As the Mountain View Voice reported in 2018, a resident opened a 138-page document that had landed in her mailbox at the Del Medio Manor Apartments. Buried in the maintenance reports and expense sheets was a single row with her unit number on it. Her landlord wanted to raise her $1,200-a-month rent by $500.
The resident and her neighbors weren't imagining a threat. The Lindsay family, who built the 105-unit complex on Del Medio Avenue in 1974, had filed a petition seeking an extra $320,000 a year in rent across roughly two-thirds of the property, with individual increases ranging from 9 percent to 56 percent. The case dragged through a city hearing, an appeal, and a final ruling by Mountain View's Rental Housing Committee in February 2019 that rejected nearly all of it, limiting most tenants to an increase of about $20 a month.
The case highlighted a date in the city's rent control ordinance: it determines which Mountain View buildings are subject to rent caps and provides context for understanding apartment ownership and redevelopment. If you're comparing homes in this city, that date is useful context alongside median-price data.
How One Date Affects Rent-Control Coverage
Mountain View voters passed Measure V, known as the Community Stabilization and Fair Rent Act, in November 2016, and it took effect that December. The mechanics are specific enough to matter. A multi-family building with three or more units is fully covered by the rent cap only if it had a certificate of occupancy before February 1, 1995. Buildings with a certificate of occupancy on or after that date and before December 23, 2016 get just-cause eviction protection but no cap on rent increases. Buildings with a certificate of occupancy after December 23, 2016, along with every single-family home and every condo in the city, are exempt from CSFRA entirely under the state's Costa-Hawkins law.
The Rental Housing Committee sets the allowed annual increase for covered units each year based on Bay Area inflation. For the period running from September 2025 through August 2026, that figure is 2.7 percent. It is a modest number on its own. What it does to a 50-year-old apartment building's finances over time is not modest at all.
Same Street, Two Different Outcomes
A 2017 Mountain View Voice report covered a sale on Del Medio Avenue. A few blocks from the Manor, Fremont residents Ann and Paul Lethers had assembled an 18-unit complex from two adjacent nine-unit buildings. In June 2017, with the rent cap freshly in place, they sold. The price, about $7.55 million, represented a loss compared to what they'd paid to acquire one of those buildings just a couple of years earlier. Public records show one of the two nine-unit properties, at 417 Del Medio Ave, changed hands that same month for $3.75 million.
A tenant at the complex, Martin Cortez, told the Mountain View Voice at the time:
"All around us they've torn down buildings and are in the process of new developments."
Meanwhile, over at the Manor, the Lindsay family took the opposite path. Instead of selling, they fought to raise rents through the petition process, arguing that a capped return wasn't a real investment. Elizabeth Lindsay, one of about a dozen owners, told the Mountain View Voice at the time:
"No investment that has a cap on it is a good investment."
Two families, two buildings on the same street, two completely different responses to the same rule. One sold. The other pursued the petition process and lost. The cases illustrate different outcomes under the CSFRA. Its rent cap is one factor to consider when evaluating a covered apartment building.
New Construction and Redevelopment in Mountain View
The examples below describe several approved or proposed projects in different parts of Mountain View.
The city approved a seven-story condominium development on Tyrella Avenue in April 2025, a project that generated plenty of public pushback but went forward anyway. A 15-story builder's remedy project planned for 901-987 N. Rengstorff Ave drew similar opposition as it worked through the city's review process. Near downtown, a Chase Bank site redevelopment and an eight-story condominium project across the street, which was still awaiting a delayed public hearing as of the city's year-end account of 2025, could together add close to 450 new homes at one of the city's main entrances.
None of these are old rent-controlled buildings being renovated. They're new construction on sites being assembled and rebuilt from the ground up, which resets the CSFRA clock entirely once complete. Google has also changed plans for its local footprint: after abandoning a mega-office project in North Bayshore in 2024, the company indicated in 2025 that it was exploring the sale of its 40-acre Middlefield Park office site in East Whisman, a property it had once proposed redeveloping with 1,900 homes.
What This Means If You're Buying Here Right Now
As of July 2026, the average home value in Mountain View sits around $1.96 million, up roughly 1.8 percent over the past year. That figure covers everything from single-family homes to condos to townhomes, and none of those property types are touched by CSFRA at all. If you're shopping for a house or a condo, the rent cap is background noise, not a factor in your purchase.
Where it matters is if you're looking at a small multifamily property as an investment, or trying to understand how development activity differs from block to block. A building's certificate of occupancy date is a key fact. Pre-1995 multifamily buildings carry a rent ceiling; a buyer evaluating one may consider its rent rules along with the other details of the property.
If you're weighing Mountain View against other spots on the Mid-Peninsula, this is one more piece of local knowledge worth having before you make an offer, whether you're buying a place to live or a property to hold.
A Few Common Questions
Does CSFRA affect the rent or resale value of a single-family home or condo? No. Single-family homes and condos are exempt from the rent cap under state law, regardless of when they were built.
How do I find out if an apartment building I'm considering is covered? The certificate of occupancy date is the key fact. Buildings with three or more units that had a certificate of occupancy before February 1, 1995 are fully covered. Those with a certificate of occupancy between that date and December 23, 2016 have just-cause eviction rules but no rent cap. Anything newer is exempt from both.
Does rent control make older apartment buildings a bad investment? Not automatically, but it does cap the rent growth you can count on year to year. Anyone evaluating a pre-1995 multifamily property should model returns against the current Annual General Adjustment, not against open-market comps.
Understanding a market means understanding the rules that shape it, not just the price tags attached to it. If you're weighing a purchase in Mountain View or anywhere else on the Mid-Peninsula and want a clear read on what a specific property or block is really worth, Notarianni Real Estate Group is happy to walk through it with you. Request a free home valuation to start the conversation.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
