3 ms·

so what is the solution to expensive rents in your mind?

• debatem1 8y ago
  I mean, what problem are you trying to solve? If the concern is that it takes roughly $60k/household just to live in Seattle, the answer is higher wages. Even if that acts as a drag on King county GDP, the King county housing market is north of 100% of GDP; better to endanger the smaller value. And personally, I don't think higher minimum wages will be a net negative in the long run-- but I could be wrong. If I was, we could fix it later though. If you're trying to solve the problem of not being able to rent a place you like independent of not being able to afford a baseline place, the only answers are market distortions in your favor. The proposals I've heard for that are sort of a "fair, cheap, effective-- pick two" deal. Personally I think the best approach is more and better transit, since that raises the utility (and therefore underlying value independent of market value) of homes both close and far from the urban core. But it is definitely on the fair, effective, not cheap side of that triangle.