In case you missed it last week, the downtown building height / "affordable housing" saga finally came to somewhat of a conclusion. The repeal of the CAP initiative Monday was unanimous and underwhelming—an anticlimactic finish for a once-sacrosanct law that limited downtown building heights for almost 20 years. So uncontroversial was the new law, proposed…
Seattle A "FairValue"
A commenter pointed out this article on CNN Money a few days ago regarding overpriced coastal housing markets: Some of the most overheated U.S. housing markets did become a little less overvalued during the fourth quarter of 2005 — but homes there didn’t actually fall in price.Other factors, such as rising income, combined to increase…
Newsflash: Rapid Appreciation Not All Good
Peter Callaghan must have missed the memo. A local reporter actually covering the dark side of increasing home prices . Holy cow, I think I might faint. Homeowners seem to enjoy the breathless stories about superheated real estate markets. Pierce County, for example, saw an 18 percent increase in the median price in the last…
Super Smart Seattle
So maybe Seattle isn’t attracting CEOs and high-level professionals, but let not your heart be troubled. Seattle’s skyrocketing house prices will be carried along by college graduates! College graduates are flocking to America’s big cities, chasing jobs and culture and driving up home prices. Seattle, a new analysis shows, is on the top of the…
Is Seattle Attracting Good Jobs?
Some of the recent discussions in the comments have centered on job growth in Seattle. In a comment on the most recent post, T.S. made the following claim: The job situation is misleading. While there may be low unemployment, which is good, the newly created jobs are simply not high-paying enough to support the current…