MBA State Relations Committee Update State Highlights

Advocacy News and Information From the Latest Issue of the MBA State Relations Committee Update  

MBA-Opposed Rent Control Initiative Defeated in California: With more than 61 percent of the vote, Californians voted against the approval of Proposition 33  (Prop 33), a statewide ballot proposition designed to enact rent control. MBA and the California MBA deployed the Mortgage Action Alliance (MAA) to encourage industry members in the state members to vote “No for Me on Prop 33.” These efforts included an educational webinar that featured a joint presentation including the leadership of the California Apartment Association. This is the third time that California voters have rejected rent control. Prop 33 would have repealed the state’s Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act in order to allow local governments to set residential rental rates when a unit became vacant – actions which would have harmed the multifamily real estate market and housing affordability. Repealing Costa-Hawkins would have created a patchwork of state and local price control laws that would have undermined the supply of new housing and make multifamily lending more costly. MBA will continue to work with its state and local association/coalition partners to oppose any continued attempts at rent control throughout the country – while simultaneously promoting workable solutions to the challenge of affordable housing and the need to increase housing supply.