How the Seattle Real Estate Landscape is Affecting Millennials
It’s no secret that Seattle is a haven for the millennial-aged crowd. However, with the recent construction and real estate boom in the Puget Sound area, is the growth leaving this young crowd in the dust? A recent Seattle Times article would report a resounding “yes.” It states, “Local young adults ranked housing costs as their biggest concern…” and 45% of millennials in our area expect to relocate somewhere more affordable to live the life they want. What’s even more troubling is that they would all actually prefer to stay in the region! The potential impact of a mass-millennial-exodus is nothing to sneeze at. “King County alone has 400,000 millennials…” which is the second highest rate nationwide, just losing out to Brooklyn. This is the future of the Seattle-area workforce and you better believe a drastic shift would affect more than just the morning line at your neighborhood coffee shop.
The New York Times had an interesting take back in August. Read more of their perspective here: Debt. Terror. Politics. To Seattle Millenials, the Future Looks Scary.
With construction at its highest rate ever (since records began in 2005), downtown districts in particular are becoming more tightly packed with residential buildings. “Greater downtown can expect about 6,000 new units to open this year…Seattle as a whole is expecting twice as many apartments to open this year than any year in history” states Seattle Times. So, with more options that ever before, why is it that an entire group is feeling dejected? Price, of course. This winter, especially, has left some buyers frustrated with a record-low supply of homes and a median price of $635,000. Not to mention, home prices were up 0.6 percent in January, which may not sound like much, but it was triple the national average. So, what’s the good news? Upcoming city council vote on rezoning may change the downtown and South Lake Union neighborhood options. Seattle Times reports the upsides of the potential affordable-housing requirements and estimates a potential 2,100 rent controlled units will be generated in South Lake Union alone. You can bet we’ll be tracking the outcome of this vote and are very curious to see how it potentially changes the market in the coming years.