Comments

1
As bad as this is for working people - that a basic staple needed for existence - is so brutal on their budgets - this is something that the market should be allowed to correct. The lack of multi-family rental housing stock is a direct consequence of the perversion of the housing market caused by the ridiculous lending practices of the GWB-era of financial deregulation. A lot of rental stock was converted to owner-occupied as landlords made a fortune selling off assets that made more sense (at those prices) as owner-occupied than rental. Now with the inadequate stock and surge in demand, this temporary or artificial scarcity is making things bad. But it's also driving new construction. That's an acceptable way to resolve this, and eventually we'll return to equilibrium.

The key thing is to have all the new development carefully planned and regulated - not to use the "emergency" as an excuse for lazziez-faire garbage to get thrown up. Good density, planned around transportation corridors which can accomodate new or future mass-transit, to avoid sprawl.
2
^ what they said
3

$700 gets you a 942ft², 2 Bedroom,1.5 Bath townhome

In Kennewick

http://www.forrent.com/apartment-communi…

This is what rent should cost.

Anywhere.
4
The situation is much, much worse than that. The Great Recession allowed the consolidation of millions of apartments, condominiums, and free-standing homes into the portfolios of a remarkably small number of banks, private-equity firms, and "global investors." Tens of thousands of never-occupied homes, built in the run-up to the bubble collapse, were neglected by their bank owners, stripped by vandals, damaged by the elements, and continue to be bulldozed in many areas as contributors to blight; in reality, their destruction tightens the market even further and allows rents for the remaining stocks to be jacked further skyward.

Efficiency!

Look for housing costs galloping toward 50% of median incomes, rapidly outrunning any possible gains produced by the push for higher minimum wages.

And Bailo's dudebro fantasy of wall-to-wall suburbia and strip malls is the sickest kind of fever dream.
5
Move to Tukwila or Seatac hipsters, take the train in. Plenty of affordable apartments there.
6
Yes, density is supposed to make things better? It's no longer about quality of life. Now it's about how much blood they can suck out of you. Cities can remedy this with taxes. Anything a landlord charges above a certain level is taxed 100%.
7
#5

Why stop at Tukwila? Sounder runs all the way to Lakewood now.

1 bed 1 bath

Bedrooms: 1
Bathrooms: 1
Square Ft. 715
Rent: $805

http://www.arborpointeapartments.com/flo…

8
The 30% number for housing cost is about... 50 years old at this point and doesn't apply to the modern world. Any research based on that number is invalid
9
@7 With a pool! A two bed room for $900! Convenient train ride from Seattle. Come on white kids, take the train into Seattle! You keep telling us you love trains!
10
If 30% of your income doesn't cover your housing, consider the possibility that you've been squeezed out of the middle class, or have champagne taste on a beer budget.
11
What makes me sad is how beaten-down the working class and lower-middle class has become. Any glimmer of populism is derided as unpatriotic, traitorous, commie socialism.

Our Treasury has been looted by the Randians, the ability of the government to do anything except debt service and national defense severely limited. Private savings and capital have been concentrated in fewer hands than any time since the days of the "Robber Barons."

This country used to have a social conscience, and a vision of a strong middle-class, every family entitled to pleasant housing in a pleasant community. While it wasn't complete reality for enough people, public policy was at least geared towards creating that, especially after the sacrifices and hardships of the Great Depression and WW II. Taxes on the well-to-do were high, marginal tax rates above 90% for much of the 1950's, estate taxes high enough to limit dynastic inheritances, government spending on stuff for the middle class, student loans, housing, infrastructure, was high and considered patriotic, building a stronger, better country.

The rich bastard plutocrats have since polluted the public discourse, with their pejorative slogans of "tax and spend," "death taxes" and "government dependency," and have turned this country on its head, the very working people most harmed by their policies somehow convinced to vote for more of them.
12
The problem with most Sloggers is they only want to live around other white people. If they were willing to take the plunge and live in areas with hipster cafes, bike shops and white people, they'd find them quite affordable.
13
@11 Is that what white kids these days say to their parents when they find out they can only afford to live near colored people in Tukwila and not white hipsters on Cap Hill?

Champagne dreams on a beer budget indeed.
15

Check out the ridership stats for SoundTransit...the people who take you long distances, rather than Metro.

Up, up, up.

Reason? People want fast regional transit so they can live cheap, commute to a high paying job, and occasionally take in a ball game or food fair -- on those days that they're not happy at home, or taking the kids to sports, or playing XBox in their living room.

http://seattletransitblog.com/2014/04/15…

Book readings?
16
@14 Medicare is funded by a separate payroll tax, not from general income or excise taxes. In fact, as of the moment, it is still in surplus. The Treasury borrows the excess to help fund the Debt.

We don't have a "Unified Budget" anymore. That canard has flown, and it is totally disingenuous to count a separate, self-funded program as part of the general federal spending. Ditto, Social Security.
17
"An analysis for The New York Times by Zillow, the real estate website, found 90 cities where the median rent — not including utilities — was more than 30 percent of the median gross income."

Given how aware SLOG is of income inequality, it's interesting that no one has called out this analysis for focusing on both median income and median rent, when anyone whose even heard a math teacher say the word statistics knows there are many ways that such an analysis would be as bad as simply producing numbers anally.
18
I'm sure The Stranger will continue its endless promotion of aPodemnts, even though Seattle "is not among the 20 cities where rents are highest relative to median gross income" and we are, according to Eli, "becoming affordable for middle-class families" (which cannot squeeze into pods, for which multi-family housing is being torn down).
20
Ahh! The Invisible Fist of the Market!
21
Only communoislamabortionist libnatics want fancy extravagances like a place to live.

Real Americans want to be homeless and working at Arby's for $2 an hour until they drop dead because of FREEDOM!
22
@11 - Hey look! The IRS can now seize your tax return to cover one of your relative's debt!

And gosh, political scientists have recently realized that over the last 20 years, at least, Congressers only cater to the rich.

Escape from the 19th Century!!!!!!!
23
What disgusts me the most about this is, due to the lack of tenant protections in most states in this country (Washington is bad enough, but most states are far worse; they can send you to debtors' prison in Alabama if you owe your landlord money), people are shelling out tons of money for shit housing.

@10,

Yes, a lot of people have been squeezed out of the middle class, and that's part of the problem. Why are you playing so coy?
24
@22, I was hoping your first link would not be nearly as scary as your lede…but, alas, no, it was worse! Seriously, inheriting debt as we slash inheritance taxes, more like 9th century than 19th.
25
http://vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/201…

and the stranger continues to be a cheerleader for this, because, umm, density!
26
You should read the actual study the story links to. Seattle is on several tables.
27
It's one of those rare studies that is actually worth reading.
28
@3 Who's playing the Kennewick Block Party?

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