Your housing woes are over!! (Seattle, Tacoma: real estate, apartments, rentals)

[soldierhobo]

Here we go, ladies and gentlemen...https://www.seattletimes.com/subscri...source=paywall. If rents drop for a bit, and people start dumping their rental properties, watch housing markets crumble!! The end is nigh!! (or, get that down payment ready folks!) It's going to be a rough ride!

[RotseCherut]

Broken link, goes right to subscription page

[Scotty Dosent Know]

Bought all mine in 2009 and 2010......wont be dumping anything any time soon lol

[flyingsaucermom]

Good. I'm ready to buy rental properties.

[thatguy950]

https://www.seattletimes.com/busines...nts-sit-empty/


Try that one.



Can't say I'm surprised, they've been building, building, building and building for a long time so it had to catch up eventually. On top of that, a lot of the "booming economy" in seattle has really just been wealthy investors from Asia hiding their money here in real estate, regardless of what the propaganda machines (and of course real estate agents) may tell you here. Outside of the tech industry the job market in seattle is very average (AT BEST) with low wages and ridiculous amounts of competition for even the most entry of level jobs, often requiring advanced degrees (MS/MA, MBA, and so on) for not much better than minimum wage if you're fairly recently out of school.

People seem to forget or are blissfully ignorant, but Seattle has always been a boom and bust town; it's happened many times in the past and can/will happen again. No, this time isn't "different." Let's face it, most people from around the country come to Seattle to work for a while, get experience, and leave. It doesn't have an intrinsic draw like LA, NYC, Miami, Boston, etc., it's really a dumpy overgrown town with horrible weather 80% of the year, with crappy restaurants and LA prices and traffic, but none of the stuff that draws people to places like LA (including weather) and makes swallowing the traffic and COL pills worthwhile. Yes I know *some* people like it, and like the weather (lol), but the majority don't.

[soldierhobo]

Originally Posted by thatguy950

https://www.seattletimes.com/busines...nts-sit-empty/


Try that one.



Can't say I'm surprised, they've been building, building, building and building for a long time so it had to catch up eventually. On top of that, a lot of the "booming economy" in seattle has really just been wealthy investors from Asia hiding their money here in real estate, regardless of what the propaganda machines (and of course real estate agents) may tell you here. Outside of the tech industry the job market in seattle is very average (AT BEST) with low wages and ridiculous amounts of competition for even the most entry of level jobs, often requiring advanced degrees (MS/MA, MBA, and so on) for not much better than minimum wage if you're fairly recently out of school.

People seem to forget or are blissfully ignorant, but Seattle has always been a boom and bust town; it's happened many times in the past and can/will happen again. No, this time isn't "different." Let's face it, most people from around the country come to Seattle to work for a while, get experience, and leave. It doesn't have an intrinsic draw like LA, NYC, Miami, Boston, etc., it's really a dumpy overgrown town with horrible weather 80% of the year, with crappy restaurants and LA prices and traffic, but none of the stuff that draws people to places like LA (including weather) and makes swallowing the traffic and COL pills worthwhile. Yes I know *some* people like it, and like the weather (lol), but the majority don't.

Bureau of labor and statistics says "information" employment is 100k, with a nice 2.2% growth. Great news, but not enough to support half the luxury apartments being built in 2018. Business services is 500k, but not enough to justify the prices and 2.5 million in Seattle Tacoma, if they are all highly paid professionals (the median income says they are not).

The fundamentals aren't there. Sniff test of empty rentals(SFOs) and apartments says they aren't there... my bet is we'll see a lot of investor pullback. Depends how panicky they are. And how detached the SFO market is from apartments (the ubiquitous passive income from home ownership + over spent on the house renter). Things will get real interesting if rents decrease for a few more months.

[soldierhobo]

I forget to mention everyone ready to cash out equity in their home. But are afraid to get in the market. If they want to, if rents get reasonable, might see some supply of SFOs bring down the market. (Looking at you Burien and Bryn-Mawr....you overpriced ghetto you..)

[MayouInSeattle]

Don't see the supplies of SFRs going up any time soon. It is a different market, really.

[soldierhobo]

Originally Posted by MayouInSeattle

Don't see the supplies of SFRs going up any time soon. It is a different market, really.

Someone threw out a number 23% of SFRs are rented. Now, if everyone invested wisely and can weather a downturn, we'll have no problems. If a good percentage have super aggressive positions that rely on beating the interest rate, consistently. We're in trouble.

[homesinseattle]

Good luck with that, soldier. There may be an adjustment period with rents but the overall market strength in Seattle (especially when it still costs half what SFO does) will remain strong for the foreseeable future. In my experience, it's not just tech money driving the market. People in a number of vocations seem to be moving here from all over the world. Remember, people don't just buy/rent in Seattle/Bellevue proper, they do it according to their financial ability. Places like Lynnwood, Renton, Burien, Mukilteo, Bothell are red hot right now.