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Unfortunately, the big reason why Seattle is getting so expensive is just because there are lucrative jobs to be had here. Same reason why Silicon Valley is so
by kyllo 13y ago
Unfortunately, the big reason why Seattle is getting so expensive is just because there are lucrative jobs to be had here. Same reason why Silicon Valley is so expensive, but still on a smaller scale at this point. I think we're going to see more and more of this: the cities with a lot of jobs getting very expensive to live in, and the cities with fewer job opportunities staying flat or even getting cheaper--because their economies are dying.
So, unless your income is very high, to avoid having your income canceled out by the local costs, you will either need to find a rare high-paying job in a low-jobs, low-cost city, or find rare low-cost housing in a high-jobs, high-cost city.
Not that this isn't already the case--just saying, I think America's "jobless recovery" is going to make this effect more extreme in the near future.
- saosebastiao 13y agoBut it doesn't have to be that way. Seattle has a lot of high paying jobs, sure. But because Seattle artificially restricts housing supply, the high paying jobs bring in people like me that can absorb the cost, pushing out people that can't absorb the cost. Those people tend to work in jobs that keep other living costs low, meaning that if they continue to exist at all, they exist at higher prices...exacerbating the effect. Seattle needs to stop focusing on raising pay. Their focus on wages for Airport workers and Fast Food workers completely misses the point: Those wages are already high from a US market standpoint...they are too low here because living costs are too high here. If you set a wage floor, the employers disappear. Alaska Airlines will move their hub to Portland or Vancouver, and all the Fast Food chains will cut their losses and close shop. A focused effort on destroying barriers to new housing development effectively reduces the cost of living and increases living standards for everybody, without pricing out the lower-wage employment.
- kyllo 13y agoBut because Seattle artificially restricts housing supply, the high paying jobs bring in people like me that can absorb the cost, pushing out people that can't absorb the cost I do know that the pace of new housing construction in the Seattle metro area is very low, and last winter the housing supply on the market hit its lowest level since late 90s dot-com boom. Now I don't know if this is truly due to artificial/legal/zoning restrictions as you say, or if it's just due to the geography and the fact that the areas within reasonable commuting distance of Seattle are pretty well built out already--or some combination of both. But the fact is, people are moving here much faster than we are building housing for them, and it's pushing up prices very fast.
- rdouble 13y agoI think it's more due to Seattle's geography and anti-growth patterns. Places like Houston have a lot of lucrative jobs and a lot of cheap housing.