in the same apartments for 30+ years.

Subsidized housing is another, the waiting list can be years long and people then generally stay until they are kicked out.

It’s also age related, retired people have fewer reasons to move and families are harder to relocate. Further looking at individuals you don’t yet know how long they are going to be in that location.

PS: 5.5% of renters have lived in their home for more than 20 years. Average is 3 years nationally at 7.22% that’s ~2.6 months between occupancy which seems long IMO.

[Brian_K_White]

And yet here I sit in a rental since 2005, and in software and IT the whole time. You just didn't happen to know me.

Your individual experience means essentially nothing, and I frankly disbelieve you don't even know anyone who has not or will not eventually have rented for 10 years, since they are everywhere.

[2devnull]

Very common in California where rent is outrageous and rent control strongly disincentivizes moving.

[dv_dt]

Rent control in California isn't particularly protective of spiraling rents. The statewide law applies to 15+ year old units and per year rent increases are limited to 5% plus inflation or 10%, whichever is lower.

[Retric]

The statewide number is simply a maximum not a statewide standard.

In San Francisco, rent in rent-controlled apartments can only be raised by 2.6% per year. Which is far more impactful.

[2devnull]

I’d guess that the vast majority of California renters are in big cities, where 3% rent control is typical. You get stuck after a year or two, unable to move without leaving the state, and landlords exploit this by neglecting repairs (i.e. lead, mold, asbestos). There is a pretty big range of “livable conditions” which I’ve experienced as a renter. So the divide between rich and poor (owner and renter) increases and the only socially acceptable solution it seems is yimbism, which seems to mean “increase the number of landlords until the problem disappears.” Or outright communism, where the state is the landlord, which has a history of failure.

[jjav]

> where 3% rent control is typical

> landlords exploit this by neglecting repairs

To be fair, if rent can never go up more than 3% per year, how long until the landlord can't afford to do any repairs?

Property tax goes up 2% every year, so there's only 1% headroom. If some other expense starts to go up wildly (such as insurance has been doing for years now) it can eat that up and then the landlord is losing money every month, which leads to abandoned maintenance. Which isn't good for anyone.

[dv_dt]

In Los Angeles, it seems to be 4% per year + and additional 1% per covered utility. In addition, the controls only apply to older units. This 3% average in major cities in CA notion is a floating assumption without any hard analysis backing it as far as I've read. https://la.lawsoup.org/legal-guides/tenant-renter/rent-contr...

The property tax increase is at a max of 2% cap, it has not been a full 2% most years in my experience (anecdotally in my area).

[Retric]

Property tax is a finite fraction of a landlords costs, it could go up by 3% and the headroom exists on the rest of their expenses.

Further if all expenses increase by 3%, then profit also increases by 3%. With decades of inflation well below 3% landlords weren’t having issues affording repairs, they simply weren’t getting the maximum benefit from the area’s prosperity increasing.

[Retric]

The US has major issues with the state as landlord but other counties pull it off fairly well. That suggests me it’s the US that has the problem not the approach of having the government involved that’s at issue.

The US seems to default to doing the worst possible solution. Take long term rent control and private ownership, because like seriously WTF??? That’s literally combining the worst aspects of communism and capitalism.

[SR2Z]

Other countries that pull it off do so in extremely YIMBY ways: they simply build enough housing that market rents fall.

This debate over "public housing" vs "more landlords" is kind of dumb; both operate by increasing the supply of housing and rely on fundamental market factors to work.

[woleium]

I believe it varies significantly by demographic (older renters move less frequently)