Moot efforts by Seattle City Council if rent prices begin to fall
Sep 23, 2015, 5:57 PM | Updated: Sep 24, 2015, 5:30 am
A debate over whether or not Seattle should control rent may have been for naught if a new survey is accurate, and landlords might soon be sweating over their investments. (AP)
(AP)
A debate over whether or not Seattle should control rent may have been for naught if a new survey is accurate, and landlords might soon be sweating over their investments.
Excluding new apartment buildings, the average rent in King County increased 6.9 percent in the past 12 months. That’s a decrease over the previous 12 months, when rent prices rose 9.3 percent, The Seattle Times reports.
That means that, on average, rent prices for older apartments is slowing.
Rent hikes will continue to slow over the next three years, Dupre+Scott Apartment Advisors co-owner Mike Scott told the Times. By building more apartments, developers could help those price increases slow even more. Look at downtown, for example, where rent prices for older units increased only 3.9 percent over the last year, compared to the 8.4 percent a year earlier.
To make things even sweeter, about one-third of landlords in the Dupre-Scott survey expect to raise rents by March, a significant decrease from the three-quarters that said they were a year ago, the Times reports.
But is all that good news bittersweet? The Seattle City Council showed its support for creating rent-restricted units, as people are forced out of their apartments caused from a booming economy. At the same time, however, landlords have been accused of giving preferential treatment to people working in the technology industry, making it even tougher to find a place to live. Still, those seeking more affordable places to live in the city may be getting a break.
News for landlords themselves might actually be worse for a change. The Times reports that since 2000, rents have increased by 2.8 percent compounded annually. At the same time, taxes and utilities have jumped by 5.4 percent. Additionally, the City Council passed a measure which requires some rental owners to give notice of the intent to sell their buildings, in case the Seattle Housing Authority is interested in buying.
But just because rent prices for older units might be slowing, it doesn’t mean Seattle is exactly affordable, especially if someone wants more than a single bedroom. The Times points out that the average one-bedroom apartment costs $1,350 a month.
