Inslee’s plan to fight homelessness

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This is one of the main causes of the housing crisis IMO. Needed urgently:

1) A tax on unoccupied dwellings in all high-demand areas.

2) Upzoning (a loosening of zoning laws) in all high-demand areas. (NOT upzoning just in poor areas. Upzoning in middle-class and rich areas.)

We urgently need to do everything possible to publicize these ideas, and we need SOMEONE to create a strong organization to advance them, as a political counterweight against all the various lobbying groups that represent real estate greed.

Jesus said: "For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil."

In today's world that would be, more specifically: "For the love of property values is the root of all kinds of evil."

MAKE AMERICA AFFORDABLE AGAIN!

And, especially:

MAKE BLUE AMERICA AFFORDABLE AGAIN!

Also, banning investment firms from owning residential properties.

Or at least taxing them heavily enough to strongly discourage them. Might be better than an outright ban.

Yeah, they tell us stories like that every year here in BC, too. Home prices continue to rise uncontrollably no matter what they say they're going to do.

Exact same game here North of the border - except it's WAY more expensive. Seattle doesn't even make the top 15 least affordable cities on the planet and Vancouver is #2. So, really, it's way easier to move to Seattle than it is to move here.. so maybe it's more realistically possible than the OP thinks.



Not if you have expectations of having a similar home to what you own now. But if you sell your house and downgrade to a studio apartment in the suburbs with a way higher mortgage payment, then maybe you have a chance at ownership near Seattle.

Now I’m hearing that there are absolutely zero vacancies within a 50-mile radius in Seattle—at any price range.

This was from someone on an online comment board, but this is definitely within the realm of possibility.

And I take partial responsibility for not going to UW and majoring in computer science immediately after high school. It’s 2022 and I’m still paying the price for my decisions in 1998.

Last edited by Tim_Tex on 10 Mar 2022, 1:05 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Within one year, vacancy dropped almost two percentage points, on average, from 6.6% to 4.8%. In turn, rental rates have increased by almost 10% from last year – signaling that people are moving back into Seattle.

Feb 19, 2022

In Canada that would be considered a decent rate.

According to this, that's not the case.

https://vaccinelocator.doh.wa.gov/locations/98101

Not sure what that has to do with the lack of available housing in the area. It's great the population has been good about getting vaxed, though.

It has to do with what you said where I quoted you.

Anyone considering moving to the Pacific Northwest should consider the region's propensity for infrequent but very strong earthquakes -- much less frequent than, yet much more destructive than, California's worst earthquakes. See:


The Really Big One - University of California Television (UCTV)


The Pacific Northwest is due for a Major Earthquake - Nova, PBS

The last earthquake I recall (and I live in the Pacific Northwest) had been when I was in high school, and that was just a bit of a rumble.