Housing costs in Seattle

Taken from Craigslist:


The home cost problem is showing signs of a maxx out in neighborhoods with high pretense/expense ratio's, Queen Anne, Madrona or Fremont. It is unlikely that there will be much dramatic equity value growth there in the near term.

The 300k to 500k range is running slow. The real growth is in high end luxury dumps and low end starter homes. I work for a spec builder and chat with realtors all the time. We are finishing a 5000 square foot luxury view dump and the realtors are falling over themselves to get the listing.

But the real action is in starter homes below 250k in neighborhoods that have low expense/pretense ratios like Columbia City or the east 'ghetto' side of West Seattle near White Center. My favorite realtor said,'It used to Be Rat City but now it's Fat City.

That's because these neighborhoods aren't really ghetto. It's just a reflection of Seattle racism and a sort of typically washingtard form of passive aggressive redlining. The fear of 'coloreds', really anyone, asian, black or chicano, who isn't pasty white will knock 100k off a listing price.

Smart buyers are figuring this out and there will continue to be real value growth in these parts of town as they are actually fabulous places and you don't have to put up with pest white washingtard tattle tale neighbors who will call the city if you park a shitbox car on your back lawn.

The bigger factor in driving up housing costs, beyond a basic supply/demand curve are twofold. Insurance rates for builders are huge and Seattle has an unusually obnoxious lazy german washingtard micromanagement permitting process. It can take a fucking year to subplat a lot.

And the lot sizes are tiny and wierd and come from Cali. Washington is just a Cali rump state and emulates its horrific practices far more than anyone will admit. Think about it. A huge state with lots of land and endless lumber and the proto greedheads decided long ago to assign tiny lots and build lame little hovels.

This was fine in the early 1900's. I found a faded frail copy of PI classifieds from 1911 in a Vashon farmhouse attic and discovered that these little dumps originally sold for 75 bucks when they were new. And gawd the women wore ugly outfits then.

Washington gets 4000 people moving here every fucking month, mainly in King County because Seattle Chamber of Commerce boosters lie and have been lieing to the rest of the nation about how wonderful it is. Cali is too costly and its economy is declining so everyone is looking at this shithole. The oregoons are too lame to have a good economy.

Now this trend will continue but the real equity growth areas will be along the I-5 Corridor between Portland and here and Kitsap. Tacoma has much better housing costs and Pierce, Kitsap and Sno Counties are far less obnoxious about permitting. Tacoma is also a far less snotty city.

And yes the bubble could pop. The real strength of the economy is the Port. Lazy B and Microshaft can only decline. Lazy B will decline slowly but Microshaft could suddenly plummet as much of the world is sick of their rotten software and very excited to switch over to open source platforms. Amazon.com doesn't amount to a mound of shit in the grand scheme of an economy.

And the regions best business is probably the Frank Russell Company which manages trillions in assets worldwide but it's in Tacoma.

There will be amazing growth potential in eco-tech, green tech but it's not clear that the sluggish slobs here will do much to jump start it even though all the elements are in place thanks to the supplier infrastructure that feeds Lazy B and the lumber companies. The next decade will be a hoot here.