Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. Deciding that you need a fatter paycheck at the expense of a renter who can't afford your desire -- yes, desire, not need -- for more money... yeah, in my book that makes you an asshole. Any rent increase that isn't tied to an increase in costs (sure, maybe plus a few percent for profit) or a CPI/inflation increase is just greed, plain and simple. Put another way: landlords who are already making a comfortable profit off their property don't magically stop making a profit just because demand has increased. But that's not enough: people won't say no to a chance at more profits, even if that has a negative impact on other people.
Listen, there's no reason why all the landlords across SF need to raise rents. They do it because they want more money, and know that demand is so high and that the high income earners in the area can afford it, and that there are enough of those types of people to keep the market going, at least for a while.
And, to be frank, I could keep affording an apartment in SF even if it got much worse than it is now. But I wouldn't want to live here. The thought of living in a place populated by only the rich is entirely unpalatable to me. The idea of lining the pockets of people who are displacing families and individuals who have been living in SF for years and decades... that's disgusting. After a while, if things don't get better, I'll give up and move somewhere else, and give my rental money to people more deserving. I'll be sad to leave, but will realize that the city I love has already left me.
So, unless I'm in it to only make as little money as possible for me to have a reasonably comfortable existence (by some standard you have set), I'm a greedy asshole. I disagree. I want to be rich someday. I want to retire at 50 and travel the world, eating at overpriced restaurants along the way. I want to leave some wealth to my children.
That's why I bust my hump working a day job as well as building assets in my spare time; so that someday my investments pay my way with little effort on my end. I am indeed in it to make money; I have no interest in running self-subsidized housing. There's nothing morally wrong with charging market value. It's not that I have no empathy for these people, but circumstances change for a variety of reasons and we all have to adapt. Neighborhoods change over time; rent control won't stop that. My investment finally paid off and you want me to run a charity.
I'm sorry that doesn't jive with your political/world outlook, but that doesn't make me a bad person. There are pros and cons to any economic system, but apparently capitalism is not for you. That's fine, just drop the holier than thou attitude.
> There's nothing morally wrong with charging market value.
How do you define market value?
Because for some landlords it seems to be the highest value that someone will pay to live there.
Taken as a collective action - that results in rents continually going up beyond wages.
I don't know all the circumstances behind the OP's rent increase - but an ~8x increase seems pretty astounding.
Were rental prices left untouched for decades?
Was there some major increase in the cost of maintaining the property or land?
Has the landlord made significant investments in the facilities or amenities?
> My investment finally paid off and you want me to run a charity.
So, can you see any room between asking landlords not to be assholes about squeezing tenants for every last cent, and running a charity?
That's what I'm asking for - I understand you've put in some risk, you've worked hard to earn money. But your tenants are working hard too.
In many cities there's a huge (and growing) demand for properties that are within some reasonable distance to places of employment.
Landlords collectively driving up prices beyond wages and other costs results in a huge flow of wealth from the working class to the wealthy.
This means someone on what would elsewhere be a fantastic wage, is at best mediocre. Those on lower wages may find they're having to share rooms and eat ramen two hours away from work well into their adult lives just to survive.
If you own a rental in San Francisco, you have an effectively zero-risk investment.
Is it a zero-labor investment? Fuck no. But, due to the city's completely batshit insane zoning laws and the militant NIMBY contingent you (as a landlord) are guaranteed an income that increases far more quickly than the cost of maintaining it.
It is for this reason that most landlords in absurdly high-demand areas get no love or sympathy whatsoever.
I was too harsh, and for that I apologize. I more care about the level of the increases: a landlord can certainly pull in more profit with a modest rent increase that doesn't break the tenant's bank (and that's likely even a higher increase than current rent control laws allow). The OP's rent is about to become over 4x what it once was. I certainly won't deny that the cost of owning a property will tend to go up, but it sounds to me like most of that rent increase will end up being pure profit.
I want to be rich someday, too. But I don't want to be rich knowing that I directly made the lives of other people harder in doing so. I don't think wealth and capitalism has to be a zero-sum game; I don't believe that for me to become richer, someone else must become poorer.
All this is precisely why we don't have absolute property ownership rights. We as a society have collectively agreed that land is a limited, public asset, and we're willing to allow people to own it, and receive some benefits from the state, but also have to follow some rules that serve the public's interest... like not kicking people to the curb out of greed. If you own land, then you should know this already: it's not "yours" in the absolute sense. It's an investment, to be sure, but your return on that investment can be limited by law in some cases. This is just one way in how that shakes out.
I'm sorry that doesn't jive with your political/world outlook, but that doesn't make me a bad person. There are pros and cons to any economic system, but apparently capitalism is not for you.
I'm not going to try to define "good person" or "bad person", but I will say that the idea of evicting someone from their home (and sometimes city) because their landlord sees dollar signs in their eyes is just reprehensible to me. That doesn't put me at odds with capitalism; I think that just makes me human.
Why don't you pay some of your neighbors' rent? You admit you could afford an increase, and you want people to sacrifice their disposable income for the benefit of others' housing, right?
I'd say that the onus is more on people not actively screwing over other people for their own gain, versus relying on people like me to somehow choose which of their neighbors is most deserving of charity.
The exact reason why we have legal limitations to property rights in these cases is to require that landowners sacrifice some of their disposable income for the benefit of others -- and the benefit of the public good. I think the law has the intent correct, there, even if the implementation of it leaves something to be desired.
Listen, there's no reason why all the landlords across SF need to raise rents. They do it because they want more money, and know that demand is so high and that the high income earners in the area can afford it, and that there are enough of those types of people to keep the market going, at least for a while.
And, to be frank, I could keep affording an apartment in SF even if it got much worse than it is now. But I wouldn't want to live here. The thought of living in a place populated by only the rich is entirely unpalatable to me. The idea of lining the pockets of people who are displacing families and individuals who have been living in SF for years and decades... that's disgusting. After a while, if things don't get better, I'll give up and move somewhere else, and give my rental money to people more deserving. I'll be sad to leave, but will realize that the city I love has already left me.