Seattle Real Estate Guide

Despite all the talk about a bubble in the real estate market, the article ends with what I think is the most salient point. That the scarcity of land is driving up the cost of housing. I'd also add that people don't want to continue to move farther out from the downtown areas. Established neighborhoods like Wallingford, Queen Anne, Sunset Hill, simply can be reproduced far away from a downtown AND these same neighborhoods will only be able to add minimal density. Hence: continued higher prices as long as the job market is there to support the higher prices.

The Seattle Times: Home values:
"Ultimately, what may keep Seattle on the path of the San Francisco metro area is that builders are running out of land. 'It's the price of land that's driving higher home prices,' said Suzanne Britsch, president of Real Vision Research and a consultant to home builders.
The question of land shortage is the subject of a raucous debate between developers, who want to modify the state's growth-management law, and planners, who are working to preserve it.
King County Assessor Scott Noble said scarcity of developable land in the right places is undoubtedly a cause of the current real-estate boom."

This entry was posted on Monday, March 14, 2005 at 10:58 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.