Prof. Ethan Seltzer: City Should Do More to Support New Landlords

Ethan Seltzer, Emeritus Professor in  the Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning at PSU, wrote guest commentary in the City Observatory blog this week calling on the City of Portland to do more to support the new, small landlords who will be necessary once the Residential Infill Project is implemented. RIP is expected to increase the number of lots with multiple units substantially over the next few years, and many of these new units will be rentals. But Portland and the State of Oregon have implemented policies recently that make it more difficult for landlords to operate. Seltzer argues that while larger landlords may be able to hire lawyers or raise rents to cover costs, smaller landlords who own fewer than 4 units may avoid the risk by renting their units through AirBnB, or solely to friends and family. He suggests the city could negotiate supportive lease agreements for smaller landlords, or create neighborhood groups that could act as management associations. Read more.



For more information on the multifamily market and PSU's Real Estate Program, be sure to watch Greg Frick's interview with Dr. Gerard Mildner. You can find this interview and more on our website, or on Youtube.