Thursday, May 12, 2016

Circle The Wagons

Have you every been in a situation where everyone looks at you like you've got three heads and no neck? That's exactly what will happen if you suggest the City get behind the notion that new condo developments in the Perimeter area include an owner-occupied requirement in their Declaration of Condominium. As in "only your estate can rent the unit" and then only for a couple of years whilst probate winds down.

There was a lot of noise about depressing property prices by excluding investor purchases thereby shrinking the buyer pool. Problem with that rhetoric is the exact opposite actually plays out. Investors are buying for location, will minimize maintenance costs, take their depreciation, make no improvements and rent to anyone passing a credit check. The selling investor has no incentive to get top dollar that they'll just pay in capital gains (remember, they took depreciation) so they will sell fast. Units will decay. Turnover, of renters and owners, will accelerate. The tax base will erode.

No matter.

The real noise came from the capitulation crowd, those folks running this burg, who must compromise even when it really isn't necessary. They talk a big show about protecting our community, about ensuring no impact to our schools, and then...then they turn around and deal-down to curry favor with really rich developers who want, but don't really need the handout. This is the kind of two-faced political double-dealing making lay-Republicans vote for Donald. It is also the same kind of shenanigans that these same folks used as justification to break away from DeKalb.

We're back where we started.