Post navigation

Prev: (11/27/11) | Next: (11/27/11)

Capitol Hill — home to the great Seattle apartment bubble of 2012


Urban web, originally uploaded by AdonisPhotos.

According to Citytank’s Dan Bertolet, Capitol Hill is leading the way in contributing to a massive Seattle economic bubble:

New apartment projects have been sprouting so fast recently it’s hard to keep up. Nearly 7000 units are projected to come on line in 2013 in Seattle and Bellevue. In Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood alone construction is well under way on four large mid-rise apartments that will provide close to 600 new units, and a dozen or more projects are in various stages of the pipeline.

But, Bertolet says, this bubble ain’t so bad:

Why shouldn’t we worry about this particular bubble?  True, an overproduction of apartments can be expected to dish out some economic pain to building owners, financiers, and developers who get the timing wrong.  But that won’t change the fact that we’ll end up with lots of new high-density urban housing that will be on the ground for decades. And that’s some powerful good mojo for a sustainable city and region.

Good or bad, we’ve been puffing on this bubble for years now. The picture on this post that could have been taken at several currently crane-decorated viewpoints across the Hill was taken way back in 2008 as the Brix building began to take shape.


Subscribe and support CHS Contributors -- $1/$5/$10 per month

12 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
AbstractMonkeys
12 years ago

A “bubble” means things are overpriced and everyone is expecting an imminent crash. They’re building a lot of apartments here, but this is just the rapid increase in density we’ve been asking for and there’s no sign of a crash on the horizon!

There are now more reasons than ever to live on the hill: jobs, walkability, bike lanes, mass transit expansion, a great neighborhood blog, night life improvements, high gas prices, cataclysmic traffic problems over the next several years between tolling and tunnel construction. We’ve made permit and land use changes to promote greater density and encourage developers to build here instead of in the suburbs and it’s working.

The Times did a pretty decent story on the subject here: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/201

m
m
12 years ago

You forgot to mention the most alluring reason of all: daily muggings.

AbstractMonkeys
12 years ago

I forgot to mention “low crime”. Crime has always been a problem, but the numbers have gone down in recent years.

http://www.seattle.gov/police/crime/stats.htm

m
m
12 years ago

You’re being sarcastic, right?

AbstractMonkeys
12 years ago

Totally serious. People are just much more aware of it now thanks to neighborhood blogs and such. That’s one of the reasons the numbers have gone down.

Not to be entirely dismissive of the issue, but the majority of the muggings are drunk people staggering home alone through sketchy areas at 3 AM while texting on their iPhones. If you avoid doing that, your chances of being mugged aren’t zero, but they are pretty slim.

m
m
12 years ago

“the majority of the muggings are drunk people staggering home alone through sketchy areas at 3 AM while texting on their iPhones”

Yes, that is true.

Juno
12 years ago

Don’t forget the apartments that were taken out of the market in the condo conversions during the Greg Nickels term. That has turned out to be a big setback locally, on top of the national housing issues, for both the condo developers and apartment renters.

More housing put online faster can help make it more affordable to live here.

calhoun
12 years ago

I seriously doubt that “street crimes,” such as muggings, have gone down. Stats can be very misleading. I disagree that it is a matter of more publicizing of the incidents, such as on this blog.

Just as important, or more so, than stats is the perception on the part of most Capitol Hill residents that crime is up.

wave
12 years ago

Yes, let’s figure out a way to blame it on Greg Nickels. That makes sense.

What?
12 years ago

“Just as important, or more so, than stats is the perception”

Important to what? Because outside of maybe PR, actual facts are about infinity times more important what uninformed people perceive. I’ll take actual lower crime over the “feeling” of lower crime every single day.

Juno
12 years ago

First, if it were Norm Rice who was in office during the condo conversion I’d have written that. Second, Nickels is not a sacred cow.

Juno
12 years ago

The issue is to point out how soon after the loss of apartments we think that there is an apartment bubble. Just not factual.