Originally Posted by
TWA884
One management company that owns or operates 15 apartment buildings. Still, not necessarily an accurate representation of the apartment rental situation in the entire city.
The problem is Santa Monica is one of the 3 areas in LA county that has a rent control law.
FWIW - when you have the rent control law in place, landlord-tenant relationship is usually worse. For example, we are practically in a recession now due to COVID-19. So in most areas of the LA county, landlords would freeze the rent (or if lucky, lower). But in cities like Santa Monica, the rent is still going to be increased no matter what because of the increase cap. So landlords in Santa Monica will keep increasing the rent as legally allowed.
Also - because of the rent control law, some tenants are lucky enough to have units that way below prevailing rents. So landlords are practically losing money. Hence, landlords would like to push those people out as much as possible as legally allowed.
On a side note - I seriously don't understand why OP has to pick Santa Monica. Sure, OP may have a thing about Santa Monica, which is fine. But Santa Monica isn't exactly the best city in the county to live with. There are handful of LA cities that can serve OP better. I honestly I don't know what OP has to so dug in with Santa Monica.
BTW - Santa Monica is also a college town as well.