In March I wrote a post calling out people who blame investors for rising rents and unaffordable housing. Today I’d like to highlight some reporting that gets it right. This story by KUOW’s Joshua McNichols is a couple weeks old, but he hits the nail on the head, and I wanted to make sure it…
Category: Opinion
Opinion, commentary, etc.
Don’t Blame Investors For Unaffordable Housing
An article published this week in Seattle Weekly titled A Letter to the Investor Buying Our Apartment Building pinned the blame for the lack of affordable housing in the Seattle area on investors and their dirty obsession with profits.
…Eve and Charles told us they were putting the property up for sale. Who could blame them? The building is a century old and so much work went into maintaining it, especially for a couple of people who, also, are aging. But it’s prime real estate, right on the water with a view that would make even Donald Trump drool. So we had a good idea of what would happen after the sale went through. Skyrocketing rents and a landlord we’d never see, much less ever know…
Zillow’s “Coming Soon” Won’t be Coming to Seattle
In case you’re wondering why you aren’t seeing any of Zillow’s “Coming Soon” listings in the Seattle area (or pretty much anywhere in Western Washington, for that matter), GeekWire had a great post today on that topic: Why you won’t find Zillow’s new ‘Coming Soon’ feature in its hometown of Seattle None of these listings…
Sleazy Kirkland Brokerage Rips Off Redfin Design & Code
Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but straight up ripping off someone else’s hard work is… something else. The latter describes what Asset Realty Group, a sleazy Kirkland-based brokerage, is clearly guilty of. Let’s take a tour of a shameless rip off, shall we? Home Page The home pages are very similar, but…
Shadow Inventory Gut Feelings, Rumors, & Anecdotes
A number of you took issue with my data-backed claim that foreclosures are proceeding in a normal, orderly fashion and shadow inventory is a non-issue in the Seattle area. Your main objection seems to be based on a belief that there are large numbers of homes with mortgages that the borrower has stopped paying months…