That’s a potential windfall for tenants willing to vacate affordable housing for quick cash, but Santa Monica landlords stand to make considerably more from such five-figure deals in the long run.
Worse for tenants, $25,000 won’t last very long if they’re forced to pay market rent in a comparable neighborhood.
Phillis said that when she talks to tenants who have received a buyout offer, she encourages them to work out the math to see if they’ll be able to afford new housing for the long term.
“I remind them to think about the value of their tenancy and what the market rate is,” Phillis said. “If you’re paying $700 a month for a two-bedroom apartment, your landlord’s going to be able to get $3,600, $3,700, maybe $4,000 for it, so I would say, minimum, that’s around a $3,000 difference per month. How many months does it take to get to that? That’s not going to help people get into another apartment.”
Santa Monica landlords are commanding record-high rents — about 10% more for new tenancies in 2015, according to city data — with a one-bedroom unit, on average, going for $2,050 a month and a two-bedroom reaping about $2,750.
It's so funny listening to my Seattle friends bitch about real estate prices.
I think it's more because nobody wants to become the next California. Granted, Seattle can't have it both ways. By which I mean complaining about increasing rent and housing prices but also complaining about new housing construction...well, that would be true if the housing was catered to be affordable and not "luxury" or "upscale"...