If you’re a data nerd at all, you should probably be reading the Seattle Bubble on your own regularly, because their analysis is great. For example, they dug into the January data from the Case-Shiller index and look at more than just price growth in Seattle, but give good context for how it compares to other rapidly growing metropolitan areas including, important to the Seattle market, San Francisco. With as much interest as we get from Bay Area investors, a softening in the market there is likely to have an impact on the Seattle market (though probably not a huge one unless it was part of something bigger) so it’s something worth keeping an eye on.
There’s more evidence that trends in rent prices from the last several years might be shifting. A slow down in increases isn’t remotely the same as rents going down, but it’s still good news as far as I’m concerned. With upzoning approvals around the city already rolling in, and plenty more in the pipeline, hopefully the next few years will bring a slow down in rent hikes across the city. We’re at a place where rents are high enough to keep the market happy to build new inventory for quite a while; stabilizing things will let buyers be more thoughtful about their choices in jumping ship to buy, hopefully easing some of the inventory trouble we’re having and shoring up against the kind of frenzy that would tilt us toward a burst-ready bubble. (I started in the industry right after the last bubble burst. It was fun to be a buyer’s agent then, but I’m not eager to go back to it.) In summary: Yay, less exorbitant rent hikes!
Speaking of pipelines: Bertha made it! Yo go, you tardy, over budget girl. I must confess, I was one of those, “That’s never actually getting done,” doubters. It got done. Finally. Being a doubter doesn’t make me less proud of that giant drill that eventually could.