Michael Luis

What will it take for the political pendulum swing back to a new, more inclusive version of effective regime politics?

We have made distinct choices in this state and region that have made housing very expensive. And we could make other choices.

Suburban cities resist change, but the Growth Management Act created an existential challenge to these cities. Now the Legislature may compound the crisis.

Landlords just hate to lower rents if they can possibly help it, since it would touch off tough negotiations with all the other tenants.

Urban Growth Boundaries (UGBs) have scarcely moved in King County since they were first drawn in the 1990s, so the supply of land that can be subdivided into normal building lots has been steadily shrinking.

The solution to expensive houses is to build more houses, not to build more apartments.

Now it’s not obvious who runs anything, and the goodwill that fueled the George Duff style is in short supply.

We have an affordable-apartment problem, but we do not have an overall apartment-supply problem. What we do have is a single-family supply problem.

The drops in rents we have seen in the past year have mostly happened in expensive markets where renters have been less likely to be burdened. Rents in markets that are both more affordable and have high rate of rent burden, have actually risen.

While the pandemic may have shifted some migration patterns, there is clearly still demand to live in Washington State, and the lack of home-building will ensure that prices continue to rise.