{"id":814,"date":"2007-06-04T10:27:49","date_gmt":"2007-06-04T17:27:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/2007\/06\/04\/panel-discusses-olympias-housing-crisis\/"},"modified":"2007-06-04T10:27:49","modified_gmt":"2007-06-04T17:27:49","slug":"panel-discusses-olympias-housing-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/2007\/06\/04\/panel-discusses-olympias-housing-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Panel Discusses Olympia’s “Housing Crisis”"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don’t have a very high opinion of The Evergreen State College, but a forum on the Olympia area’s “housing crisis”<\/a> that was organized for a class and held last week actually sounds like it would have been an amusing spectacle.<\/p>\n

Seven panelists at a forum Thursday night agreed that there isn’t enough affordable housing but differed about the different solutions.<\/p>\n

The panel was in a packed City Council chambers at Olympia City Hall.<\/p>\n

Nick Federici of the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance said it will take money, political will to prioritize funding, and policies that make it easier for people to keep housing.<\/p>\n

“We are worse than just treading water,” he said of keeping a good stock of affordable housing. “We have losses.”<\/p>\n

Olympia Master Builders President Mark Shaffer said impact fees that governments tack on to housing prices are making houses more unaffordable, adding more than $18,000 to the price of a home.<\/p>\n

“Our belief is that the fees themselves are more of an impediment to buyers than a benefit to governments,” he said.
…
Speakers gave their own sets of statistics to support their arguments. The common ground was this: housing prices in Olympia have risen much faster than incomes.<\/p>\n

“It’s a crisis,” said Mark Kitabayashi of the Olympia- Thurston County Association of Realtors. “We do believe that as well.”<\/p>\n

He cited statistics that showed average house prices jumped from $163,500 in 2001 to $290,800 in 2007.
…
Audience members asked questions of the panel for more than an hour.<\/p>\n

One of them, Jim Lazar of Olympia, said that Americans need to reduce their expectations of “the American Dream.” He responded to statistics that Americans are building bigger homes while fewer can afford them.<\/p>\n

“I think we’ve got to get the American Dream under control,” he said. “We’ve created a culture that tells people to expect a 2,400-square-foot home as the American Dream.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sounds like everyone was beating around the bush to me. Oh, housing is too expensive because of government fees, or inadequate government funding… I think it’s a lot simpler: Ridiculously easy financing + “housing is the best investment ever” mass psychology = out of control home prices.<\/p>\n

The solution? Well, just wait a few years and I bet it will work itself out. Especially down in Olympia, where they barely have any of Seattle’s “specialness.”<\/p>\n

(Matt Batcheldor, The Olympian<\/a>, 06.01.2007<\/em>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don’t have a very high opinion of The Evergreen State College, but a forum on the Olympia area’s “housing crisis” that was organized for a class and held last week actually sounds like it would have been an amusing spectacle. 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