Eviction Costs Pushing Landlords out of California’s Housing Market

“I still love this country, but being a landlord in Oakland, and California in general, [it’s] not worth it,” said one immigrant landlord.
Eviction Costs Pushing Landlords out of California’s Housing Market
Signs are seen during a protest to cancel rent and avoid evictions in front of the court house amid coronavirus pandemic in Los Angeles on Aug. 21, 2020. Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images
Rudy Blalock
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Many California landlords have been hit hard by statewide eviction moratoriums, allowing tenants to not pay rent for as long as three years. But now that moratoriums have been lifted across the state, evictions for some landlords are costing tens of thousands, forcing some to sell their property and leave the rental industry in California.

According to estimates by a landlord in Alameda County who led efforts to end the eviction moratoriums in Oakland, San Leandro, and in Alameda County—which lasted from March 2020 until the summer of 2023—there’s about $1 billion in unpaid back rent for Alameda County alone.