I totally get your frustration here, but you’re yelling at the inevitable in a capitalist economic system. More people will move here (because, let’s be real, it’s awesome here and why wouldn’t they?) and housing prices will go up. When Seattle or Portland was becoming what they are today, I’m sure there were a lot of individuals and investment firms buying up the real estate and contributing to the rising prices, but only because they could see the inevitable: a major US city. They didn’t drive the market though, they just piggybacked off of it. Doing something to help people that can’t afford a house though, is a completely different topic. Spokane is becoming a major US city and hosing prices will inevitably continue to rise—even without excessive speculation—now what do we do about helping people that can’t afford a house? That’s the conversation that really matters. The only thing to blame for frustration (and I’m sure lots of others too) is capitalism.
This post was probably too slap-dash to really convey my intent. I wasn't trying to demonize people moving here -- I helped start a nonprofit to ENCOURAGE people to move here, so that would be hypocritical for me to turn around and balk when people actually do.
I was, though, trying to help people statewide -- like specifically people who might make policy -- understand that what looks like a heckuva deal to west siders is causing a land rush that is already endangering people's lives and it'll only get worse if we don't take drastic, decisive action on housing.
One of the things I hear from our legislators and people advocating for policy is that the West side fundamentally doesn't understand our problems -- specifically Spokane County. We're big enough that we should have extremely progressive policy makers up and down the row but because of the dynamics we effectively have split government -- the County has one set of priorities and the city usually has the opposite.
Reforms to the growth management act that are absolutely vital for Spokane had a tough time getting traction because rural counties don't really care and westside jurisdictions have already implemented many of those reforms just through good governance.
That's what I get for turning a shitpost on twitter into an 800 word essay :D. Thanks for the feedback Johnny. Luke_
I hope my comment didn’t sound too critical—that wasn’t my intention. This is an interesting topic to explore because there’s definitely a lot of different aspects to think about and a lot of stakeholders involved. If you were going to write a feature piece on this, who would you ask to interview?
Oh, no. Not at all. I appreciate feedback man. Thank you.
I think I'd probably talk to many of the people I've already talked to on the pod locally: Kitty Klitzke, Terri Anderson & Ben Stuckart.
I think I'd also maybe look for a midsized city who has seen this kind of wild growth and see what they've done. It's hard to look around and see anyone who has managed it, though. I don't think Boise has done anything I'd like to emulate with its endless sprawl. Tacoma has maybe done better but that's not at all clear.
We also don't have massive investment infusions the way those cities have, so there's no concurrent job explosion to go with the population explosion.
This might be a blessing in disguise as I don't think it's smart to try to just GROW AT ALL COSTS our way out of this. I think we need a mix of decisive rezoning away from single family exclusionary principles, a mix of regulatory carrots and sticks to get developers to actually develop densely. In parallel, we need to SERIOUSLY consider and implement as quickly as possible land trusts and/or European-style social housing for the bottom 12ish percent. The market is never going to take care of that cohort
My girlfriend really wants to buy a house but these increased prices do make it a lot harder because it needs to be wheelchair accessible for me. Almost nothing we've looked at could be converted without a lot of extra cost after buying the house, which would probably need to be bid on at $30k over asking price in this market. That prices her right out of the market for what she really wants in a home. A new build would probably be the best way to get a truly accessible home from the planning stages, but it's hard to find a developer who's willing to make the changes to their prefab designs. That leaves the option of finding land to buy on the outskirts and having a custom builder construct a home on it. With building costs so high, even that idea seams impossible. It's so frustrating.
I totally get your frustration here, but you’re yelling at the inevitable in a capitalist economic system. More people will move here (because, let’s be real, it’s awesome here and why wouldn’t they?) and housing prices will go up. When Seattle or Portland was becoming what they are today, I’m sure there were a lot of individuals and investment firms buying up the real estate and contributing to the rising prices, but only because they could see the inevitable: a major US city. They didn’t drive the market though, they just piggybacked off of it. Doing something to help people that can’t afford a house though, is a completely different topic. Spokane is becoming a major US city and hosing prices will inevitably continue to rise—even without excessive speculation—now what do we do about helping people that can’t afford a house? That’s the conversation that really matters. The only thing to blame for frustration (and I’m sure lots of others too) is capitalism.
This post was probably too slap-dash to really convey my intent. I wasn't trying to demonize people moving here -- I helped start a nonprofit to ENCOURAGE people to move here, so that would be hypocritical for me to turn around and balk when people actually do.
I was, though, trying to help people statewide -- like specifically people who might make policy -- understand that what looks like a heckuva deal to west siders is causing a land rush that is already endangering people's lives and it'll only get worse if we don't take drastic, decisive action on housing.
One of the things I hear from our legislators and people advocating for policy is that the West side fundamentally doesn't understand our problems -- specifically Spokane County. We're big enough that we should have extremely progressive policy makers up and down the row but because of the dynamics we effectively have split government -- the County has one set of priorities and the city usually has the opposite.
Reforms to the growth management act that are absolutely vital for Spokane had a tough time getting traction because rural counties don't really care and westside jurisdictions have already implemented many of those reforms just through good governance.
That's what I get for turning a shitpost on twitter into an 800 word essay :D. Thanks for the feedback Johnny. Luke_
I hope my comment didn’t sound too critical—that wasn’t my intention. This is an interesting topic to explore because there’s definitely a lot of different aspects to think about and a lot of stakeholders involved. If you were going to write a feature piece on this, who would you ask to interview?
Oh, no. Not at all. I appreciate feedback man. Thank you.
I think I'd probably talk to many of the people I've already talked to on the pod locally: Kitty Klitzke, Terri Anderson & Ben Stuckart.
I think I'd also maybe look for a midsized city who has seen this kind of wild growth and see what they've done. It's hard to look around and see anyone who has managed it, though. I don't think Boise has done anything I'd like to emulate with its endless sprawl. Tacoma has maybe done better but that's not at all clear.
We also don't have massive investment infusions the way those cities have, so there's no concurrent job explosion to go with the population explosion.
This might be a blessing in disguise as I don't think it's smart to try to just GROW AT ALL COSTS our way out of this. I think we need a mix of decisive rezoning away from single family exclusionary principles, a mix of regulatory carrots and sticks to get developers to actually develop densely. In parallel, we need to SERIOUSLY consider and implement as quickly as possible land trusts and/or European-style social housing for the bottom 12ish percent. The market is never going to take care of that cohort
Those are all some great points. I enjoy your website/podcast!
A appreciate the kind words & the discussion, man.
My girlfriend really wants to buy a house but these increased prices do make it a lot harder because it needs to be wheelchair accessible for me. Almost nothing we've looked at could be converted without a lot of extra cost after buying the house, which would probably need to be bid on at $30k over asking price in this market. That prices her right out of the market for what she really wants in a home. A new build would probably be the best way to get a truly accessible home from the planning stages, but it's hard to find a developer who's willing to make the changes to their prefab designs. That leaves the option of finding land to buy on the outskirts and having a custom builder construct a home on it. With building costs so high, even that idea seams impossible. It's so frustrating.
There is literally no good avenue right now.