{"id":20439,"date":"2012-06-08T09:00:39","date_gmt":"2012-06-08T16:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/?p=20439"},"modified":"2012-06-08T11:04:24","modified_gmt":"2012-06-08T18:04:24","slug":"downtown-condos-middle-class-need-not-apply","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/2012\/06\/08\/downtown-condos-middle-class-need-not-apply\/","title":{"rendered":"Downtown Condos: Middle Class Need Not Apply"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s a detail in today&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/businesstechnology\/2018381822_insignia08.html\" title=\"41-story condo tower ready to start in downtown Seattle\">Seattle Times article about Insignia<\/a>&mdash;the first new construction condo project to break ground in five years&mdash;that caught my attention:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>While condo prices at Insignia haven&#8217;t been set, Bosa said, &#8220;they&#8217;ll be more than you can buy anything [downtown] for now.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em>More<\/em> than anything that&#8217;s for sale right now?  Yikes.  One of the biggest criticisms of the current batch of condos has been that the developers are only catering to the luxury market.  If you&#8217;re a middle-class family hoping to live downtown, as far as developers care, you can take a hike.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;ve been in the market for a 2-bedroom new construction condo downtown in the last few years, you&#8217;ve basically had three choices:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Escala: Prices on 2-bedroom units <a href=\"http:\/\/escalaseattle.com\/\" title=\"Escala Seattle\">start at $619,000<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Olive8: The cheapest 2-bedroom <a href=\"http:\/\/www.redfin.com\/WA\/Seattle\/737-Olive-Way-98101\/unit-3005\/home\/21882240\" title=\"737 Olive Wy #3005\">currently available is $835,000<\/a><\/li>\n<li>1521 2nd: New prices start at $1M, but there is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.redfin.com\/WA\/Seattle\/1521-2nd-Ave-98101\/unit-1002\/home\/21617069\" title=\"1521 2nd Ave #1002\">a re-sale 2-bedroom for $925,000<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Amusingly, Escala&mdash;the <em>cheapest<\/em> option if you want a new condo towntown&mdash;was the topic of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.zillow.com\/blog\/2012-05-15\/seattles-escala-condo-building-set-steamy-scenes-for-fifty-shades-of-grey\/\" title=\"Seattle's Escala Condo Building Set Steamy Scenes for &quot;Fifty Shades of Grey&quot;\">a recent Zillow blog post<\/a>, in which Escala&#8217;s Director of Sales Erik Mehr was quoted:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;If you were going to pick something opulent,&#8221; Mehr said, &#8220;This would be the building.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div style=\"width:291px; float:right; margin:5px 0 0 10px; font-size:85%; line-height:1em; text-align:center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Insignia-Condos-289x500.jpg\" alt=\"Insignia Condos\" title=\"Insignia Condos\" style=\"border:1px solid #000000;\" \/><br \/>Insignia Condos &mdash; Another Downtown Glass &#038; Steel Palace<\/div>\n<p>Apparently the developer of Insignia believes that downtown Seattle&#8217;s appetite for &#8220;opulence&#8221; has yet to be satiated.<\/p>\n<p>Even if you drop the new construction requirement and just throw everything into the mix, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.redfin.com\/WA\/Seattle\/2100-3rd-Ave-98121\/unit-1502\/home\/57394\" title=\"2100 3rd Ave #1502\">the <em>cheapest<\/em> 2-bedroom condo you can find downtown right now is $435,000<\/a> plus $807 a month in HOA dues, and the median price of the 50 2-bedroom condos currently for sale between Yesler, Denny, I-5, and the water is $834,975 with median HOA dues of $918.<\/p>\n<p>Working backwards <a href=\"http:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/06\/simple-affordability-calculator\/\" title=\"Simple Affordability Calculator\">using my affordability calculator<\/a>, to &#8220;afford&#8221; the <em>cheapest<\/em> 2-bedroom condo downtown a family would have to have $87,000 available for a down payment and a <em>bare minimum<\/em> yearly income of $116,000.  To &#8220;afford&#8221; the median they&#8217;d need $167,000 in the bank and at least a yearly income of $195,000.<\/p>\n<p><em>[Update: The affordability numbers above originally did not include the cost of HOA dues.  The post has been updated to reflect the inclusion of monthly HOA dues.]<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/quickfacts.census.gov\/qfd\/states\/53\/5363000.html\" title=\"U.S. Census Bureau - Seattle (city), Washington\">According to recent Census data<\/a> Seattle&#8217;s median household income is $60,665.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Plus <span style=\"font-style:italic;\">[Insignia developer Nat]<\/span> Bosa, 67, is bullish on Seattle and its prospects for growth. He spent Monday walking around downtown.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve got to tell you, that has all of a sudden become a very livable city,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It&#8217;s becoming more and more like San Francisco. &#8230; It&#8217;s maturing.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It appears that &#8220;very livable&#8221; and &#8220;maturing&#8221; are code words for places that are for rich people only.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s a detail in today&#8217;s Seattle Times article about Insignia&mdash;the first new construction condo project to break ground in five years&mdash;that caught my attention: While condo prices at Insignia haven&#8217;t been set, Bosa said, &#8220;they&#8217;ll be more than you can buy anything [downtown] for now.&#8221; More than anything that&#8217;s for sale right now? Yikes. One&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[206],"tags":[870,28,4,68,313,871,881,526,311,31],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-20439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","tag-870","tag-affordability","tag-condos","tag-downtown","tag-escala","tag-fifteentwentyone","tag-insignia","tag-olive8","tag-pryne","tag-seattle_times"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Downtown Condos: Middle Class Need Not Apply \u2022 Seattle Bubble<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/2012\/06\/08\/downtown-condos-middle-class-need-not-apply\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Downtown Condos: Middle Class Need Not Apply \u2022 Seattle Bubble\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Here&#8217;s a detail in today&#8217;s Seattle Times article about Insignia&mdash;the first new construction condo project to break ground in five years&mdash;that caught my attention: While condo prices at Insignia haven&#8217;t been set, Bosa said, &#8220;they&#8217;ll be more than you can buy anything [downtown] for now.&#8221; More than anything that&#8217;s for sale right now? 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