I won't fully know until I can sell my fucking condo.

Hell! I got priced right the fuck out of Seattle and up to Shoreline. The madness!!!

Sadly, the cure for this problem is worse than the problem itself. Any sort of economic "correction" that would make Seattle affordable to live in would most hurt the folks now being priced outta town.

And if you knew what unspeakable, unnatural things I had to do to get the 14'x14' studio I rent here in Chelsea....

Yeah, I spend about 50% of my income on rent, but my case really isn't typical. I spend so much because of an eviction we incurred after our son died and I lost my job. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35193-2004Nov8.html)

Since that happened we can't rent through normal avenues and so we use corporate housing and other non-standard rentals that don't check credit but come at a very high premium.

I'm poor enough as it is with two jobs and going to school that I can't afford to play 50+ percent of my paycheck on rent. The only way I could afford to still live in seattle was to move out of the $1100/month two bedroom apartment I had in North Seattle and move into a house with 6 other friends and siblings in the phinney ridge neighborhood. My rent is now much more manageable and I really like my living situation, though it is certainly not for everyone. I do not look forward to the day when I look for another one or two bedroom...

I pay 240 a month including all utilities to share my 2400 sq ft loft! in Mile End, Montreal, possibly the best neighborhood in North America. Where if you paid more than $5 for your ethnic dinner, or more than 2.25 for your cappuccino to be made by real Italians, you got ripped off. Of course you have to pay &*%$ Canadian dollars.

soooo glad i don't live in seattle.

Also, Earth to Seattle: 70% single unit housing = 100% unsustainable.

Remember that one asshole on Slog who was telling everyone that only losers rent and that even a person making $14.00 an hour could afford the excitement of a 400 square foot condo in Seattle? Remember how he torn into people who thought going into debt for half a million dollars on income that was truely middle income was irresponsible? What happened since those charming posts a couple of months ago? Hmmmmm

The FUCKING housing market imploded!!! You know, if the mayor made it a priority to build affordable rental units in Seattle for those people who make too much for subsidized housing but not enough to buy a condo we would not be having this discussion!!!

I hate to agree with Lou Dobbs but the Middle Class is getting FUCKED !!! And fucked without lube!!

Cato@7: You need a business course, an English/grammar course and manners!

Futher, Mayor Nickels is not a developer. Developers have plenty of federal and state affordable-housing subsidies at their disposal (as does the city for encouraging them). But it's not always as profitable for them to engage in eligible projects as it is to build another Escala or 2200 Westlake.

Do you want to change things, really? Become a developer.

If rent is so frickin' high you all can't afford to live here anymore, then WHY ARE YOU ALL STILL HERE?

It's only a matter of time before there's relief in the rental market. From today's Seattle Times: "the median sold price of King County detached houses has fallen two months in a row...Perhaps more striking, however, is the continued abundance of homes for sale. Every month since May has seen the year-over-year supply grow by 40 percent or more compared to the same month in 2006...Meanwhile sales are lagging. Last month offers were accepted on 1,541 King County houses — a 32 percent drop from the previous September's 2,271 sales...The same situation is occurring with the county's condominium sales. September inventory was up 74.2 percent, while pending sales were down 26.7 percent."

Condo prices are still going up, but with inventory growing and number of sales dropping, prices can't go up for much longer. Rents will take longer to adjust, and might even go up as people who used to own become renters again, but they, too, will eventually stabilize or even go down.

Hopefully this will happen slowly so that it won't result in a generalized economic decline.

I decided it was easier to take a second job than it was to move.

@ #9
It would be the same for us no matter where we lived in the US, at least the employment market here allows me to work 2 jobs.

@ #10
Not necessarily true, as lenders make it harder to get loans the rental market will heat further due to an increase in the number of people who only have the option to rent. So, even a glut in the real estate market can still cause the rental market to continue overheating.

The middle class in Seattle is heading for a rough time, I think... The hammer and anvil are primed.

"If rent is so frickin' high you all can't afford to live here anymore, then WHY ARE YOU ALL STILL HERE?"

right on fnarf, right fuck'n on!!

rent traditionally tracks income, but income has risen faster than rent for the past several years. It is coming back into line now, and should taper off soon.

Whose income?

High rents are exactly why we are still living in a rental that doesn't meet code for anything. The electrical is scary with bulbs frequnetly blowing, and a couple of obvious shorts. The plumbing is all leaky and the greywater line failed once while we were living here flooding the basement with raw sewage. The wind basically blows through the place.

But hey, I'm living in a world class city in the greatest country on earth right?

Welcome to San Franciso Bay-Area's world. We went through this shit 6 years ago and the sad part is that even in this declining housing market we are still paying gobs more than we used to. Tripling the price of housing and then lowering it 10 percent and calling it "relief" like on the nightly news is total bullshit.

If rent is so high why do I still live here? Because Seattle is MY HOME. I grew up here, and have moved away to try other places, but I like it here, if only because I love the "miserable" weather that so many of the ingrate transplants here now love to complain about.
Besides the weather, I'm bringing up my son here, my family lives here, my friends are here, and I have a business here that is location dependent.
I spend about half of my income on rent.
Fortunately for me, I have geared my lifestyle and finances towards this being affordable. Meaning, I don't spend a lot of money on things which other people might (clothes, restaurants, booze, etc), I owe very little on credit cards, and I purchased my vehicle outright so I don't have a car payment.
If I bought on credit the way it seems most people do, and owed money on my car, there is no way I could afford my rent.
As it is though, it grates on my every nerve to have to spend so much on housing, and that I don't have nearly as much savings as I should. HOWEVER. Everyone I know has a much higher mortgage payment than my rent, so even though my rent is disagreeably high, you couldn't get me to buy a piece of real estate for pretty much anything.

I spent more than a decade paying dues before I could afford to live in a city as cool as Seattle, and when I whined about it, I didn't get much sympathy. That's how I got so mean. Plus my family was killed by a Jedi. But mostly the cost of living thing filled me with hate and made me evil.

Anyway, other than a pity party, what is being proposed here? Do you want rent control? How would that work?

I just don't see how on the one hand living in the city will remain desirable, and on the other hand the demand won't drive up the prices. How?

or you can live in seattle, pay $500 a month in rent and wonder each day if this is going to be the day my building is going to be condemned. or how many dead rats are going to be in the traps in the morning? ergh. yay georgetown.

I lived in Seattle last year and was able to live pretty comfortably. I worked as a technologist as UW, and as such did not pull an extravagant salary, but my wife and I lived comfortably. We stayed in very nice apartments right by Magnusson Park and they weren't too expensive.

So, no complaints here.

@9, 13

We aren't. A native - born on Whidbey; raised on Fidalgo - my Seattle rent was taking up half of my income, also. As a single 53 year-old I was working my proverbial ass off and could not make ends meet (income in my usual field and profession has flat-lined for well over a decade, and increasingly devolved into non-unionism, especially in the Seattle-area. The simplistic rubric posited by some that merely working harder will produce more income does not apply to all professions, all occupations.

I've moved onward. (And I do miss my islands, my mountains, and the quality of light found in the higher latitudes.)

Laurence Ballard, Professor
Savannah College of Art and Design

Everybody be cool. This is Eric the Prophet, here to tell you that the fun is just getting started.

Rents are temporarily rising because the housing market is falling apart. No shit.

People were happy to buy homes at *any* price as long as (a) they could get a loan wiht an initial monthly payment they thought they could afford, and (b) the price of homes continued to appreciate.

For most of the last five years everybody who could afford to was moving from the rental market to the mortgaged-home market, and rents stayed flat.

What is happening now, is mortgage money is no longer easy to borrow, and home price appreciation has stopped, and so people are starting to migrate from the mortgaged-home market back into the rental market.

As home prices stall and more and more ex-homeowners are forced to become renters again (because they can't make the new payment on their adjustable mortgage, or bear to watch as their home loses tens of thousands of dollars in value), that migration back into the rental market is going to accellerate, and rents are going to rise.

You're going to see bullshit stories in the Seattle Times (probably by Elizabeth Rhodes) saying "Gee whiz, Seattle's home market sure is resilient, just look at those strong rents."

But here's the thing: rents *can't* increase the way mortgaged home prices did, because the monthly rent payment is not subject to manipulation by crazy financing arrangements. Rents are limited by people's *income* and people's income levels are pretty much fixed.

And here's the other thing: all these mortgaged homes & condos aren't going to sit empty. If you sit tight, you'll see these homes resurface in the rental market, helping to stabilize rent prices.

So try to be cool & sit tight. Seattle's high percentage of SFH homes means that if things get tough for you, the worst that can happen is you'll have to go from having your own apartment on the hill to sharing a house in Beacon Hill or Green Lake or wherever with a roommate or three.

And, yeah, I guess it'll suck a little harder what with Seattle not having a transit system.

Thanks Eric- Finally, a voice of reason.
you must be a SeattleBubble reader.

these are the same exact comments people were making 5 years ago and will be making 5 years from now. If people are stupid enough to just keep whining about how "everybody else" is buying property and "we poor slobs" are being left behind, you might as well pack it up and leave this town right now because you are going to be living in a cardboard box in 10 years. Seattle and its suburbs are expected to have the highest appreciation of house values in the entire nation. it is estimated that a house worth $300000 in 2007 will be worth $600000 in 2017. there are cities like dc where the same 300000 will be worth around 340000. this is a growing town and 10 years from now there will still be a bunch of whining slobs wondering why they are paying $2500 for rent for a 1 bedroom. So quit whining and buy while you can.

yeah. there were people in san francisco who were whining the same way as you guys are in this town. Nobody listened to those whiners. they just had to move. the property owners who bought when it was cheap made out big. There is not a "bubble" in this town ok. bubbles happen in places like vegas that have extreme climates and other factors that deter people from moving there. the seattle area has a climate that is not too hot or too cold, employment prospects, and a fairly good infrastructure. there is no reason why people would choose not to move here. we may see periods of stagnation when prices stay put....but they won't drop significantly. for example. I bought a house for $150000 5 years ago. now it is worth 275000. it has not increased in value for one year, but so what. I still have 145000 in equity. now. in this so called "bad time for real estate" when nobody is buying or whatever, I bought a condo worth 275000 and I am renting my old place since the rental market is good again. this is how you stay ahead, not by whining like this..."oh fuck...poor me....aw shit....why ain't I ownin' and why is my rent so high...WHAAAA! crybabies!

My Capitol Hill apartment costs me 445$ a month. It was 435$ last year but they wanted to raise it to 465$ and I talked them out of it.

Nice huh? Except for one thing; it's 80 sq. feet. Room for one chair, a loft and a computer desk. I have a microwave with a 'dorm style' fridge' and do my dishes in the bathroom sink. It's hard to even have two people standing in the room at the same time.

@ #26

Wow - the average University District rental is 1.80$ per square foot, I just did the math and I'm paying $5.50

Jesus, what's with all the rich trolls?

My rent actually went up exactly 10% about 3 months ago... but I've got a reasonable living situation even after that fact, and I admit this place is pretty bleh. The only amenity is the location, in the U District.

I think the problem lies in high demand areas like Capitol Hill. You're not gonna find affordable rental housing there unless you get ridiculously lucky.

And Ed, rich trolls always hit these sorts of threads. Some of them are clueless well to doers who never had to struggle and thus don't understand reality... some of them are just actual trolls who are totally lying, and some of them are legit rich people with a bad case of Little Dick Complex, who get off on coming to these discussions and talking shit.