{"id":1942,"date":"2008-05-13T10:50:19","date_gmt":"2008-05-13T17:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/?p=1942"},"modified":"2008-05-13T10:50:19","modified_gmt":"2008-05-13T17:50:19","slug":"is-the-seattle-area-becoming-unlivable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/2008\/05\/13\/is-the-seattle-area-becoming-unlivable\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the Seattle Area Becoming Unlivable?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Couched in woeful tales of local residents that have been priced out of living in Seattle (buying or renting), a story in yesterday’s Seattle Times explored the question of whether an expensive Seattle is a desirable Seattle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Can Seattle really claim to be a livable city when the median home value is half a million dollars and so many who live here feel they may not be able to anymore?
\n…
\nWhen asked about affordability in Seattle, the first thing Georgetown Records saleswoman Tina Forbes says is the story of so many who are disoriented and frustrated by the fast pace of change here: “I’m getting ready to leave \u2014 Portland, man!”<\/p>\n

“We just keep getting pushed farther and farther south,” Forbes says of people like her who’ve dealt with rising rents and apartments going condo, which has happened to her twice already.
\n…
\nBut many of Seattle’s most die-hard devotees say they aren’t riding the prosperity trolley so much as adapting to it, holding on for dear life. That’s no way to live in a “livable” city.<\/p>\n

Here’s a sobering thought: While Seattle and King County’s technology companies continued to infuse the area with high-paid workers last year, the majority of job vacancies overall were for positions paying less than $25 an hour, barely enough for an adult with two children to achieve economic “self-sufficiency,” according to a study by the nonprofit Workforce Development Council of Seattle-King County.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Unfortunately, if you think you can escape to affordability by heading to the surrounding rural areas, a piece in Saturday’s Times<\/a> might disappoint you.<\/p>\n

“We’ve seen farmland values rise dramatically, particularly over the last couple of years,” said Mike Shelby, executive director of the Western Washington Agricultural Association, which represents local farmers.<\/p>\n

Shelby estimates that cropland prices have jumped 30 to 50 percent over the past three years in Skagit, Snohomish and Lewis counties, a result both of a drift of people from the cities and of other social and economic changes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You may notice that neither of these two articles talk about what’s been happening with home and land prices in the outlying areas in the last nine months. I guess prices falling back down to earth didn’t fit into the bleak picture they wanted to paint. I’m not saying Seattle is going to become as cheap as Eastern Washington, but we’re definitely on a trend back to affordability, and that’s good news worth reporting in my book.<\/p>\n

(Tyrone Beason, Seattle Times<\/a>, 05.12.2008<\/em>)
\n(Shirley Skeel, Seattle Times<\/a>, 05.10.2008<\/em>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Couched in woeful tales of local residents that have been priced out of living in Seattle (buying or renting), a story in yesterday’s Seattle Times explored the question of whether an expensive Seattle is a desirable Seattle. 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