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Comment by Sebguer | Hacker News Reader

I got a renewal notice a few months ago, and they wanted to raise my already pretty high rent by like 15%. It was higher than what they charge for brand new apartments, not even counting leasing incentives. I made a counter-offer and got told 'we don't negotiate'. The propublica article (https://www.propublica.org/article/yieldstar-rent-increase-r...) talks about how exactly this lack of negotiation / removing the human element lets them drive up rents across the board.

It's insane, and toxic.

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Experienced the same system in the Bay Area. Rent increases by 300 - 500, but the new lease is lower. You can try signing a lease on a new apartment and deal with the logistics of moving, having some period of extension/overlapping rent payment, which is a huge hassle and may not even save you money.

Why would they want to add the expense of cleaning out an additional apartment, additional wear and tear, and pissing off a tenant who is likely to leave in the future only to collect less rent for the privilege? There must be some MBAs involved in that brilliant maneuver.

If you have nowhere to go, then the rent is whatever the landlord says it is.

That's why the top marginal tax rate for incomes is too low: Landlords (and other rentiers) have little disincentive to try to maximize their incomes at the expense of everyone else.

It’s a game of chicken.

My landlord uses RealPage and the property manager told me they (my building) target a 50% churn rate. If fewer than 50% of households move out at the end of their lease, they know they're not increasing rents fast enough.

That’s insane.

Because they calculate they are more willing to do that than the tenant is willing to move. It only costs them a month or two of the difference in rent they are going to charge a new tenant. They still make thousands more in the end.

Meanwhile, the tenant has to pay more money to move than it costs the landlord to rent the place again. The landlord knows they so they offer an extension at an increase of about the same amount it would cost to move.

They are betting they can do absolutely nothing and make more money. Even if they lose that bet, they still make more money.

There is zero downside when there is high demand for housing and other landlords are doing the same thing.

I think this is the exact reason why government should intervene - the market solution doesn’t work. Unfortunately so many government policies are working to make housing scarce and creating the problem in the first place.

100%. This doesn’t get fixed otherwise. It’s predatory. It’s basically the storage unit model applied to housing.

The Market solution is working. The fools who are willing to put up with this behavior and the Bay Area are being parted with their money. It is not long-term pain - It is short term pain repeated many times by many fools.

Government is how we got into this mess by limiting the supply of housing through zoning. Allow people to build up the unit in their backyard or in their garage and you'll unlock a whole new section of housing supply that will drive the bottom of the market down

It's the same with jobs in most areas that aren't big cities or tech hubs; it's a huge pain in the ass to switch jobs if you aren't in a super high demand field. Often requiring a substantial uprooting and move.

Lots of uneven sectors where huge portions of individuals loose to "market forces".

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