Redfin, the owners of WalkScore, has released its list of the 10 most walkable cities, and Seattle ranks as number 8. Our current walk score is 73.1, up 0.2 points from last year. Walkability across the board is increasing, and the article goes into depth on trends and specific areas that have shifted.
The Count Us In report for 2017 has been released. This is a more scientific, thorough analysis that was implemented this year to replace the previous one night count conducted in previous years in January. The new report gives a much more comprehensive view of the homeless population in the city and its surrounding areas and has a wealth of good information for anybody interested in this and related issues.
Also out is Zumper’s spring map for median one-bedroom rental prices, broken down by neighborhood. Rental prices don’t perfectly match to sale prices, but this is a good reference for demographic breakdowns of the city and is particularly useful for anybody looking at investment property.
The are-we, aren’t-we question of a housing bubble question remains very present with the latest Case-Shiller numbers with the March data come out. As always, the Seattle Bubble has a great analysis for you to take a look at and continue to chew this question over. It’s definitely starting to look like we’re a bit bubbly, though I’d like to see the numbers in the last graph adjusted for inflation and get a line for what reasonable growth (a percentage based on population growth) would look like.