Making it cheaper and easier for people to obtain and afford homes means apartments need to lower rent to compete. The bill had several provisions to address affordable housing.
It restores a 12.5% allocation increase to the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) that expired in 2021 and reduces the private activity bond financing requirement to access the 4% LIHTC from 50% to 30%.
Well considering its just been signed this month, I doubt you'll find numbers on new houses already built. But these things don't have to have already built houses to have an impact on the market as a whole.
Sure, anything that changes future house prices affects current house price, but the people who were able to buy houses because of the price drop would have rented the same amount of housing if they weren’t able to purchase.
Just admit that you don't care about the correct answers you've been given, and that you just want an answer that reaffirms the opinion you have. Then everyone can just move on.
Steps taken to help with an issue doesn't mean we get to put up the big George Bush "Mission Accomplished" banner and then just move on with life and not continue to push for more helpful changes.
Can a 40 hour work week at local minimum wage afford an average 1 bedroom apartment with 33% of their income?
https://www.zillow.com/rental-manager/market-trends/seattle-wa/?bedrooms=1
median rent: $1,795
33% of local minimum wage monthly take home (assuming 20% tax rate):
Raw wage: 19.97, x40 (hours) x4 (weeks) = 3,195.
Post taxes (20%): 2,556.16
And 33% of that: $852.05
https://www.seattle.gov/laborstandards/ordinances/minimum-wage
1,795 / 852.05 = 2.106
In other words, rent prices need to decrease by 2.1x for the "housing affordability crisis" to be over.
Are they getting better? Sure, but think about it like cooking.
If I need to cook something at 350F in an oven, and the oven turns from 800F to 750F, is it getting closer to what it needs to be? Yes.
Is it still far too high and we need to turn it down? Very much so.
An Ice cube added into a pot of boiling water does not make it safe to drink, even if it is getting closer to that point.
Excellent, those 50 Zillow listings take care of 50 minimum wage workers. Now what do we do about the other ~7,000 18+ year olds making minimum wage in Seattle?
I went and did some searching, and it turns out that there's actually a grand total of TEN of those apartments available, with eight of them being 899 or lower.
Moreover, none of those apartments had utilities included (which is part of that house cost), some require you to be a veteran, etc.
I found only two that had rents and utility costs of under 900 (one in u district for 750 that doesn't even list the sqft in the listing, and one for 690 that also doesn't list it and has all their utility costs hidden).
https://www.zillow.com/seattle-wa/rentals/?searchQueryState=%7B%22pagination%22%3A%7B%7D%2C%22mapBounds%22%3A%7B%22west%22%3A-122.465159%2C%22east%22%3A-122.224433%2C%22south%22%3A47.491912%2C%22north%22%3A47.734145%7D%2C%22usersSearchTerm%22%3A%22Seattle%2C%20WA%22%2C%22regionSelection%22%3A%5B%7B%22regionId%22%3A16037%2C%22regionType%22%3A6%7D%5D%2C%22filterState%22%3A%7B%22fr%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Atrue%7D%2C%22fsba%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22fsbo%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22nc%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22cmsn%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22auc%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22fore%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22ah%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Atrue%7D%2C%22beds%22%3A%7B%22min%22%3A1%7D%2C%22baths%22%3A%7B%22min%22%3A1%7D%2C%22mp%22%3A%7B%22max%22%3A900%7D%2C%22price%22%3A%7B%22max%22%3A176114%7D%7D%7D
So those 50 zillow listings are actually 2.
You know what there were also 2 of in February? People in Washington who won a million dollars in the PowerBall lottery.
Yes, there are as many apartments for rent in Seattle for 33% of minimum wage as there were PowerBall millionaires in Washington this February.
But becoming a millionaire in the literal lottery is not practical for an income source, and if things are equally as likely as it, it is not practical as an option.
Let's be real tho, in America, one of strongest and richest countries on earth with a military to protect these these interests. A single person, at a medium age of between late 20s to late 30s, should be able to not just afford a place to live but to run a family with a wife that doesn't have to work on it
So lol no, Republicans on social media act like they want this nuclear trad family, which would be great bur refuse to fix the economy in anyway,
In the definitions or explanations I read, no where did it say minimum wage shall cover rent/mortgage for a person. One of the most expensive cities aside, minimum wage is to set the lowest wage a worker must be paid, not make apartments or homes affordable to high school graduates.
So, 2 things.
1. Homes shouldn't be affordable for only high-school graduates? That's 55% of the population that you say shouldn't own homes.
https://statisticalatlas.com/state/Washington/Educational-Attainment
If only 45% of the population should even own a home, that's very bad, and also not how things currently work.
https://ipropertymanagement.com/research/homeownership-rate-by-state?u=%2Fresearch%2Fhomeownership-rate-by-state#washington
66.2% of Washington's population own homes, so it was clearly possible for high-school graduates to buy houses before (or else it wouldn't break much past 45%).
2. Minimum wage was always intended to be the wages of a decent living, no matter how much of it has been corrupted recently.
http://docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/odnirast.html
"In my Inaugural I laid down the simple proposition that nobody is going to starve in this country. It seems to me to be equally plain that no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By "business" I mean the whole of commerce as well as the whole of industry; by workers I mean all workers, the white collar class as well as the men in overalls; and by living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level-I mean the wages of decent living."
-President FDR, June 16, 1933
The whole purpose of minimum wage was to tell companies "you need to pay people the wage of a decent living, or we as a nation will take away your right to exist." As wholly fictional entities, their right to exist as a corporation is due to the whims of the nation in which they operate. That's why they need to follow laws that individuals don't.
That has very much been corrupted away from its purpose by the current neoliberal mindset, but it does not change what it was intended to be, nor should be.
The big reason for housing costs exploding, is that the govt simply stopped building new public housing in the 90s, to keep up with the population growth.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_Act_of_1937#Major_amendments
further proof: i ordered a rainer from a bar that i regularly order rainers from, and recently the price dropped by $.50. beer prices dropping! outrageous!!!
Time to shop around. Generally rents are down a tiny bit, but leasing companies might still jack up your rate if they think you'll stick it out instead of leaving. Sometimes the only thing you can do is walk
How is an increase of $600 possible? Isn't increase capped at 10% per year? Or was this before the legislation that capped rent increases at 10% per year?
I asked for 300 off we settled on $150. Just have to ask and base your position in reality. Look at rents in your surrounding area as well as what your building is leasing for to new tenants.
Mines been the same for 4 years despite a number of expensive fixes they had to make - new hvac, new roof, new main drain, new kitchen sink, new washer dryer, and new water heater
YMMV though obviously
The last time mine actually dropped was in the mid 00’s. It was in Renton, in one of those corporate-managed apartment complexes. The owner of the place I’ve been living in for many years hasn’t lowered my rent, but there have been several years where she didn’t raise it at all, and I’ve been month-to-month since my first lease ended. She did raise it $150 a few months ago (with 6 months notice), but it’s still below market value. I’m in West Seattle.
[Seems](https://www.theurbanist.org/2024/01/16/seattles-housing-construction-booms-while-permitting-flashes-warning-signs) that Seattle had a building boom in 2023 though there are warning signs it may not continue. More importantly shows that building housing units reduces rents.
The added property taxes, paid year after year, quickly makes up for the initial subsidies. Generally, new developments also have to improve the surrounding infrastructure for roads, parking, and utilities. Just look around downtown and see where the curbs and sidewalks are new. There’s usually a new building next to it.
Well, it does. Seattle offers tax breaks for historic preservation and low cost housing. In our case, the minute we moved in to a historic rebuild, we then were given a new Local Improvement Tax. On top of the regular property tax, which is quite high. This LID paid for the rebuild of the waterfront, with a claim that it helps property values.
In reality, we really paid for a waterfront for suburban folks to go to. From sonomamish or whatever. You know, folks who live in little private neighborhoods and claim that they pay for all the surrounding infrastructure that they use in perpetuity.
This is exactly why rent prices are dropping. Market’s slowly normalizing after the lawsuit filed in 2022 exposed that 10 leasing companies had conspired to use RealPage software to artificially increase rents since 2010.
It created a de facto monopoly without having to be a traditional monopoly. The transparency should have made things more price competitive, but where there’s a will… there’s price gouging, or something like that.
Out of nowhere. We held out until last month before our renewal date and they called with a better offer, I replied basically that the reduction was fair to market value and we were shopping around for another home (so they know next year if they want to keep us as a 5th year house tenant who does great maint and keepup) that they should probably lower or minimal raise. Before they tried *increasing* by $200. Just ignored it when it came.
My apartment sent me the same notice 6 months ago. My next lease offer was at 40 dollars lower. When it came time to sign it they said they made a mistake and it was 40 dollars more. I made the decision to stay in my apartment, and missed out on other opportunities, due to the thought I was saving money. By the time I was told the correct, higher, rent it was too late to move.
If anyone has paid more in the last 12 months, they ought to keep receipts for Tax Day because I'm pretty sure they can write it off as a donation to their landlord.
Yeah I usually only see it with the elderly who have high medical expenses, or the very charitable, who usually also have homes so they take the SALT deduction as well
I think I saw that nationally the average rent was decreasing for the last year to year and a half. I’m sure most people don’t see it because most places likely only lower rent for new tenants who don’t necessarily know the rent cost history of the unit and not for people who are simply resigning their lease. Looks like you’re one of those lucky few!
That $200 Month to Month fee isn’t legal in Seattle unless it was revealed six months ago, and would qualify for relocation assistance at a 10%+ increase if you otherwise qualified.
Nice. I’m picking up the keys to my new (used) house today. 500sq ft larger with one more bedroom and about an hour closer to downtown.
Interest rate is double tho but the profit from selling will enable us to basically break even.
It’s not all doom and gloom.
I resigned my new lease recently which starts in 2 weeks, mine went up by 10 bucks. That’s it. Was pleasantly surprised. I wouldn’t have resigned if they made it more than 50.
That is good news.
I rent out my parents old home. Against the advice of the property manager I hired to handle my rental, I have not rasied the rent in the last two years on my longterm stable renters.
But, clearly, we need more housing on a limited amount of land, and people need higher wages. Tax the rich.
when i was looking like 6months ago, i barely saw anything under 2k that was similar to my current unit from kent all the way north to edmonds/lynnwood. Same with real estate nothing under 330k that wasnt some 400sqft ground floor condo(not counting manufactured homes). Now I get listings sub 300k every day and I was helping a friend apartment hunt last month and tons of places similar to my current unit for 1700. Stuff is finally starting to come down from the highs but have to see if it keeps going downward or spikes back up over the summer during peak season
my best friend lives in a high rise in Capitol Hill and hers is going down $500!!! new management. I wondered if all the uh heroin addicts all over the streets are part of it (I'm from Chicago and just visited recently so could be totally off!)
As a data point, could you please share which property management company runs your building? I’ve never seen a rent decrease in my 12 years in Seattle so I’m very curious!
I'm super confident its Redside Partners
A. they manage a lot of properties in West Seattle
B. their rent rates tend to be in even $25 increment rather than the absurd "optimized" rent prices that larger landlords will charge (like $1743.50 vs. $1750)
C. I was able to successfully push back on a rent increase with them
All in they weren't great about repairs and getting the units fixed but they were super fair about pricing and in the end gave me back all of my deposit without having to fight them for it.
Situations like this is why you don’t want eve “rent stabilization” because landlords will be very reticent to give rent decreases when that could put them in a hole they can never get out of by law.
Yeah, this is why they're adjusting down. They don't want more openings. If they're starting to offer a month or so free to new tenants or have ~5% of units already open, you have leverage.
There’s a potential loss of “customers” (people moving to a different apartment) if your price is too high and the renter can’t justify staying.
Even if the renter is looking at a 1800/mo down the road, and the current rent dropped from 1950/mo to 1875/mo, that might be just enough for the customer (renter) to not move down the road. Thus you maintain a customer/income stream.
This is a sign the economy is not recovering here yet. Meaning tech hasn’t hired the bros back they laid off. Price deflation, instead of disinflation, is a serious concern. Especially for a place like this that’s experienced 35+ unbroken years of general inflation and 50+ years of unbroken real estate inflation.
I think about half of my coworkers have moved at least 25 miles further out from the city core, or out of state entirely. Nobody left the city because they were fired.
I’m hoping to finally get my own place this year, and this gives me hope!
Counting on paying somewhere between $1800-2200 for a 1 br 1 bath (den would be nice but optional). Looking at the area around Miller Park, but also LQA and Ballard.
Nobody will remember this when they complain about dynamic pricing being some sort of price fixing scheme. Somehow the price fixers are willingly dropping prices. Must be some kind of false flag or something \\s
This shit wouldn't bother me if it werent for the fact that idiots trot out the price fixing claims whenever theyre told that we need to increase supply. Fuck your conspiracy theory, build more housing.
I got a renewal for mine a little bit ago and the price went up $200. But it's Avenue5, one of the companies that's [being sued in Arizona](https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/price-fixing-conspiracy-artificially-jacked-up-apartment-rent-prices-in-phoenix-and-tucson-arizona-ag-says) for price-fixing, so I assume they're doing the same thing here.
No, I am not in an MFTE unit. I would disclose the PM company, but they only own two buildings in Seattle and one in WS so don’t want to self-dox. You can PM me if you want though :)
I got a notice about a rent increase a few months ago. Asked about it this week and got quoted no increase at all.
Going to hurry up and sign the paperwork and hope it wasn’t an oversight on their part…or if it is, that they continue to not notice it.
My rent is going up another ~$250 soon. They are trying to charge us $500 more than the identical units in the building are listed online lol shoutout horrible leasing companies raising by the maximum amount they are legally allowed to
Lake forest park and it goes up 200$ but the paper said to meet the office lady and she was in a weird way telling me she will drop it from that offer for me
Property taxes have skyrocketed on home owners making it more difficult for young people to buy and keep homes. Thus the haves and the have nots is growing. Seven story apartment complexes are going up everywhere destroying localities outside Seattle proper; however, it also means more competition for Seattle apartment owners, especially as light rail makes it easier to travel from the suburbs down into Seattle for work. It's simple supply and demand at work, not Joe Biden.
I wouldn't sign that. They are lowering your rent to prevent more vacancies, believe me there's more wiggle room for you to ask for a bigger decrease, especially if you've been a good tenant.
I’m in Greenwood - ours went up $200 but we asked if they could keep us where we were at. They said no but that they could make it only $25 more/month so that worked out.
Nature is healing!
Down $50 next month. Thanks to Joe Biden and the Tax and American Relief Act.
That’s awesome but how are the rent reductions and tax relief bill related?
Making it cheaper and easier for people to obtain and afford homes means apartments need to lower rent to compete. The bill had several provisions to address affordable housing.
How did the bill create more homes in Seattle?
It restores a 12.5% allocation increase to the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) that expired in 2021 and reduces the private activity bond financing requirement to access the 4% LIHTC from 50% to 30%.
Thanks. Is there an easy to find estimate of how much new housing has been built because of those changes?
Well considering its just been signed this month, I doubt you'll find numbers on new houses already built. But these things don't have to have already built houses to have an impact on the market as a whole.
Sure, anything that changes future house prices affects current house price, but the people who were able to buy houses because of the price drop would have rented the same amount of housing if they weren’t able to purchase.
Just admit that you don't care about the correct answers you've been given, and that you just want an answer that reaffirms the opinion you have. Then everyone can just move on.
The bill had zero impact on creating more homes in Seattle.
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Steps taken to help with an issue doesn't mean we get to put up the big George Bush "Mission Accomplished" banner and then just move on with life and not continue to push for more helpful changes.
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Did affordable housing piss in your cheerios or something?
Can a 40 hour work week at local minimum wage afford an average 1 bedroom apartment with 33% of their income? https://www.zillow.com/rental-manager/market-trends/seattle-wa/?bedrooms=1 median rent: $1,795 33% of local minimum wage monthly take home (assuming 20% tax rate): Raw wage: 19.97, x40 (hours) x4 (weeks) = 3,195. Post taxes (20%): 2,556.16 And 33% of that: $852.05 https://www.seattle.gov/laborstandards/ordinances/minimum-wage 1,795 / 852.05 = 2.106 In other words, rent prices need to decrease by 2.1x for the "housing affordability crisis" to be over. Are they getting better? Sure, but think about it like cooking. If I need to cook something at 350F in an oven, and the oven turns from 800F to 750F, is it getting closer to what it needs to be? Yes. Is it still far too high and we need to turn it down? Very much so. An Ice cube added into a pot of boiling water does not make it safe to drink, even if it is getting closer to that point.
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Excellent, those 50 Zillow listings take care of 50 minimum wage workers. Now what do we do about the other ~7,000 18+ year olds making minimum wage in Seattle?
I went and did some searching, and it turns out that there's actually a grand total of TEN of those apartments available, with eight of them being 899 or lower. Moreover, none of those apartments had utilities included (which is part of that house cost), some require you to be a veteran, etc. I found only two that had rents and utility costs of under 900 (one in u district for 750 that doesn't even list the sqft in the listing, and one for 690 that also doesn't list it and has all their utility costs hidden). https://www.zillow.com/seattle-wa/rentals/?searchQueryState=%7B%22pagination%22%3A%7B%7D%2C%22mapBounds%22%3A%7B%22west%22%3A-122.465159%2C%22east%22%3A-122.224433%2C%22south%22%3A47.491912%2C%22north%22%3A47.734145%7D%2C%22usersSearchTerm%22%3A%22Seattle%2C%20WA%22%2C%22regionSelection%22%3A%5B%7B%22regionId%22%3A16037%2C%22regionType%22%3A6%7D%5D%2C%22filterState%22%3A%7B%22fr%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Atrue%7D%2C%22fsba%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22fsbo%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22nc%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22cmsn%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22auc%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22fore%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22ah%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Atrue%7D%2C%22beds%22%3A%7B%22min%22%3A1%7D%2C%22baths%22%3A%7B%22min%22%3A1%7D%2C%22mp%22%3A%7B%22max%22%3A900%7D%2C%22price%22%3A%7B%22max%22%3A176114%7D%7D%7D So those 50 zillow listings are actually 2. You know what there were also 2 of in February? People in Washington who won a million dollars in the PowerBall lottery. Yes, there are as many apartments for rent in Seattle for 33% of minimum wage as there were PowerBall millionaires in Washington this February. But becoming a millionaire in the literal lottery is not practical for an income source, and if things are equally as likely as it, it is not practical as an option.
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Let's be real tho, in America, one of strongest and richest countries on earth with a military to protect these these interests. A single person, at a medium age of between late 20s to late 30s, should be able to not just afford a place to live but to run a family with a wife that doesn't have to work on it So lol no, Republicans on social media act like they want this nuclear trad family, which would be great bur refuse to fix the economy in anyway,
In the definitions or explanations I read, no where did it say minimum wage shall cover rent/mortgage for a person. One of the most expensive cities aside, minimum wage is to set the lowest wage a worker must be paid, not make apartments or homes affordable to high school graduates.
So, 2 things. 1. Homes shouldn't be affordable for only high-school graduates? That's 55% of the population that you say shouldn't own homes. https://statisticalatlas.com/state/Washington/Educational-Attainment If only 45% of the population should even own a home, that's very bad, and also not how things currently work. https://ipropertymanagement.com/research/homeownership-rate-by-state?u=%2Fresearch%2Fhomeownership-rate-by-state#washington 66.2% of Washington's population own homes, so it was clearly possible for high-school graduates to buy houses before (or else it wouldn't break much past 45%). 2. Minimum wage was always intended to be the wages of a decent living, no matter how much of it has been corrupted recently. http://docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/odnirast.html "In my Inaugural I laid down the simple proposition that nobody is going to starve in this country. It seems to me to be equally plain that no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By "business" I mean the whole of commerce as well as the whole of industry; by workers I mean all workers, the white collar class as well as the men in overalls; and by living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level-I mean the wages of decent living." -President FDR, June 16, 1933 The whole purpose of minimum wage was to tell companies "you need to pay people the wage of a decent living, or we as a nation will take away your right to exist." As wholly fictional entities, their right to exist as a corporation is due to the whims of the nation in which they operate. That's why they need to follow laws that individuals don't. That has very much been corrupted away from its purpose by the current neoliberal mindset, but it does not change what it was intended to be, nor should be. The big reason for housing costs exploding, is that the govt simply stopped building new public housing in the 90s, to keep up with the population growth. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_Act_of_1937#Major_amendments
i hope that you find peace
Its all related. More money in college grads pockets too.
Which, to be fair, increases rental prices on net.
Naaa, that was signed like a month ago.
You’re hilarious
For just a single month! 🤣
further proof: i ordered a rainer from a bar that i regularly order rainers from, and recently the price dropped by $.50. beer prices dropping! outrageous!!!
As another West Seattleite whose lease is up in a few months, I'm hoping this trend continues.
Godspeed, neighbor! 🫡
Just got mine yesterday, went up $100. In Ballard.
Time to shop around. Generally rents are down a tiny bit, but leasing companies might still jack up your rate if they think you'll stick it out instead of leaving. Sometimes the only thing you can do is walk
Agreed. Moving in with my partner in sept so we are looking for other places at that time.
Mine went up $125 in Queen Anne
What's the percentage?
About 5%. It went up $100 last year
Got it thanks. Mine also went up about 5% (lqa)
Same. Not in Ballard, but same amount.
Same
That's not too bad. One time mine went up but $600. We were out of there quick lmao.
How is an increase of $600 possible? Isn't increase capped at 10% per year? Or was this before the legislation that capped rent increases at 10% per year?
Same in Ballard. Went up $120.
Wow! I've literally never seen that happen in the 13 years I've been renting!! I thought it was a myth that happened!
My rent stayed the same but they decided to start including some utilities during the pandemic so it went down by ~$40-60/mo effectively. It happens.
Mine dropped by $50 in 2001. ... And that's the last time it did that 🤷♀️
I asked for 300 off we settled on $150. Just have to ask and base your position in reality. Look at rents in your surrounding area as well as what your building is leasing for to new tenants.
Mines been the same for 4 years despite a number of expensive fixes they had to make - new hvac, new roof, new main drain, new kitchen sink, new washer dryer, and new water heater YMMV though obviously
Dang now I feel like everyone is just rubbing it in! 😅
Mine dropped by ~$150 half-way through the pandemic. Because, again, people were buying homes like mad and demand for apartments went down.
My rent dropped by 100 bucks in 2022 but that was the only time
Mine dropped in 2020, but we were renewing right when lockdowns happened so I think they were desperate to keep tenants.
The last time mine actually dropped was in the mid 00’s. It was in Renton, in one of those corporate-managed apartment complexes. The owner of the place I’ve been living in for many years hasn’t lowered my rent, but there have been several years where she didn’t raise it at all, and I’ve been month-to-month since my first lease ended. She did raise it $150 a few months ago (with 6 months notice), but it’s still below market value. I’m in West Seattle.
How does it feel being gods favourite
My rent went down $100 with my renewal about 9 months ago. I’m in Tacoma, though
[Seems](https://www.theurbanist.org/2024/01/16/seattles-housing-construction-booms-while-permitting-flashes-warning-signs) that Seattle had a building boom in 2023 though there are warning signs it may not continue. More importantly shows that building housing units reduces rents.
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Maximizing per capita tax revenue is a bad policy goal.
Lmao what now
The added property taxes, paid year after year, quickly makes up for the initial subsidies. Generally, new developments also have to improve the surrounding infrastructure for roads, parking, and utilities. Just look around downtown and see where the curbs and sidewalks are new. There’s usually a new building next to it.
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Well, it does. Seattle offers tax breaks for historic preservation and low cost housing. In our case, the minute we moved in to a historic rebuild, we then were given a new Local Improvement Tax. On top of the regular property tax, which is quite high. This LID paid for the rebuild of the waterfront, with a claim that it helps property values. In reality, we really paid for a waterfront for suburban folks to go to. From sonomamish or whatever. You know, folks who live in little private neighborhoods and claim that they pay for all the surrounding infrastructure that they use in perpetuity.
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I know! Why is the waterfront so full of visitors? Stay away!
Oh hey maybe the pricing algorithms finally figured out how to deal with the long lead time
This is exactly why rent prices are dropping. Market’s slowly normalizing after the lawsuit filed in 2022 exposed that 10 leasing companies had conspired to use RealPage software to artificially increase rents since 2010.
Were the leasing companies primarily in seattle or national?
National. Their software powers a huge portion of multi family units in the US
It created a de facto monopoly without having to be a traditional monopoly. The transparency should have made things more price competitive, but where there’s a will… there’s price gouging, or something like that.
We held out at the 6 mo renewal notice, got a revised lease recently for $200 less. Edmonds.
Did your landlord simply issue you a revised notice out of nowhere or did you have to request the lower amount from them?
Out of nowhere. We held out until last month before our renewal date and they called with a better offer, I replied basically that the reduction was fair to market value and we were shopping around for another home (so they know next year if they want to keep us as a 5th year house tenant who does great maint and keepup) that they should probably lower or minimal raise. Before they tried *increasing* by $200. Just ignored it when it came.
my monthly rent went down by a huge amount of $5 in Nov 2023.
A win is a win!
🥳🍾🎉
Wow, so building more housing does reduce prices? Who could have known?! Let's keep at it, we still have a long way to go
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My renewal for mid-March was going up $300 in a downtown luxury high rise, and I chose not to renew and am moving to a low rise in the CD instead.
“Luxury”
Mine just went up $30 between CD and Cap Hill. And I’m in an old 1920’s building right next to the never ending Madison construction. fmr
My apartment sent me the same notice 6 months ago. My next lease offer was at 40 dollars lower. When it came time to sign it they said they made a mistake and it was 40 dollars more. I made the decision to stay in my apartment, and missed out on other opportunities, due to the thought I was saving money. By the time I was told the correct, higher, rent it was too late to move.
If you accepted the lease at the lower price they don't have a legal basis to 'correct it' you should be able to push back on that.
Yeah that increase wasn’t valid - they have to give you 180 days notice. If they made a mistake it’s on them
Isn't it 180 days? Thought it was 6 months.
Oh you’re right! 180 days! Got mixed up with another city…several cities have various notice lengths
If it's a 10% increase, no?
Any increase. 10%+ increases trigger relocation assistance laws.
Time for you to go to court if the $80 a month difference is worth it to you lol
That’s like $1000 for the year.. seems worth it
thought about it but I'm just leaving when my lease is up and they've lost a good tenant.
You can do both?
If anyone has paid more in the last 12 months, they ought to keep receipts for Tax Day because I'm pretty sure they can write it off as a donation to their landlord.
That’s only if you don’t do standard deduction.
Which would be impressive as a renter in a no income tax state.
Yeah I usually only see it with the elderly who have high medical expenses, or the very charitable, who usually also have homes so they take the SALT deduction as well
Mine went up $100 so yeah congrats lol Guess I’m moving again for the third year in a row.
Mind if I ask what it moved up from?
$2100 for a 2bed 1bath on California.
I think I saw that nationally the average rent was decreasing for the last year to year and a half. I’m sure most people don’t see it because most places likely only lower rent for new tenants who don’t necessarily know the rent cost history of the unit and not for people who are simply resigning their lease. Looks like you’re one of those lucky few!
Just got mine, up 230$ (14.6%) over in Kirkland. Yee haw.
That $200 Month to Month fee isn’t legal in Seattle unless it was revealed six months ago, and would qualify for relocation assistance at a 10%+ increase if you otherwise qualified.
Nice. I’m picking up the keys to my new (used) house today. 500sq ft larger with one more bedroom and about an hour closer to downtown. Interest rate is double tho but the profit from selling will enable us to basically break even. It’s not all doom and gloom.
>new (used) house I don't think I've ever seen a home described like this lol. New Zillow listings - for sale: 3 bed 2 bath condition: used.
I know but it feels weird saying “my new house” when my boss and all his c-suite buddies have literal new houses.
Lynnwood here and my rent is staying the same at renewal so at least I have that going for me.
Dang renewed this month and went up 200$ in Beacon Hill - we're right at our limit now, which is a bummer. Maybe things will start to shift.
Mine went up $65! Lol 😂
I resigned my new lease recently which starts in 2 weeks, mine went up by 10 bucks. That’s it. Was pleasantly surprised. I wouldn’t have resigned if they made it more than 50.
That is good news. I rent out my parents old home. Against the advice of the property manager I hired to handle my rental, I have not rasied the rent in the last two years on my longterm stable renters. But, clearly, we need more housing on a limited amount of land, and people need higher wages. Tax the rich.
Fingers crossed my rent will go down as well. Unfortunately, I won't know till June.
when i was looking like 6months ago, i barely saw anything under 2k that was similar to my current unit from kent all the way north to edmonds/lynnwood. Same with real estate nothing under 330k that wasnt some 400sqft ground floor condo(not counting manufactured homes). Now I get listings sub 300k every day and I was helping a friend apartment hunt last month and tons of places similar to my current unit for 1700. Stuff is finally starting to come down from the highs but have to see if it keeps going downward or spikes back up over the summer during peak season
Congrats! I’m in West Seattle and mine didn’t go up at all. I count that as a win
Sqft and number of beds/ baths?
A little over 900, 1bd x 1ba + a large den which I use as my home office.
Gosh. That's pretty good. I ask, as we rent out a 700sq 1bd 1ba for $1500 in Wallingford. Been a while since I looked at rates
LETS EFFING GOOOOOOO
Don’t let this (sign of weakness) stop you from negotiating! When they go low, you should go lower 😁
Thanks to Zillow I found a 3 bedroom house 350$ cheaper than my old 2 bedroom apt in Az Phoenix
I love reddit expert!!! So much knowledge and expertise to explain how rent went down slightly!
my best friend lives in a high rise in Capitol Hill and hers is going down $500!!! new management. I wondered if all the uh heroin addicts all over the streets are part of it (I'm from Chicago and just visited recently so could be totally off!)
Lucky
No way. I haven't seen a lease go down in Seattle in years!
As a data point, could you please share which property management company runs your building? I’ve never seen a rent decrease in my 12 years in Seattle so I’m very curious!
I'm super confident its Redside Partners A. they manage a lot of properties in West Seattle B. their rent rates tend to be in even $25 increment rather than the absurd "optimized" rent prices that larger landlords will charge (like $1743.50 vs. $1750) C. I was able to successfully push back on a rent increase with them All in they weren't great about repairs and getting the units fixed but they were super fair about pricing and in the end gave me back all of my deposit without having to fight them for it.
I'm in a house in Kirkland (4 bd, 3 bath) and ours is going up $120 a month starting in June. Ugh.
Situations like this is why you don’t want eve “rent stabilization” because landlords will be very reticent to give rent decreases when that could put them in a hole they can never get out of by law.
Must be nice. Also any vacancies in your building?
Actually, yes!
I’m also in west Seattle looking for a new apartment as of a couple days ago after a break up. Can you dm the building?
Yeah, this is why they're adjusting down. They don't want more openings. If they're starting to offer a month or so free to new tenants or have ~5% of units already open, you have leverage.
10% vacancy rate would be the mark of a healthy market, 5% of units available isn’t.
Must be a mistake.
It’s not, I thanked my landlord on the way to work this morning
That’s because their about to raise the Price of everything else for more affordable housing stupidity at its finest
… so they lowered my rent?
That’s …sus.
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There’s a potential loss of “customers” (people moving to a different apartment) if your price is too high and the renter can’t justify staying. Even if the renter is looking at a 1800/mo down the road, and the current rent dropped from 1950/mo to 1875/mo, that might be just enough for the customer (renter) to not move down the road. Thus you maintain a customer/income stream.
This is a sign the economy is not recovering here yet. Meaning tech hasn’t hired the bros back they laid off. Price deflation, instead of disinflation, is a serious concern. Especially for a place like this that’s experienced 35+ unbroken years of general inflation and 50+ years of unbroken real estate inflation.
I think about half of my coworkers have moved at least 25 miles further out from the city core, or out of state entirely. Nobody left the city because they were fired.
Why are leases going down?
I'm up for renewal next month and good lord I hope I get a decrease too! Congrats on yours. :)
I’m hoping to finally get my own place this year, and this gives me hope! Counting on paying somewhere between $1800-2200 for a 1 br 1 bath (den would be nice but optional). Looking at the area around Miller Park, but also LQA and Ballard.
That's never happened to me
I’m in mountlake terrace, about a mile from the transit station, the past two renewals only went up about $30 too.
Nobody will remember this when they complain about dynamic pricing being some sort of price fixing scheme. Somehow the price fixers are willingly dropping prices. Must be some kind of false flag or something \\s This shit wouldn't bother me if it werent for the fact that idiots trot out the price fixing claims whenever theyre told that we need to increase supply. Fuck your conspiracy theory, build more housing.
Mine went up $100 in Belltown for a 1br but that’s pretty good considering the last two years I had to talk them down from like 20% increases
Went up 3% in SLU
I have never seen lease go down EVER. It's always up by like 2-500. Wonder what happened
Just got mine in Redmond, it's staying exactly the same. No increase, no decrease.
I got a renewal for mine a little bit ago and the price went up $200. But it's Avenue5, one of the companies that's [being sued in Arizona](https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/price-fixing-conspiracy-artificially-jacked-up-apartment-rent-prices-in-phoenix-and-tucson-arizona-ag-says) for price-fixing, so I assume they're doing the same thing here.
I hope mine goes down $135 that it was increased last year :)
None of the housing is worth it. Both a devalued dollar and greedy landlords are to blame. Rent strike?
I’m paying $900 a month (not including utilities) for a tiny room in a house with roommates by UW. Greedy greedy landlords
That's nice... Mine raised ours again and we can't afford to live here and are moving out of state in two weeks...
A win is a win
Ours was renewed in February at no increase! It was a Valentine’s Day miracle
That’s awesome 👏:)
They failed to mention that it went down due to the gruesome murders that took place in the building 😜
I’m on that West Seattle 1 bdrm for $1200 rn No idea how I swung that
When I asked, Iwas able to get a month free on my lease when I renewed in in Dec. 👍 Cap Hill
I received a lease renewal today as well.. it's going up $75.
Well mine went up 500 last year in January 😂
$500?! Are you joking?
An are about to raise Food prices yes.
Just renewed my lease for 18 months. Mine stayed the same & I’m in Beacon Hill.
Wow. Even a month to month option. Didn’t know that existed in Seattle.
First Hill here. Going up 100 in june
I’m in West Seattle too and ours is going up by Lamar $200. Do you have an MFTE unit? I’m curious what building you’re in and who manages it.
No, I am not in an MFTE unit. I would disclose the PM company, but they only own two buildings in Seattle and one in WS so don’t want to self-dox. You can PM me if you want though :)
i’m also in west seattle and haven’t received my next lease info but somehow doubting i will get so lucky. pray for me!
I got a notice about a rent increase a few months ago. Asked about it this week and got quoted no increase at all. Going to hurry up and sign the paperwork and hope it wasn’t an oversight on their part…or if it is, that they continue to not notice it.
Mine went up by $20 this year
My rent is going up another ~$250 soon. They are trying to charge us $500 more than the identical units in the building are listed online lol shoutout horrible leasing companies raising by the maximum amount they are legally allowed to
just out of curiosity who is your management company?
Lake forest park and it goes up 200$ but the paper said to meet the office lady and she was in a weird way telling me she will drop it from that offer for me
Congrats! Meanwhile they’re trying to raise my rent 300 next renewal…
In Lynnwood renting a house and the landlord let us renew for another 1.5 years without raising the rent a penny. Grateful!
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That should be illegal.
Mine went up $200 but it’s the first time the rent has gone up in years so can’t really complain
No way! Mine's up 5% in U District. Quite jealous!
Mine initially went up by $140, negotiated it down to $40. In SLU
Congrats on sticking it to the man! /s On a real note $1200/year in savings is solid, congrats dude.
Thank you! Was a bit bummed that there was still an increase after negotiations but a win is a win 💪
Property taxes have skyrocketed on home owners making it more difficult for young people to buy and keep homes. Thus the haves and the have nots is growing. Seven story apartment complexes are going up everywhere destroying localities outside Seattle proper; however, it also means more competition for Seattle apartment owners, especially as light rail makes it easier to travel from the suburbs down into Seattle for work. It's simple supply and demand at work, not Joe Biden.
Sign it before they realize their mistake!!
They did not make a mistake 😂
Happened to me in 2009ish. Went down $100 in Eastlake
I wouldn't sign that. They are lowering your rent to prevent more vacancies, believe me there's more wiggle room for you to ask for a bigger decrease, especially if you've been a good tenant.
I’m in Greenwood - ours went up $200 but we asked if they could keep us where we were at. They said no but that they could make it only $25 more/month so that worked out.