will note the basis for home prices in this table are the KC assessor - which runs well behind market rate. will also note how out of date these numbers already are in just two years
today, a single family home in seattle is over $1 million.
is this for real?
will note that adding another townhome unit on LR zones does not make them affordable to middle class households.
it does make them absurdly unusable.
as well as inaccessible.
(some of the advisory committee are market rate townhome developers)
there are no Mandatory Housing Affordability fees for single family houses
really concerning red flags about this report
when you definitely don't know how to read a proforma
thread on why this won't be accessible to middle class households here:
well, the first part is - high land costs makes it nearly impossible to build family-friendly middle income housing.
however, increasing development capacity doesn't lower *land costs*
climate change denial
is a $500k 1-br affordable? a $900k townhouse? 🤔
oh look - our land and construction costs are so high - that even improving financing options doesn't make housing affordable to middle income households
anyway, it's not like this inadequate report, with outdated info - has any relevance today, with seattle rents climbing again, and metro area housing production numbers dropping like a brick...
i write a lot about housing options & various housing forms. it's something i've been meaning to do a thread on for a while.
we don't have many options when it comes to housing in the US - our stock is largely detached houses or small apartments, and almost no social housing
our land use here is really spiky. most of seattle outside of the downtown core looks like this: car-dependent neighborhoods with detached houses as far as the eye can see. many of these neighborhoods don't even have sidewalks.
and then we slam apartment buildings in poorly planned/designed urban villages - and on loud, dangerous, polluted arterials. there is very little unit diversity in these buildings - most of them are small 1 BRs or studios.
here's a 5 minute video (in german, sorry!) on construction of nagler's first project for the developer. also a mass timber passivhaus social housing project.
it is so unsafe on seattle's streets for people who get around by bike (thanks, @seattledot) that i know a number of folks who have given up riding for fear of being killed. i know people who have decided to move to live in cities w/ safe bike networks. broken down & bought cars
hell even my wife has stated she isn't opposed to moving back to europe because it's obvious that SDOT and mayor don't care about anyone but motorists.
there's no safe bike network
SDOT thinks plastic bollards save lives
and we're spending billions on car-only infrastructure
we're not building car-free neighborhoods near transit.
TOD is a complete joke in this city.
no streets are being redesigned to drastically drive down VMTs.
no consequences for motorists constantly breaking laws and endangering pedestrians and cyclists.
the proliferation of this detail on seattle townhouses is... 🤢
this is wrapping up right around corner from it. also - check out that sweet sweet vent stack
stepped townhomes - an opp to actually do something rather interesting in this city like this project in innsbruck: inspiration.detail.de/reihenhaus-in-…