Everybody knows the first three rules of real estate are location, location, location. This story gives you a pretty good idea of why. A mining company is having to pay to move a town out of the risk zone created by its mine, and it’s expected to cost around one billion (not a typo) dollars. It really is easier to move house than to move a house.
The Seattle Bubble has the breakdown on the preliminary stats from May. The big takeaways are that inventory was up month over month, but down year over year. May being up over April is to be expected – we should see that continue through August and a taper in September or October – but I am perennially hoping for inventory to be up year over year, too. Or at least to be the same. Inventory, please! We needs it.
Rent price stats are out, too, and Curbed Seattle has a good breakdown of them. The headline takeaway is that median rent prices are up year over year, but that’s not what’s most interesting about this article. Read past the headline for a breakdown on where the data is coming from and how it’s calculated. There are meaningful differences in methodology across sites that means you’re going to have a preference for one over another depending on why you’re looking at rental prices.
A very long saga involving redevelopment of Key Arena took a significant step forward today with the Oak View Group getting selected for the project. They’ve already had additional partners sign up in the relatively short time since the official announcement. Queen Anne and the city at large are going to be watching the progress of this project pretty closely, especially since it’s being touted as one with low risk to public funds.