Just minutes ago, Seattle city council member Jean Godden sent us an email announcing the fact that the mayor is backtracking on his idea to change single-family zoning:
"I am heartened to announce that Mayor Murray has just retracted the proposal to change the zoning in single-family neighborhoods. I opposed a change in zoning for single family neighborhoods and said so at committee meetings. In particular, the idea of allowing duplexes and triplexes into single family neighborhoods would do damage to the distinct neighborhoods that are the reason so many people come to Seattle in the first place. I am glad this proposal is no longer on the table and will not distract Council from discussions around the worthy goals of increased affordability in our City laid out in the other 64 proposals."And about about the same time, this message was posted on the mayor's website:
Murray to focus on housing affordability in denser neighborhoods
July 29, 2015 by Office of Mayor MurrayToday Mayor Ed Murray issued the following statement announcing he will not recommend pursuing a Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda (HALA) committee recommendation that could have changed 94 percent of single-family zones in Seattle. Instead, he is calling for renewed public dialogue on how best to increase affordable housing in denser neighborhoods:
“The Council and I created the HALA process because our city is facing a housing affordability crisis. In the weeks since the HALA recommendations were released, sensationalized reporting by a few media outlets has created a significant distraction and derailed the conversation that we need to have on affordability and equity.
“Fundamentally, this is a conversation about building a Seattle that welcomes people from all walks of life — where working people, low-income families, seniors, young people and the kids of current residents all can live in our city.
We also must not be afraid to talk about the painful fact that parts of our city are still impacted by the intersection of income, race and housing. Look at a map and take a walk through our neighborhoods. We can move beyond the legacy of the old boundaries of exclusion that have remained largely unchanged since nearly a century ago when neighborhood covenants were used to keep people of color south of Madison Street.
“I have always believed that Seattle can step up and have a difficult conversation about our history of racial discrimination and economic inequality. Our shared vision for Seattle includes affordable housing and diversity in all our neighborhoods.
“To advance the broader conversation about affordable housing and equity, I will no longer pursue changes that could allow more types of housing in 94 percent of single-family zones. Instead, we will refocus the discussion on designing denser Urban Centers, Urban Villages and along transit corridors that include more affordable housing.”
The Laurelhurst Community Club told the Laurelhurst Blog that the upzoning is a huge concern and one of the Board members attended the first public hearing and is continuing to monitor the serious issue.
A Laurelhurst Blog reader passed this article along from the Chicago Tribune:
Seattle as the next Silicon Valley sparks home-sale frenzy
July 10, 2015
Seattle as the next Silicon Valley sparks home-sale frenzy
July 10, 2015
SEATTLE — Retired baseball pitcher Jamie Moyer sold his seven-bedroom Tudor mansion in Seattle, complete with a batting cage and saltwater pool, to a Chinese couple for $3.2 million in September. The new owners promptly rented it out to a group of Amazon.com employees.
Seattle has become the latest West Coast hot spot for homebuyers, from Chinese emigrees to technology workers, sending home prices to a record in an area renowned for its clean air, mountain ranges and lakes. Surging demand is combining with limited supply to boost values, squeezing affordability.
"We will be like San Francisco in five years," said Lili Shang, the Realogics/Sotheby's International Realty agent who represented the buyers of Moyer's house. "It's a new era."
Pending home sales in a 23-county region that includes Seattle rose 16 percent last month to the highest in almost a decade, the Northwest Multiple Listing Service reported this week. The median price for a single-family house in the city reached a record $575,000, and has gained at least 13 percent from a year earlier in each of the past five months, according to the Kirkland, Washington-based real estate trade group.
While the median is more than double the national figure, the area remains affordable when compared with West Coast magnets San Francisco, Los Angeles and Vancouver. In San Francisco, the median home price tops $1 million. The relative value has drawn Seattle buyers seeking good school districts and a place to put their money.
Seattle's inventory of residential properties for sale is the lowest on record, according to Redfin Corp., whose data dates to July 2007. At the current sales pace, it would take less than two months for all homes on the market to find buyers.
"We're probably going to have an inventory shortage for two to three years," Glenn Kelman, chief executive officer of Seattle-based Redfin, said in an interview. In addition to homebuyers making purchases before interest rates rise, "every Silicon Valley company, their first outpost is here."
The area, already home to Amazon and Microsoft, has attracted Facebook., which earlier this year agreed to lease most of a building in the city's South Lake Union neighborhood. Google has a satellite campus in Kirkland and Alibaba Group Holding is in talks to rent additional office space east of Seattle. Other homegrown technology companies include Zillow Group, Expedia and Zulily.
Lance Li, 33, a pilot for China Eastern Airlines, began house-hunting in Seattle last month. He and his wife, who live in Shanghai and plan to have children, want to find a place in a good school district before their kids are even born.
Many people "sell their real estate in Shanghai so they have money to buy here," said Li's agent, Guoxin Gong, with Professional Realty Services. Li is starting his home search amid fierce competition from both local residents and out-of-towners, Gong said after showing Li a $2.5 million contemporary house in the Laurelhurst neighborhood that has an elevator, balconies off every bedroom and panoramic views of Lake Washington, the Cascade Range and its highest peak, Mount Rainier.
"Some of my clients have been waiting eight months," Gong said. With a small inventory of homes for sale, it's difficult to secure houses in the most sought-after $600,000 to $800,000 range, he said.
The Laurelhurst neighborhood has long been one of the city's most in-demand. Its beach club on Lake Washington has been a social hub for decades. But even in the area's less prime parts, some homes on standard lots are listed for more than $1 million.
"Laurelhurst used to be doctors, lawyers and professors. Now it's hedge fund and tech types," said Tom Maider of Maider & Knowles, one of the neighborhood's top brokerages. "There are still doctors and lawyers, but they can't afford to live on the water anymore."
Current and past Laurelhurst residents include Jeff Raikes, former head of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Russell Wilson, quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks; Blake Nordstrom, a scion of the retailing family; and Duff McKagan, bassist for the rock band Guns N' Roses.
It isn't just homebuyers priced out in the city. In April, Morgans Electric and Plumbing closed its store on Stone Way, where it had been for about 25 years, after the landlord sold to a local investment firm that plans to develop apartments. Stone Way, a main north-south artery that was long a Builders Row of paint and plumbing-supply stores, is now flush with new rental buildings and trendy restaurants.
The surge in home prices and sales comes amid signs, including a plunge in Chinese stocks, that demand may slow. The Shanghai Composite Index has tumbled 32 percent from its June 12 high, after rising 60 percent since Dec. 31. On Wednesday, Microsoft said it plans to cut as many as 7,800 jobs, mostly outside the Seattle area, as it reorganizes its telephone- hardware business.
Seattle's median house price is more than eight times the city's annual median income, well above the multiple of three that demographers consider affordable. The median apartment rent of about $1,500 per month is almost 50 percent above the affordability threshold.
"This city is going to grow and it will become like Silicon Valley or New York," said Faith Pettis, an attorney with Pacifica Law Group LLP and co-chair of the City's Housing Affordability and Livability task force, which is developing proposals to increase the amount of lower-cost housing in the city. "People won't be able to afford to live here."
A draft of the panel's recommendations proposed increasing development such as duplexes in single-family zones, the Seattle Times reported Tuesday. Roughly 65 percent of Seattle's total land is zoned for single-family homes, a level that "is no longer either realistic or acceptable," according to the draft report.
Seattle Mayor Ed Murray in March outlined a goal of creating 50,000 new housing units in the next 10 years, with 20,000 of those for individuals and families making 80 percent or less of the area's median income.
Shang, of Realogics/Sotheby's, is the top-ranking Chinese real estate agent in Washington state by sales, according to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service. She said that many of her Chinese clients are making a long-term bet on Seattle.
"They're waiting for their kids to grow up, to get ready for college or high school," said Shang, who expects her sales to double this year from 2014. "That's their plan."
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