“Hot Money and Seattle’s Growing Housing Crisis” is one of our staffers’ favorite stories of 2016, and also one of our most-read. Charles Mudede and Cary Moon discuss the Seattle housing crisis in the four part series—and possible solutions. The story is republished below.
Everywhere you go, Seattleites are talking about our out-of-control affordability crisis. It is on EVERYONE’s minds. We need to reexamine what we think we know about the housing market to understand what to do about it. The spiraling cost of housing is probably not caused by what we think it is.
Demand is up, but it’s not simply driven by population growth. Yes, our tech sector is growing. Welcome to Seattle! Happy you’re here, you 70,000 people who have joined us since 2010. Tech workers, however, are not the problem. These fine young people who have scored a good job and want to find a decent house or apartment are only one factor increasing demand in our region. Yes, tech workers are well-paid and can spend more than others for housing and yes, they are a large cohort. If our only challenge were to build enough new rental apartments for our friends in tech while avoiding displacing people and communities, we’d probably be fine.
