Due to repeated violations of our Terms of Use, comments from this poster are automatically removed. Why?

Due to repeated violations of our Terms of Use, comments from this poster are automatically removed. Why?

I live in a nice small apartment about a mile from City center. It is well maintained and is currently below market rent (if you consider market rent to be what folks downtown are paying). If rent control happens the first thing that will happen is my rent will be increased to "market" before the law goes into effect. Rent control is going to flush all the truly affordable apartments right down the drain! It hasn't worked in SF and it'll fail even quicker in Mountain View (all the dot commers are forcing old residents out of SF--and then they take the bus to MV). What Mountain View really needs is to limit office growth and charge developers MORE to build offices and LESS to build housing.

My rent went up $300 last year and $300 again in October. $600 in 24 months.Wow. I am a full time union employee at Stanford who will soon be moving. Born and raised in Palo Alto. Good luck Mountain View. The middle class is screwed again.

Stopping those scandalous rent hikes is a great start! But what about those wishing to purchase here? It's horribly unfair that only the most highly salaried can afford to buy. We need a real estate price freeze as well. In fact, let's roll all real estate prices back to 1980 levels. That, coupled with the proper minimum wage increase, would allow EVERYONE to own their own home!

I agree with david e. My rent has gone up 13% every year for the ten years I've lived at my apartment. I no longer can afford to eat out, or have any kind of social life, as all my money goes to rent. I tried to buy a house last year, but was out bid by foreign buyers coming in with cash, that are willing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars over the asking price. It's a no win for the middle class for sure. The city council doesn't care about the middle class. That's very evident. But now that I'm down, they've started kicking me. Someone needs to come in and investigate this. Somebody somewhere is getting paid a lot of money to look the other way, and screw over all the old school residents.

@Steve
Why not to go even further? Let's roll all the prices back to the 60s and increase all the salaries 10 times, no, wait, 100 times!!! Everyone will be able to afford their own palace!

This last year my rent went up in January, then May, 11%, and we have already been told next increase in November will be 15%. The property owner does not maintain the property - so rent control would not exactly discourage maintenance here. I suspect the fire dept could find all kinds of code violations if they looked...anyway, dear candidates, I will be surprised if I'm here to vote for any of you come November.
As for Salary, I work for government, serving this community, my bi weekly paycheck is 2019. Rent now is 2100, going to 2450. Screwed. How about a program, that can be implemented now, not 4 or 8 years from now, to provide loan assistance for a down payment. I'd save, but, well, my rent prevents that. This is the reality of renters in Mountain View and the greater Bay Area.

One good thing about higher rent prices, the low lifes are forced to move.

I agree with Steve, how about limits on housing prices. I can't afford a house, well actually i can, but i do not want to pay the Property taxes. 500k house property tax is 5000/yr. That a few months salary there.

@One good thing about: "One good thing about higher rent prices, the low lifes are forced to move."

It isn't doing that good of a job -- after all, you're still here...

Lowlifes? Just because their income is less? One could argue the nerds are just as bad, if not worse for the community:
Web Link

@Dean Werner,
Do not hurry to label "One good thing about" as 'nerd'. $5000 is a 'few months salary' but he can afford a house? Luck of logic is right there.