Comments

1
Charles, why didn't you mention the last paragraph in Balk's article?

"But whether they are following through with a home purchase here is another story. The Seattle Times reported on Tuesday a coinciding drop in foreign home sales in general across Washington in the past year, according to the National Association of Realtors."

The fact that foreign buying dropped by one fourth while prices kept rising so fast strongly suggests that foreign buying is not a major driver of rising prices in Seattle.

Also, as it says in my article and in Balk's piece, I agree with Cary that we should collect data on foreign buying and vacancy. But enacting policy without reliable data is a recipe for unintended consquences and a distraction from what we know really matters most in Seattle: job growth driving massive unmet demand for new housing.
2
Charles, what is your point?
4
@3, which really sucks when The Stranger has endorsed nearly all of the city/county elected officials who have done nothing about the housing crisis.

But we'd like to up your sales tax for the arts!!!
5
Like that Moon has an actual plan for first 100 days as Mayor, including looking at the data while exploring what's feasible policy and what's not. https://medium.com/@CaryMoon4Mayor/my-fi…
6
Fucking charlatan.
7
Charles, adding to @1's comments, why didn't you address the Stranger's own reporting from two days ago:

"Seattle Is Becoming Too Expensive for Wealthy Foreign Home Buyers: Just last year, Seattle was the top city for Chinese homebuyers. But recent data from the Chinese real estate site Juwai.com shows that Chinese interest in Seattle homes has already decline 10 percent since then. And foreign home sales overall in Washington State are down 24 percent from last year. Overseas buyers, many of whom aren't even living in the homes they're buying, are looking at cheaper markets. The Times' real estate guru Mike Rosenberg points out the irony that the foreign investors driving up housing prices in Seattle are driving other foreign investors out of Seattle."

by Steven Hsieh • Jul 25, 2017 at 8:48 am

Also, as I've said in the comments to most of your pieces on this theme, why isn't your theory reflected in property sales records?

9
"Our assessment of the problem . . . deserves more data analysis and rigorous testing by public agencies before a clear picture of the best solutions can emerge."

Solutions to Seattle’s Growing Housing Crisis: Part Four
by Charles Mudede and Cary Moon • Aug 11, 2016 at 9:32 am

Charles, do you no longer believe that more data analysis is necessary?
10
Seattle or "Seattle" aka Bellevue?
11
I've reread this article, and I'm still confused as to the point. It seems like this is a Vote for Moon advertisement. but it falls short on telling my why I should vote for her - On the one side, Moon believe something must be done, but n the other, there is a TV show that says that housing is expensive in African cities, too.
Huh?
12
We need to ban foreign buyers. These people don't have the right to simply buy whatever they want, anywhere. The rights of the people here, who have roots and are citizens should come first and clearly it is within our moral right to restrict foreign buyers.

If we do this, and deport the 150k illegal aliens in Seattle. Housing prices will drop and we'll get some relief, finally. It's time to end this casino economy for millionaires who buy up all the land and import cheap labor to drive down wages.
13
@11

Charles doesn't know what to say. His hard left mentality says to blame capitalism, but his anti-whiteness prevents him from saying we should ban Chinese buyers.

And the claim about Accra, Ghana is simply incorrect(and besides the point). the average home price in Accra is around 86k in American dollars---only 12% higher than the rest of Ghana!

Compare this to Seattle, where the average price is 775k vs the national average of 186k!
14
This explains the 100+ person wait list for Kevin Kwan's first two novels at Seattle public library. I got his new book right off the shelf - it is fascinating and very funny ("Rich People Problems").
15
#12 yeehaw! Let's do it! How far back shall we go to find "roots" though? Do you have to be born here? Or do your parents have to be born in the state? Grandparent? This is where it always gets confusing.
16
Chinese money is the same as any money, and the way it gets into US dollars isn't particularly constrained to buying houses directly from WIndermere. If US firms like Blackstone own large amounts of Seattle real estate (in 2013 they bought at least 1,585 single family homes here), as the basis for financial products, the money that goes into those products is doing what money does. The narrative about surplus nations etc. is only a background story, and the Chinese investory is only a convenient face for a really faceless problem. Moon will have to do better than this, but hopefully she has someone smarter working on it.
17
And the point is?
18
@12

You're terrified about White Genocideâ„¢, and your screen name is a Scandinavian rune of some sort, so when exactly are you moving back to Norway, or wherever?

Or do they not want you, either?

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