Activists misuse housing costs to push rent control

In their push for rent control, Seattle activists are likely to use a new report to push their agenda. Rents have surged in King County, with the average monthly cost coming in at $1,313 for a one bedroom, one bathroom apartment, according to Apartment Insights Washington, as reported in The Seattle Times. Apparently these numbers are “giving ammunition to activists who want Seattle to pursue some form of rent control.”

But, hold on a second activists, let me throw some water on your fiery rent-control passion by presenting you some context.

The average rent for King County is greatly inflated by properties in trendy, expensive Seattle neighborhoods like Belltown, South Lake Union, Downtown Seattle and Capitol Hill (which can be the only neighborhoods activists and city leaders focus on). But outside of these neighborhoods, it’s quite affordable to live here. A quick look at Craigslist or HotPads shows a number of apartments for rent well under $1,313.

And when you look at the source of the average rent prices, Apartment Insights Washington looked at “asking rents at properties with at least 50 units.” Where are those complexes being built? A huge percentage of those apartments are appearing in… Belltown, South Lake Union, Downtown Seattle, and Capitol Hill. Not in Northgate, or Greenwood, or Rainier Beach where it’s considerably cheaper to live. (Though it’s also important to note you can find older buildings, under 50 units per property, that offer discounted rental prices.)

Activists are using prices in a few especially trendy neighborhoods to pretend the housing costs in King County are astronomical, when this impacts only a small handful of neighborhoods. But, these activists want to live in these neighborhoods, particularly Capitol Hill and if they can’t afford it, there must be a huge problem.

Now it’s true it’s expensive to live in the neighborhoods listed, but it makes sense and it’s by design. Seattle leaders purposefully make it harder for you to drive around the city; they try to force you onto Metro or bikes, or foot (cars are evil and whatnot). And if you get rid of your car, as the city wants, then you have a car payment’s worth of extra cash in your bank accounts every month. And if you happen to be one of the thousands who work for companies like Amazon.com, headquartered in South Lake Union, you not only get a fat paycheck every month, but without a car, you have even more money in your account. Developers know this, so they build gorgeous and amenity-filled new apartments that cost a bit more than your average apartment. And when you have a ton of these developments coming to a few neighborhoods in King County – developments that can accommodate a large number of residents – the rental prices for the entire county tend to get inflated some, especially when the study uses data collected from “properties with at least 50 units.”

I also reject this idea that it’s too expensive to live in those Seattle neighborhoods. If it were too expensive, people wouldn’t live here; they’d reject the high rent, forcing the landlords and developers to lower the price. Yet we have more and more folks coming to these neighborhoods to live and work: choosing to spend $1,500 on a small studio. But activists don’t like the people who are living in those expensive apartments – they’re rich, therefore bad people (certainly “less than” the working class folks). Granted, it’s those evil rich people who contribute most to fueling our local economy (putting their extra dollars into local businesses and services), activists aren’t like them, so they must be the enemy.

The Times makes a good point about how basic economics of supply and demand will lower the prices of rent across the region, which will also happen in the trendy, pricey neighborhoods. The city could help speed things along, not with rent control, but easing restrictions on how high you can build apartments. Oh, but if you build them too high in certain neighborhoods, like Capitol Hill, activists complain that you ruin the neighborhood’s identity. Can’t please some people.