Seattle as an Open City: Seattle’s Growth and Rising Housing Costs
The central argument of this post is that Seattle is facing a crisis of housing scarcity, and so municipal zoning restrictions on the supply of housing should be lifted. Seattle is currently the fastest growing large city in the United States. According to U.S. Census figures, in the one-year period from July 2012 through July […]
The price of market freedom
I’ve found that many people conflate supply and demand, or price-based resource allocation, with the pseudo-ideal of a libertarian “free market”. Supply and demand is an explanation for how the world works, not a value statement. If the number of people who want X and don’t have it exceeds the number of people who have […]
State Must Step Up to Housing Need
As executive directors of housing advocacy organizations, we hear a lot about the state’s affordable housing shortage. We hear from advocates with full time jobs, unable to find an apartment close to their work. We’ve listened in on the stories of families struggling to buy a home by their ideal school. Even our own staff members have recently had to move because of skyrocketing Seattle rents. […]
