Flashback to 1991 for you locals
Anyone remember all of the abandoned/empty luxury homes dotting the eastside? I was in my early teens and lacking a drivers license, we'd ride our bikes around and explore the abandoned developments. Even after I was 16, the empty half built houses were a convenitent place to hang out with no parental supervision. These were nicer homes, 3500+ sq ft with 3 car garages left either half framed or finished with no residents. A few of my highschool buds lived in these neighborhoods, right next to empty homes that never seemed to be finished.
The same was true when I as 5-12 years old. The areas we'd play in had streets and foundations laid but no homes built. One spot I liked had been developed for lowrise condos. The foundations were poured, but by the time I saw them they were grassy fields filled with alder saplings sprouting out through the pavement. Some of the older kids had scavenged building materials to make skateboard ramps in the dark underground garages.
After seeing two down cycles, a third doesn't seem unlikely.
The same was true when I as 5-12 years old. The areas we'd play in had streets and foundations laid but no homes built. One spot I liked had been developed for lowrise condos. The foundations were poured, but by the time I saw them they were grassy fields filled with alder saplings sprouting out through the pavement. Some of the older kids had scavenged building materials to make skateboard ramps in the dark underground garages.
After seeing two down cycles, a third doesn't seem unlikely.
Comments
The same boom-bust cycle occurs on the commercial side as well (anybody remember the uncompleted buildings that sat for years in downtown Bellevue during the last downturn?).
How many unfinished commercial buildings will we be left with when the music stops this time?
Not exactly what you're looking for, but I think the answer is here if you want to sort it out. Regardless, it's a cool site if you ever just wondered what those cranes are building.
Bellevue
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=79987
And for Seattle
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=73539
I made this spreadsheet of the different condo projects that I could find. Most I found listed on http://seattlecondosandlofts.com/, but I'll have to update it with the ones on the Skyscraper page.
What's particularly insane to me is that we can have so many huge condo towers in a town of only about 120,000 people. It looks like we have just as many in development as Seattle does and we're not even a big city. Who are going to live in these things? I mean, aren't the people that usually like living in condos the ones that want to live a trendy downtown area of a hip city like Seattle? And aren't those same people the ones that absolutely disdain the Eastside?
But the historical house prices show there was no melt down.
My folks would use it as part of a bait & switch ploy to get me to go to Sunday School down the street. That emotional scarring must be the reason I am now a bitter renter.