San Diego County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer recently used a cute ploy to show her progressive supporters that she is in their corner. For the rest of us, it’s meh.
At the July Board of Supervisors meeting, Lawson-Remer advanced a resolution entitled “Fighting Back Against Corporate Homebuyers and Wall Street Landlords.” It was a motion to “study the issue,” not anything real.
The day before that meeting, she joined a demonstration against Blackstone, a large investment firm with sizable real estate holdings.
The event was held in front of a Blackstone-owned apartment building in Pacific Beach and featured Terra in a chartreuse-colored jumpsuit, bull horn in hand, accompanied by social justice allies from SEIU and the ACCE Institute.
Political theater — not up to AOC’s standards, perhaps, but a clever prelude to her Board of Supervisors move.
Perhaps too clever. Terra’s stunt could backfire. A closer examination of this issue should lead her District 3 voters to recognize that she isn’t being straight with them on housing policy.
Yes, high housing costs are troublesome, the biggest factor in the post-pandemic inflation surge. If one doesn’t own a house, that’s a problem. But a solid majority of county residents live in owner-occupied housing – they benefit from rising prices.
Moreover, the geography of Terra’s 3rd Supervisorial District skews more suburban, with 65-70% home ownership in the affluent coastal North of her district.
Another problem for Terra is that observers who delve into the topic will discover that she plays fast and loose with the facts. An example would be her misleading conflation of investor ownership of single-family homes with that of multi-family buildings.
She attacked Blackstone as “the largest residential landlord in the U.S., with an estimated 300,000 rental units in their portfolio”.
Seems like a lot until one recognizes the country has something like 128 million households — 300,000 units is about 0.23 % of the total. Similarly, she decried Blackstone’s purchase of 66 properties containing 5,600 units in San Diego, an insignificant portion of the county’s 1.5 million households. Do the arithmetic on that, and you’ll see that’s about 85 units per property — they’re apartment buildings.
Lawson-Remer also neglected to mention that Blackstone paid more than $1 billion for those properties. The seller was the Conrad Prebys Foundation, a benefactor to many progressive causes.
According to Molly Kirkland of the Southern California Rental Housing Association, the portfolio of properties was old and needed improvement, which Blackstone has the resources to accomplish. The deal was clearly not a mom-and-pop opportunity.
But it serves Lawson-Remer to demonize the large investors whom we depend on to finance big projects.
As for the theory that big investors are driving up the cost of single-family homes, it’s not supported by the data – Terra misleads voters with her claim that “institutional investors” and “hedge funds” are competing with first-time homebuyers. According to real estate analytics firm Parcl Labs, institutional operators own around 0.73% of the total U.S. single-family housing stock (less than one in 100 homes).
And in the past two years (2022-23) only two units were bought by large investors in the entire state of California, says Melanie Woods of the California Apartment Association.
The broad term “investor” includes any purchaser who is not a natural person. According to a source cited in Lawson-Remer’s memo to the Board of Supervisors (CoreLogic), investor purchases of single-family homes have been trending downward since mid-2021, yet home prices have continued to advance. And most landlords are still small operators with between one and 10 homes.
The big picture is that San Diego County suffers from a lack of new housing, in part because development at the periphery of the metro area is restricted. As Supervisor Joel Anderson pointed out, there has been essentially no new housing construction in the county in the past three years. Couple that fact with the low mortgage rates that prevailed for so long, and San Diego home prices naturally went through the roof.
Lawson-Remer’s attack on Blackstone, etc., serves two purposes.
It reinforces her standing with the progressive-activist community she relies on to get elected, and it deflects attention away from her majority’s responsibility for the lack of supply.
Anderson said it well when he declined to support Lawson-Remer’s measure: “In my district we need more housing…Without large corporations… none of these projects will be built. If we’re going to say that mom-and-pops are the only ones who can build homes for potential rentals, we’re killing the market and we’re hurting the people that we say we serve.”
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5 comments
Garvin,
Well of course you think you did a better job – you are, by you own estimation, more knowledgeable, more informed and more intelligent than anyone else, at least those who don’t share your opinions.
Anyone can cherry-pick numbers. The four “examples” you select to illustrate your point correspond to the regions with the highest percentages of owner-occupied housing within the 3rd Supervisorial District. The combination exceeds that district average 17%. I’m sure it’s purely coincidence that you left out other communities in the 3rd District: Del Mar: 40.1% , Vista: 47.3%, Coronado: 38.4%, Point Loma: 37.2%. The thing is, the County already did the work for you – there was no need to cherry pick and manipulate the data: https://www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/sdc/hhsa/programs/phs/community_health_statistics/regional-community-data.html. What you “accept as credible” is the part of the data that supports your argument, not the full dataset.
Your description of the PESP is indeed amusing: you call them a “bunch of nobodies, self-appointed to the task of telling society how to invest…” Isn’t that precisely what you are? A retired investment advisor whose hobby is to pontificate on every possible subject, telling society how to raise and teach its children (laughable given your own public disasters), how public health officials should allow people to decide on their own whether to avoid spreading disease during a pandemic (is it Dr. Walsh?), how elected officials should give businesses free rein while exploiting workers, and on and on. As far as “blood-sucking lawyers”, you certainly did your best to provide near full-employment for a fair number of lawyers during your 15+ year campaign of terror against your ex. It’s practically comical that after being determined to have abused the legal system for your refusal to accept the court’s judgments and pay what was ordered based on the facts and law, you then decided to work for lawyers as an “expert” on divorce financial matters, accusing other wayward ex-spouses of dishonesty.
As far as Blackstone’s behavior, legality means an act is in accordance with the law. That doesn’t mean they are acting ethically or morally in jacking up rents, evicting those who can’t afford the increases, and further exacerbating the homeless crisis, all while CEO Stephen Schwartzman throws $10M+ birthday parties for himself.
I subscribe to Terra’s email list, to keep a close eye on her dangerous policies and false claims as a San Diego County Supervisor (up for re-election this NOV.).
As soon as I read her piece, I called B.S., and contacted her office that her claim was not backed up by any facts at all, and it was wrong for her to make misleading public statements as a public official. She did this to stoke the fires her party continues to stoke and ignite, in her pathetic ploy to get re-elected and to further divide the public.
Remember this when it comes time to vote. This is the woman who was arrested in New York for scaling a building in a protest before being shipped to San Diego by her party to run for office. San Diego county must do better.
Interesting to read both of your inappropriately nasty digs on one another, but isn’t Mr. Walsh a close friend and advisor to democrat Mayor Tony Kranz?
Aren’t you batting for the same team?
Regardless, your vitriol is unprofessional and unappreciated by most.
Instead of accusatory partisan politicking, why don’t you just state the facts and let readers decide on issues.
To start, I am compelled to ask, is Garvin color-blind or does he really not know what the color “chartreuse” is? Webster’s defines “chartreuse” as “a variable color averaging a brilliant yellow green.” Unless the photo in his column has been massively altered, Terra’s outfit is a muted tan or beige – neither brilliant, green, nor yellow. With comments so grossly inaccurate, it doesn’t bode well for the remainder of Garvin’s sermon.
Walsh’s commentary is first and foremost an attack piece aimed at Lawson-Remer’s credibility rather than a good faith, albeit biased, attempt to clarify the specific issue of corporations buying up affordable housing. Were it otherwise, Walsh would have made some degree of effort to inform instead of mislead using comments replete with red herrings and unsupported factual assertions.
For a red herring, Walsh invokes the name of the late philanthropist Conrad Prebys, suggesting that because land was purchased from the Foundation, Blackstone’s purchase must be for the greater good and not motivated by pure profit. Walsh has bought and sold enough real property in his lifetime to know that sellers don’t retain control over the property after the sale. Inclusion of this sidebar is gratuitous and disingenuous.
Walsh calls out Lawson-Remer’s statement about Blackstone being the “largest residential landlord in the U.S.”, implying that it is either untrue or misleading. In fact, the statement comes directly from a 2023 report published by the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, found here: https://pestakeholder.org/reports/blackstone-comes-to-collect-how-americas-largest-landlord-and-wall-streets-highest-paid-ceo-are-jacking-up-rents-and-ramping-up-evictions/ The same report details the company’s aggressive rent increases, which in some cases were between 43%-64%, and notes that AB 1482 defines annual rent increases over 10% as “price gouging”. Blackstone has spent millions opposing rent control in California. It’s understandable why Blackstone is driven to inflate rents and otherwise bolster its profits by buying up even more rental properties – Stephen Schwartzman, close confidant and advisor to Donald Trump, with a net worth of $39B, was the highest paid CEO in the U.S. in 2022.
Walsh asserts that a solid majority of county residents live in owner-occupied housing and that Terra’s 3rd Supervisorial District includes 65-70% home ownership in the affluent coastal North of her district. He offers no attribution to his source. In fact, reports prepared by San Diego County using U.S. Census Bureau data and the 2017-2021 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates reveal that in San Diego County, 50.4% of housing units are owner-occupied. Perhaps the math courses I took as part of my physics degree differ from Walsh’s experience as a financial advisor, but a mere four-tenths of a percent over half is not what I’d consider a “solid majority.”
As further detailed in the County’s report, of the 275,302 housing units in Supervisorial District 3, 49.9% are owner-occupied, 40.8% are renter-occupied, and 9.3% are unoccupied. Are we to assume that a full one-half of the district is irrelevant — that Terra should only serve the needs of her wealthiest constituents? In contrast, the same report for Supervisorial District 2 shows owner-occupied housing at 61.6%, with only 34.2% renter-occupied housing and 4.2% unoccupied. It looks like Joel Anderson could afford to completely ignore the plight of renters in his district and still be re-elected. It’s not a surprise that Anderson won’t support Lawson-Remer’s measure.
Serving one’s constituents includes understanding their needs. Lawson-Remer has demonstrated her dedication to serving others – affordable housing and renter protection is an important issue for many people in her district. Walsh, on the other hand, as a staunch admirer of Elon Musk and Donald Trump, cannot understand showing concern for anyone outside his special bubble, apart from trying to impose his own ideologies on them. His personal interests and finances are paramount – that fact is well-documented by numerous New Jersey court decisions that recount his long and vindictive crusade to punish his ex-wife.
To paraphrase the author’s words, “[Walsh’s] attack on [Lawson-Remer], etc. serves two purposes.” It reinforces a compulsive need to appear relevant, and seeks to impose his right-wing ideals on those who strive to move society forward instead of backward to a time when women and minorities were silent and obedient, and cult capitalism worshipped trickle-down economics.
Dear Ms. Musick,
Contrary to your assertions, the column was a legitimate attempt to shed light on issues related to single-family home ownership. I think I did a better job than you.
As for my statistical representations, I relied on data which can be accessed at the U.S. Census Bureau website: Owner-occupied housing unit rate, 2018-22. That source, which I accept as credible, reports that 54.2% of San Diego County residents live in owner-occupied housing. By way of further example, for Encinitas it’s 65.2%, Carlsbad 62.2%, Solana Beach 66.7%, Rancho Santa Fe 74%. I believe the remarks in my column are supported by the data.
As for the reference to the Conrad Prebys Foundation, I believe you misinterpret my comment. I made no attempt to attribute altruistic motives to Blackstone in their purchase of those properties. The profit motive is sufficient justification for them to have done so, just as it was for Mr. Prebys during the time he accumulated that portfolio. I see no reason to demonize the profit motive — t tends to have a favorable influence on our standard of living, enabling reinvestment in new opportunities as others fade away. Ever hear of the buggy whip analogy? Also, how else can the vast fortunes given to our much-admired eelyomosyinary institutions be accumulated if there is no opportunity for profit?
Your citation of the report published by the Private Equity Stakeholder Project is amusing. That’s just a bunch of nobodies, self-appointed to the task of telling society how to invest and spend Other Peoples’ Money. Conveniently, you and they forgot to mention that California lives under a state-wide rent stabilization regime. I imagine that had Blackstone done anything illegal with the rents on those properties there would be a whole cadre of blood-sucking lawyers like yourself suing them to kingdom come. In that respect, you are the dog that didn’t bark.
Lastly, on my computer screen Terra’s jump suit looked green. Regardless, her Daniel Cohn-Bendit-look, bull horn in hand atop the barricades, no doubt played well to her audience.