Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (March 31, 1981)
Panel predicts rising rents, tighter market By RICHARD WAGONER Of the Emerald Renters can expect an in creasingly tighter housing mar ket and rising rental costs, and that outlook won’t change for the next few years unless inter est rates begin to fall soon. That’s the forecast offered Monday night by a majority of local housing experts par ticipating in a workshop focuss ing on renter and landlord problems in the 1980s. A dwindling supply of affor dable rental housing caused by a dearth of rental construction and a poor economy forcing many people out of home ow nership is the crux of the hous ing problem, panel members said. Available rental housing probably won’t grow in the next two years because of high fin ancing costs, inability of renters to pay for high-priced apart ments to cover those financing costs and escalating land prices within Eugene, according to real estate consultant Bob Linz. "It's now not profitable for entrepreneurs to produce profi table housing units — that’s the bad news," Linz said. "The good news is that in most of your lifetimes that situation should change." And Linz said only a reces sion — or possibly a depression — that would bring interest rates down to between 7 and 10 per cent will spur private rental housing development. Mike Hibbard, a University community service and public affairs professor, painted an even more dismal housing pic ture. "My very strong belief is that if something doesn't happen (to make interest rates fall) in the next 12 months, we will see things in the banking industry that will make the Chrysler col lapse look like a cakewalk,” Hibbard said. Hibbard rejected subsidized low income housing programs as solutions to the growing na uassicai music Denetit slated for Sunday night World-renowned classical pianist Adam Kapuscinski will give a concert in the Alumni Lounge in Gerlinger Hall at 8 p.m. Sunday. The concert will be a benefit for OXFAM-AMERICA, which was established in 1970 to re spond to the famine in Bang ladesh and now has programs in Africa, Latin America and Asia. Tickets for the concert will be sold for $3 at the door. A native of Poland, Kapus cinski has performed in many European concert halls and on European radio and television. y He came to the United States in 1960 and now lives in New York City. A refugee from the Nazi oc cupation of Poland during World War II, Kapuscinski previously has given benefit concerts for the World Refugee Year and the International Year of the Child, both of which were organized by the United Na tions. OXFAM-AMERICA is an in dependent associate of the Bri tish Oxford Committee for Famine Relief 1 8 pm til? Tuesdays REMEMBER B’S FAMOUS HAMBURGERS Come and enjoy sporting events on our BIG SCREEN 3355 E. Amazon Dr., Eugene 342-3575 tionwide housing crunch. The subsidies only increase the demand for affordable rental housing and thus push housing prices even higher. “We need to expand ways for people to own (their homes) rather than make it easier to stay renters,” he said. But at least one panel member said the ease of owning a home has created the current housing shortfall. Existing tax laws and the ease of borrowing money have r created an excessive demand for home ownership, according to Mark Lindberg, a Eugene City Council member and University CSPA professor This ownership demand has resulted in the conversion of many apartments to condominiums and revamping of older homes that once provided low-income rental un its, Lindberg said. Renters should work to promote housing preservation laws that would protect current rental housing, secure guaran tees from landlords that a renter’s existing housing will continue to be available at a reasonable price and develop new housing opportunities for low and middle-income people, he said. "But unless renters begin to organize — pull together as a class with similar problems and concerns — the possibility of achieving any of these policy goals is very, very slim," Lind berg said. PETER SELLERS BEING THERE CRITIC S CHOICE™ WAA _1U LIVE FROM NEW YORK THE LATEST FASHION Dressed TO KILL . •> BROADWAY ON SHOWTIME 'v /^the/^ oinoame mamr*" FOR THE WHOLE ^IdcK^idlliOh 24 HOUR WEEKEND SERVICE APRIL ON SHOWTIME SHOWTIME is a whole new dimension in pay TV. The blockbuster movies everybody's looking for. Uncut and uninterrupted by commercials. Plus adult movies loaded with action and romance. Original series too hot for the networks to handle Broadway hits. Las Wsgas revues, nightclub acts, concerts. All taped live just for SHOWTIME. Classic and foreign films. Movies for children and the whole family. SHOWTIME. It’s more choices, more variety, more entertainment seven days a ==?■ A week. It’s like nothing else on M = lEv===y pay TV. Call now to order. America s most original pay tv v,«^' lELEPROmPTER of Oregor Q/f\[I][L@ T_r\X7 484-3006
