To the editor: This text overlooks an irony: The reasonably priced flats Los Angeles struggles to protect have been largely constructed by non-public buyers, but PlaceEconomics’ Donovan Rypkema dismisses reliance on the non-public sector (“A time bomb for renters: L.A. County’s cheapest apartments are getting old, fast,” Oct. 23).
My household has offered rental housing for the reason that Sixties, and I presently personal an condo constructing. We now have witnessed how lease management, launched in L.A. in 1978, and more and more hostile insurance policies towards housing suppliers have discouraged funding.
Condominium building subsequently declined dramatically. In the meantime, a recent report citing Kidder Mathews information discovered that common condo sale costs per unit fell almost 30% between 2022 and 2026. This erosion of property values and house owners’ fairness undermines incentives and financing for sustaining growing older buildings or developing new ones.
The non-public sector created a lot of L.A.’s reasonably priced housing. Reasonably than dismissing housing suppliers, policymakers ought to study how their insurance policies have discouraged the funding wanted to protect and broaden it.
Edward Livingston, Los Angeles
