Another change I've noticed is with the "living with housemates" option: there's less housemates advertising who they'd like to live and more property managers advertising random rooms in a house. Also, way more furnished rooms for rent. I've found it kinda dispiriting...

I guess the lack of a Ballard entry makes sense; there's nothing here that's either: A. affordable, or; B. available.

Well, since I earn even less than Charles' more meager figure of $35k/year, and do own a car because you can't actually rely on public transportation to get you to places you need to go (much less in a reasonable time period), this feature filled me with all sorts of dread.

Very sad.
I haven't moved in 20 years & it's a stable situation.
The prices are shocking & scary. My sympathies to younger people not in STEM/law/accounting ort older people who have been renting.

My advice? If you can, leave Seattle (unless you have an absolutely fabulous job with a long term future or rooted here in some way which makes it genuinely impossible.)

Seattle is a nice place -- but there are MANY nice places.

I lived in a studio apartment in the Biltmore for almost 4 years. My first apartment was on the first floor on the west side of the building and was HUGE. The walk in closet could have been used as a bedroom (but I didn't want to sleep in a windowless room. I had an eat-in kitchen and I LOVED that apartment (and it was more that 500 square feet). I moved in at the end of October in 2002. I paid $650/month. In 2005 they started building a huge, ugly building next door. They tore down the trees and the buildings and on Belmont and my quiet apartment became a construction site. So I moved to another apartment, on the north side of the building and on the 3rd floor. My walk in closet had a window and a built in dresser and since I had to walk through it to get to the bathroom I used it as my bedroom. The apartment was much louder than the first one (until the construction) as it was on the side where the garbage pickup was. I paid $650/mo. Then I got a notice one day that my rent was going up $100. Then I got locked out of my apartment, Lea, (who I will describe as the mentally ill on-site manager who lived on the premises) refused to return to the building to let me into my apartment (I was locked out doing laundry and had a wedding I was going to that afternoon). No locksmith would come because they said the manager had to be there. I got evicted for breaking into my apartment (oh and I hired a lawyer and went to "landlord court" or whatever it is there > you don't see a judge, you see some bureaucrat who is probably a landlord, too, and despite 4 years of paying rent on time, being an excellent tenant, and taking exceptional care of my apartment, I was evicted (THREE DAYS TO MOVE OUT). I loved my first apartment there, but the management company that own the Biltmore don't care about the building and financially rape the people who want to live there. I paid $40/mo for water. My friends owned a 2 bedroom house in Georgetown at the time and they paid $60 a month for their water. So explain the scheme that allows the owners of the Biltmore to charge $40/per person in each apartment (what are there, 100?) for water. Oh, right, in Seattle you don't need meters and have to charge people for actual use, you can charge them whatever you want and raise the rent however much you want at any time, for no reason other than GREED. When I left the Biltmore I moved to a smaller studio apartment on First Hill in the Union Arms building. I paid $790 in rent (including all utilities except electricity and any cable/internet you wanted). After a year they added a $50 fee to the rent for water/sewer/garbage and right after that they raised the rent another $15. Then I got sick (it was serious enough to end my ability to work and my ability to live independently) and left Seattle. When they were showing my apartment to people (while I was packing up my life), they were quoting the rent as $965. That was in October 2009. When I see how Seattle is now, if I had never gotten sick I would have to leave Seattle anyway because I would not be able to afford to live there. I was only making $45K at the time I left and at the time that felt like a good amount of money, for me (single, no children, no car). I know people who make good money in Seattle, some who even work for the city itself, and can't afford to live in Seattle. They've all been priced out and they are white collar, white people, working in professions that require graduate degrees. Seattle has turned into a city I don't recognize and I'm not against change and I don't expect people not move to Seattle. I only wish that money wasn't the only thing of importance in Seattle and so many other places. Real people are being harmed and displaced and all most people can do is shrug their shoulders and say "capitalism" or they get nasty and tell people how they shouldn't expect to be able to live somewhere if they don't have enough money and if they are not making enough money they're just going to have to move somewhere else. There is no humanity left in humanity and it's only about to get so much worse. I would never pay $1000 to live in a freaking dorm room and I wouldn't even pay $1300 to live in a studio in the Biltmore (because it won't be $1300 for long).

PS I obviously don't know how to do the paragraph breaks.

And how exactly would Republicans have made it better? Republicans don't believe in any regulations of any entity, believe in "trickle down economics," and don't care about the poor, the working or middle classes. What kool aid do you people drink believing Republicans would do better? This is solely about class, who has the money, and how they wield that power. Corporations blackmailing cities NOT to pay taxes so they'll keep their companies in the state. Laissez-faire economics with no regulations to protect current tenants, affordable housing, tenants in general, etc? I have voted in every election that I qualified to vote in since I was 18 years old (I am almost 45 now). George W. Bush decimated the economy through deregulation, bailed out the banks that robbed everyone blind, and then said a big FUCK YOU to the people those banks defrauded by refusing to help them. Profit is private, loss is public. I really, really, REALLY want to know what voting Republican would have done for Seattle? Ruined it 30 years faster? Instead of just making a statement that means nothing, why not provide some facts. Oh right, because you people don't believe in facts (or science or reality).

My wife and I were lucky enough to buy a small house in an unfashionable corner of Ballard about 12 years ago. We were shocked at the time over what rent was so we bought the smallest/cheapest house we could find. This little house is now appraised at more than double what we paid for it. That's messed up. Great for our bottom line, but what the hell would we do if we were moving here now instead of 20 years ago?

Lived in The Biltmore from '91-'97. It's full of secrets.

@11, yet corporations in Seattle pay little in taxes (certainly NOT THEIR FAIR SHARE) and neither do the wealthy, because there is no income tax, which is desperately needed in WA (and IMO, Seattle needs a city tax); property taxes are NOT high (not compared to other coastal states, see CA and NY >>> WA pays a fraction in property taxes, ESPECIALLY considering the outrageously inflated and overvaluation of property (every house in a desirable neighborhoods sells for 3/4 or a million dollars with offers hundreds of thousands over asking price and people paying cash to buy)?!?! The ONLY tax anyone wants to increase is the sales tax, which harms the poorest residents. If everyone were actually paying their fair share, there would be much less inequality and more affordability. If people's wages and raises matched the rent increases (which you tie to property taxes, not greed) and their employers paid their fair share in taxes instead of getting outrageous tax breaks or using tax laws to their advantage to fuck over the poor (like Donald Trump ("that makes me smart") and Leona Helmsley ("only the little people pay taxes) then maybe people would have a chance to make it.

Jesus Christ. I gotta raise the rent. I rent out a four bedroom house in Ballard which is not either funky or historic but at least everything's functional and it has a nice big yard. I must be getting old but I just can't imagine charging more than $2,000/month. Maybe when the three year lease is up.

@10: Make an incendiary fact-free statement blaming the opposing party in defiance of all facts, abdicate any responsibility to cite your assertions when asked, then strawman the original statement as you disengage the conversation. You should run for office. You already think "there are no facts" is a valid statement, so you clearly have the mindset for a future in shameless partisan hackery, which is what the GOP thrives on!

Seattle has little to offer the middle class. Low income folks can get subsidized housing, and the affluent have market rate housing. The middle class go to the suburbs. Sad.

Handy facts here! The maximum your household can earn to qualify for "subsidized housing." Note: Children count as a person in the household.

Family Size -- 80% Area Median Income
1 Person -- $48,550
2 Persons -- $55,450
3 Persons -- $62,400
4 Persons -- $69,300
5 Persons -- $74,850
etc

Wait. JUXT is a glorified dormitory? What kind of overpriced school did you go to? We got a shared room smaller than a parking space, shared showers and bathrooms, and coin operated laundry on a different floor.

Wow, I am Out. Of. Touch. Bought a 750sqft house in West Seattle (Morgan Junction) for $149.5k in 1998. I'm almost paid off and Zillow values my place at just under $400k. Unreal.

"Low income folks can get subsidized housing"

SOME low income families get subsidized housing. There are thousands on the wait lists, and hundreds of thousands waiting to get on the wait lists! They wait for years! Seattle and King County haven't opened up those lists for a long time! That's why there are so many homeless kids now, their parents can't afford rent. There are many employed people living in their cars, sleeping in tents and under freeway!

@11, The property tax has little to do with the increase in rents. Out of a $2,000 rent maybe a couple hundred is property tax. That tax has gone up, but nowhere near the amount to double the rent in a decade.

@22 Yep. The average wait for low income folks seeking assistance from city funded programs is on 22 months when its fast and 4-5 years when its not fast and that's AFTER you've made it on a list.

And this is not the wait list to get a list, which by the way is a lottery system so even if you are exceptionally deserving you may not be chosen because random. So people are seeking outreach services from various outreach groups which are also overloaded.

And many of these outreach services have additional requirements like: submit to mandatory, random drug tests if there is a suspicion or more than a suspicion that you are an addict. And that's fine I guess to require, but its unrealistic in the sense that most struggling people needing assistance who are also in the depth of addiction have no access to consistent medical or psychological care that treats addiction. They're just sorta told to go NA meetings and suck it up.

W

I have no idea why that posted as a 'w'.

Why did you guys only focus on the popular/easily accessible neighborhoods? You left off places like Wallingford, Magnolia (scary amount of apartments), West Seattle's dozen neighborhoods, most of North Seattle...

661 sq ft studio? That's more than enough floor space to have built a bedroom, which would also increase their return. Odd choice, GreenHouse Apartments.

"It fit in perfectly on the street of shabby apartment buildings and party-houses-to-be."

UH-OH! Who let that through? As we've all been told by the Urbanist Elite, a neighborhood full of rentals is every bit as clean and livable as a neighborhood of homeowners. Someone's singing off the song sheet...

Thanks for the "alternate facts," propaganda, or fiction. The article starts by asserting most landlords charge first and last month's rent. This is not true! Please cite your supporting evidence. Next, Seattle has 38 acknowledged neighborhoods but your sample size only represents 6 neighborhoods. The article says neighborhoods were chosen due to closeness of transit but you only choose areas close to light rail. Why did you not include Metro Buses and RapidRide as transit? I didn't do the exhaustive research that a journalist does, but I see plenty of new apartments with higher rents with $300 damage deposits. If you do not want to pay move-in fees, then don't rent from a landlord that charges move-in fees. If you do not want to pay last month's rent up front, then don't rent from a landlord that charges last month's rent up front. Seattle is a large city with many neighborhoods and lots of landlords & rentals. Find the right fit for you and your landlord. The newest coolest apartments in the most desirable hippest neighborhoods cost the most. Duh! Living within your means, may include living in an affordable community where you take a bus to work, or making your own coffee at home & only going out for espresso as an occasional treat. I am a property owning landlords, an owner occupied 4-plex. A beautifully restored 1904 building completely rewired and replumbed, 9' ceilings, fir floors, 700 sq. ft. 1-bedroom apartments. I am lucky enough to have charming tenants that have chosen to rent their homes and I appreciate them. However, the tax assessor decided the value of the property increased by 61% last year; there are no new parks, or increased services that I can see, just shit, piss, needles, and junkies everywhere. Sadly rents will go up to cover this tax increase; no greed involved, just reality.

@30 - I've never heard anyone complain about making a 61% increase on their capital before.

Lived on the first floor of the Biltmore for most of a year, in 1988-89. A big 1-bedroom on the northeast corner with an eat-in kitchen. $350/month, utilities included. And with our crappy, barely-more-than-minimum-wage job, we could afford it.

I feel so old.

jobs*

@34/35 - SO TRUE!! Sure, rent is pricey, but that is what happens. Prices go up. Although, I am quite shocked at how much more expensive rent is here than in Toronto (where I lived for the last six years) Our 2 bed, 2 bath, 43rd floor condo in a modern high-rise, with carpark and locker, was $200 LESS than out 2 bed, 2 bath, 6th floor, NO carpark, NO locker apartment in Capitol Hill.

Ahh, the Biltmore. I lived there in three different units all throughout my 20s. My first studio was $650 and I felt like such a grownup. (I wasn't, really) Now...I just feel old. And priced out. But primarily old. =/