[malandrew]

I find it amazing that no one has yet pointed out that the people increasing the rents are their fellow San Franciscans. The overwhelming majority of landlords are people who have lived in San Francisco for years. Yes, new people can move into an area raising demand, but at the end of the day it is San Franciscans who control the properties and decide who to rent to.

One of my good friends is 64 and has lived in SF since the early 70s and says that that most landlords try to create a situation where housing rotates over and over by making the rents unsustainable so people eventually have to move so they can jack up the price again. She owns an apartment in a 3-unit building that survived the 1906 earthquake and her neighbor below inherited the property from their parents ~30 years ago and has been using this strategy for years. He was born and raised in SF, but moved out and now just collects rent checks on the property. The three bedroom unit below her is now being rented for just shy of $5000/mo.

Beyond those people I've met many few San Franciscans who have decided to move out of the city while maintaining the lease on their rent-controlled apartment and now sublease the apartment for the difference in rent control and market rate.

Pretty much everyone in a position to extract rent in this city is doing the most they can, and almost all are long time San Franciscans.

With all this in mind, I don't understand why all this ire isn't also directed at the supply side of the market, which is as culpable as the buy side of the market.