Recent Stories with tag housing

Between 1920 and 1960, Seattle grew from a backwater lumber town to a major center of manufacturing, retail, and commerce. The numbers tell the tale. In 1920, the population of Seattle was 315,000. By 1960, the city was 557,000 strong.

The rapid population rise was no doubt fueled by the rise of the aerospace industry leading up to and through World War II. But it was also fueled by a growing national awareness that the Pacific Northwest was a beautiful place to live with abundant water and wonderful access to nature, and was a nice base of jobs with growth potential.

It’s hard to imagine what living in Seattle was like in those critical four decades. There was no freeway, for one thing, but also no Seattle Center or Space Needle or professional sports stadiums. The tallest building in the city during those years was the Smith Tower. 

It’s hard to get a feeling of the physical appearance of the city at that time by looking downtown; the landscape has simply changed too much. And historic photos don’t give you a sense of how people lived.

A great way to get insight into the life and times of the average Seattleite during those years, and to get a nice view of how the city expanded at the same time, is to take a tour of residential architecture.

The SunBreak Historical Architecture Team has plotted out a three street tour of three distinct mid-century neighborhoods in North Seattle.... (more)

Escala's news release last Wednesday reported 65 new sales, with 38 closings, in the last three months. That's 38 of a total of 275 units, after the condo tower reopened with prices reduced 20 to 50 percent at the end of March. (Last February, the PSBJ was reporting that only six units had sold, and current King County tax records show just eleven units in private ownership.)

Designed by Thoryk Architecture (Mulvanney G2 were architects of record, and DiLeonardo International, Inc., did the interior design), the 30-floor, $370-million tower from developer Lexas Companies has come down in the world since 2006, when you could "reserve a home" with a $10,000 deposit. (Urbnlivn took the video above, and wrote a review, after touring an open house.)

The idea was to overwhelm Seattle's highest-living with luxury amenities, including a "spa, library, billiard room, theatre/screening room, fitness center with a lap pool, a catering kitchen, a formal dining room, and an events center." There was a marble staircase at the entrance, of course.

In 2007, as the Seattle Times reported, it was the "year of the condo" in Seattle: "Real-estate economist Matthew Gardner shared Thyer's optimism, telling an audience of about 700 that demand for new places to live downtown will remain 'very positive.'"... (more)

The good news is that my phone expects the temperature to reach 78 degrees today. Let's focus on that for a moment. On Monday, the clouds should be back, and the city will be announcing budget cuts.

Friday afternoon brought another bank seizure by government regulators: Washington First International Bank was sold to Pasadena's East West Bank, reported the PSBJ. Commercial real estate gone bad. That would seem to make Jon Talton's Friday morning post about the possibility of a Seattle commercial real estate crash required reading. Goldman Sachs thinks our residential real estate is about lose 20 percent in value, so maybe put the money back into the mattress.

Lots of transportation news this week: a federal judge said "Oh hell no" to Patty Murray's attempt restore King County Metro special service to Mariners games. Metro is also gearing up for union negotiations by releasing incomplete information on bus operator compensation (and ignoring media requests for a fuller picture). And the King County Ferry District would like you not to notice that Argosy Cruises ran the West Seattle Water Taxi for cheaper.... (more)

Windermere has a Capitol Hill condo selling for $149,000 down the street from The SunBreak offices, at 1125 E Olive (at 12th Avenue). It's 436 sq. ft., hardwood floors, forced air, HOA is $200. It's the lowest-priced condo on my email update by far, with $40,000 between that and the next listed price. But if it's snapped up before you can put down an offer, stay cool.

Whether you call it depreciation or affordability, Goldman Sachs says the next two years should bring more of it; Seattle Bubble (naturally) spotted their prediction that Seattle home prices would lead other major U.S. urban areas with a 22 percent decline over the next two years.

Goldman Sachs calls our situation a "back-loaded price decline," which has a familiar ring to anyone familiar with Seattle Bubble's time-adjusting housing price graphs. Las Vegas and Portland join us in home devaluation "due to high homeowner vacancy rates and/or rising mortgage delinquencies," but Seattle is way out down in front, losing ten percent more in value than Portland over the next eight quarters.... (more)

"VERY URBAN" is the title of this shot of the formerly-known-as-WaMu tower by photocoyote.

Colliers International has released its spring "knowledge report," looking back on Q1 and forecasting for the year ahead. The good news for Seattle is simply that no new commercial real estate came on the market in the first quarter, so the vacancy rate for the year-to-date, about 17.7 percent, remained the same as 2009. (Next quarter brings the opening of 505 First Avenue, with almost 290,000 sq. ft. added to the 1 to 1.5 million sq. ft. available.)

For now, landlords are holding the line on their offers and concessions to new tenants. But every month that goes by with an almost-20-percent vacancy rate represents a drag on the economy. A lot of mortgages out there were written dependent on rental income that's dropped precipitously. (See Beacon Capital Partner's claim that its rents now cover just 20 percent of its debt obligations.)

So Colliers' optimism about the housing and stock markets looks a little less persuasive at this precise moment. Here's their take:

With the residential housing market continuing to gain strength and the Dow Jones Industrial Average up nearly 4,500 points to its 19 month high (currently above 11,000), all signs point to positive economic growth.

Yet the Wall Street Journal reports that Chicago's unofficial "fear index" has jumped 18 percent following this week's market dive. Jon Talton at the Seattle Times notes that while the proximate cause may be concerns about Greece's sovereign debt, the market run-up has been driven by bail-outs (literally, and indirectly, in the form of low, low interest rates). 

Seattle Bubble has been keeping tabs on the residential housing market, and while there's been the usual spring flurry of sales, take a look at the second graph here, the next time someone mentions a "strong recovery."

The  Puget Sound Business Journal dug into King County foreclosures, and found that Seattle is, anomalously, still reporting increases in foreclosure-related "distressed sales: "By June, it’s estimated that more than 800 homes will be scheduled for auction in any given week. That’s up from an average of about 40 auctions a week in 2006 and 2007. Many of the homes don’t sell at auction." (About two-thirds of the foreclosures they tracked last year didn't sell.)

But let me begin with the news that Yesler Terrace, the ramshackle, 70-year-old, vinyl-siding-over-lead-paint "housing community" is being redesigned. It's currently home for about 1,000 low-income residents, but the city and the Seattle Housing Authority have big public/private plans. An environmental review has just begun of five development options for the 28-acre site.

Besides a token "no action" alternative, and a current-zoning option that allows for 1,500 units, the SHA is considering pumping up Yesler Terrace to between 3,000 and 5,000 "dwelling units." (Nothing says home like "dwelling unit." That's where the dweller units live!) Rezoning would allow between 800,000 and 1.2 million square feet of office space, and 40,000 to 88,000 square feet of commercial space (including retail).

If all goes smoothly, construction could start by late 2012. All will not go smoothly, though. As an instance, here's a core value driving the Yesler Terrace plan: "a commitment to one-for-one replacement housing."

That is, after selling off public land to private developers for office space and market-rate housing, Yesler Terrace could house...exactly the same amount of low- and very-low-income people it did before (and that was a struggle). Spend a few moments with the Financial Model Overview (pdf) and you can see that however you model it, the project is guaranteed to create some heated public input as it moves ahead. [UPDATE: A reader reminds me that the most recent plan is to add 250 "low income" units (for people making less than 60 percent of the median income) and 950 "moderate income"  or "workforce housing" units (less than 80 percent of median). But note that this is a goal, not a commitment.]

Meanwhile, HomeSight, a non-profit serving first-time buyers, has just opened its biggest project yet, Pontedera, a six-floor, 102-unit condo in the Rainier Valley--or as real estate people like to say, "South Downtown." The city donated the land, in exchange for the affordability factor, and a covenant typical with HomeSight developments, that caps resale value on 20 units for 30 years.

The Seattle Condo Blog broke out what makes it appealing to first-time buyers, besides that starting price of $219,000 for a one bedroom (there are two- and three-bedroom units, too, and live/work lofts: floorplans):

For those earning less than 80% of the median income, HomeSight can provide up to $70,000 in assistance that is repaid when the buyer sells or refinances. For buyers earning up to 120% of median income, HomeSight can provide a second mortgage to eliminate the need for mortgage insurance. Finally, Pontedera is the only condominium development to offer the city’s 12-year property tax exemption...

Windermere's Jada Pettigrew says that the building is already about 20 percent sold, and while first-time buyers are a big part of the equation, so are down-sizers taking advantage of the property-tax exemption (that's not just for first-time buyers, although it does need to be the buyer's primary residence).

Zillow, says Seattle Bubble, is down on homeowners in the western U.S. for being "overly optimistic" about their new underwater living arrangements. While 72 percent of all U.S. homes (Zillow's statistic) lost value last year, 51 percent of starry-eyed Westerners think their home's value stayed the same or appreciated.

Maybe, though, homeowners are expecting to get the kind of break that home builders are getting. Jon Talton, while commenting on the nosedive in new housing permits, also linked a story about how home builders can write off losses in 2008 and 2009 against profits as far back as 2004.

This is astonishing for two--no, three--reasons: First of all the provision was tucked into the unemployment benefits extension. Secondly, the government is rewarding home builders for overbuilding during a boom. And lastly, there's nothing about the provision that targets home builders whose losses might drive them out of business. A company sitting on $1.9 billion in cash will get a boost, too.

So who is not realistic,... (more)