SBRSO

Press Kit

SBRSO — Santa Barbara Rent Stabilization Observatory · sbrso.com

One-paragraph project summary

Copy-paste ready:

SBRSO — the Santa Barbara Rent Stabilization Observatory (sbrso.com) — is an independent research project documenting the effects of Santa Barbara's rent stabilization ordinance on the city's multi-family housing market. The site tracks landlord operating costs against the ordinance's 60%-of-CPI rent cap, maintains a verbatim, timestamped record of City Council statements on the policy, and publishes its methodology and underlying data for download. SBRSO is funded by Radius Commercial Real Estate, a Santa Barbara commercial brokerage that represents multi-family owners; the sponsorship is disclosed on every page, and the site's data, sources, and corrections policy are public.

One-page press summary

What SBRSO is. The Santa Barbara Rent Stabilization Observatory is a public-interest research website covering Santa Barbara's temporary rent-increase moratorium (Ordinance 2026-6206, adopted January 27, 2026; effective February 26, 2026) and proposed permanent rent stabilization ordinance (SBMC Chapter 26.90, public review draft released June 10, 2026; program operative January 1, 2027 if adopted on schedule). It is built for reporters, property owners, council members and staff, and housing researchers.

What the draft ordinance does. As drafted, Chapter 26.90 covers rental units whose certificate of occupancy was issued before February 1, 1995. For covered units, annual rent increases are capped at 60% of the change in the California CPI or 3%, whichever is lower — with a 0% floor, no banking of unused increases, and a ban on most utility pass-throughs. Base rents were set as of December 16, 2025. The ordinance includes a fair-return petition process (§26.90.050) under which an owner may seek a larger adjustment by demonstrating that net operating income has fallen below its inflation-adjusted 2025 level.

What SBRSO publishes.

  • The Squeeze: an interactive chart tracking a weighted Santa Barbara landlord cost basket (property tax, insurance, water/sewer, labor, materials, utilities, management) against California CPI and the ordinance's allowable-rent line, all indexed to December 2025 = 100.
  • The Council Record: verbatim, timestamped quotes from council meetings, deep-linked to official video, with analytical commentary kept visually separate from the quotes.
  • The Honest Case: a long-form analysis that presents the strongest case for rent stabilization before disputing the mechanism on the evidence.
  • The Petition Pathway: a plain-language explainer of the ordinance's fair-return petition, with a worked example.

The site's finding, in one sentence. Santa Barbara's rent burden is real, but capping revenue growth on pre-1995 buildings below inflation — while owner costs compound at or above it — produces a structural squeeze that erodes building condition and property values without adding a single unit of housing.

Who funds it. Radius Commercial Real Estate, a Santa Barbara commercial brokerage that represents multi-family owners, including owners of covered property. The sponsorship is disclosed on every page; methodology and data are public and downloadable.

How to use it. Every chart is downloadable with a citation footer; every quote links to the moment in the official video; every figure links to its sources. Cite freely with attribution (format below).

Three pull-quotes from the public record

Verbatim from official Santa Barbara City Council meeting video; transcription artifacts preserved. Deep links go to the timestamped moment in the official recording.

1. Mayor Randy Rowse — on adopting the rent freeze without data — Santa Barbara City Council meeting, January 13, 2026 [6:36:35]:

"We don't have the data. We don't even know how many units we're talking about. … we haven't done the the monetary research. We haven't done the physical research that it takes to do something this incredibly impactful in a community. We haven't done it yet."

Source: council video, 1/13/2026

2. Councilmember Kristen Sneddon — on the origin of the 60%-of-CPI figure — Santa Barbara City Council meeting, April 7, 2026 [6:32:40]:

"I knew that the 60% was the lowest number that was legally defensible from the research and … fully expected that that number would be negotiated upward … but something had to go in there as a placeholder."

Source: council video, 4/7/2026

3. Councilmember Meagan Harmon — on voting for the cap number without the underlying CPI data — Santa Barbara City Council meeting, April 7, 2026 [6:40:35]:

"I feel a little bit like I'm … making a decision in the void to be frank around numbers and it feels a little bit like guesswork which I'm struggling with. … I would love if possible to see a chart for maybe the last 10 years that would identify specifically what CPI would have been in each of the last 10 years and to benchmark what 60% 75% and 100% would have been."

Source: council video, 4/7/2026

(Note for editors: quotes 2 and 3 are from councilmembers who supported the ordinance; quote 1 is from an opponent. The full, filterable record — 76+ quotes across both positions — is on The Council Record page.)

About the team

SBRSO is researched and maintained by the Golis Team at Radius Commercial Real Estate, a Santa Barbara commercial brokerage founded in 2002, with offices at 226 E. De La Guerra St, Suite 100, Santa Barbara, CA 93101. The team has represented Santa Barbara multi-family owners for decades and built the datasets underlying this site — the cost series, the transaction comparables, and the council record — from public sources and its own transaction records.

Attribution in print: "The Golis Team at Radius Commercial Real Estate, a Santa Barbara commercial brokerage that has represented Santa Barbara multi-family owners for decades."

Contact and interview availability

Members of the team are available for interviews and data walk-throughs — email GolisTeam@radiusgroup.com.

Charts: embedding, downloads, and citation

Every chart on the site is available as:

  • A downloadable high-resolution PNG with an embedded citation footer (publication name, URL, and date), so a screenshot or download credits the source automatically.
  • An embeddable version for digital outlets (embed snippet on each chart page).
  • The underlying data as CSV, so your data desk can re-derive any figure.

Citation format:

SBRSO — Santa Barbara Rent Stabilization Observatory, sbrso.com, [date].

Example: SBRSO — Santa Barbara Rent Stabilization Observatory, sbrso.com, July 5, 2026.

No permission is needed to reproduce charts with this attribution.

SBRSO is an independent research project funded and powered by Radius Commercial Real Estate, a Santa Barbara commercial brokerage that represents multi-family owners. Full disclosure and methodology: sbrso.com/about.