The giant, yellow construction cranes are sprouting all over Seattle again, like enormous, early spring daffodils. There’s one at the end of my street in Wallingford now, looming over a block-long, earthen pit that, until a couple of months ago, was a group of about a dozen single-story, rental bungalows and a two-story commercial building.
I watched the workers begin constructing the crane when I walked to my bus stop at 7 a.m. a couple of Mondays ago, and when I returned at 6 p.m. the crane was complete. (Is it me, or don’t you think it should take more than 11 hours to construct one of these things?) Presumably, it will be gone in a year, replaced by a four-story apartment building with first-story retail stores and underground parking.
As I sit in my 40-plus-year-old apartment building at the other end of the street, I wonder if I will be able to afford to move into the new building when it’s completed and whether the current boom in apartment building construction is good for the city.
Vacancies down, rents up
Most of the cranes around the city signal new apartment-building projects. There are an estimated 8,900 new apartments scheduled for construction in 2013 in the Seattle region, the highest production year in more than 20 years, according to a December SeattlePI.com article. By comparison, between fall 2009 and spring 2011, developers only opened 6,000 new apartments.
Over the next five years, the number of new apartments is expected to increase by 26,500. In the meantime, apartment rents, currently about $1,045 per month, are expected to increase by about 6 percent, and vacancies, currently about 4.6 percent, will drop to about 4 percent through 2012.
Who will fill all these new apartments? The region is expected to add 131,000 jobs between 2012 and 2015, especially in high-tech industries, bringing new residents to the area and 20- and 30-somethings out of their parents’ homes.
While the housing market is also showing signs of improvement, many potential buyers are still waiting to see what happens and are continuing to rent. When the market does finally stabilize, many of these new apartments will convert to condominiums.
Going to the dogs
I know who’s currently living in apartment buildings — that’s one of the reasons why I’m looking for a new one.
I moved in to my current one-bedroom apartment in October 2003. Perhaps it’s nostalgia for a time when my rent was $335 a month less than what I’m paying now, but it seems like my building is a lot more crowded and nosier than it used to be.
Back in ’03, it seemed like all the one-bedroom apartments in my building were rented by individuals. Now, all the new tenants are usually a couple, or a couple with a dog, or a couple with a baby or, in some cases, a couple with a baby and a dog.
And I mean big dogs: One day, in December, I opened my hallway door to the outside landing and found myself staring into the snout of a Great Dane. (I hope that dog isn’t stuck in a one-bedroom apartment for 11 hours a day.)
More people mean longer waits in the laundry room and more noise. The walls, ceilings and floors of my old building definitely weren’t designed for barking dogs, crying babies or modern audio equipment.
Believe me, I know: There is currently a group of college students living in a three-bedroom penthouse above my apartment. From what I can tell, their media room is over one neighbor’s bedroom, their bar is over my living room and their Ping-Pong table is over my other neighbor’s bedroom.
Changing city
As I said, I’m not sure I will be able to afford to move into one of the soundproof, new buildings on my own street. I’ve been watching the rising rents over the last year, and I think I may be priced out of my neighborhood — unless I want to move to another old building that I’m sure has the same issues driving me out of my current one.
Ironically, the type of place I think would be ideal for me would be the bungalows on my street that were flattened a couple of months ago. They looked like mini-townhomes, surrounded by grass, trees and vegetable gardens. I used to like to stop and watch the thousand of bees in the summertime that filled the hedges that encircled the properties. Now they’re all gone.
These types of changes on the street level are causing disagreements between builders and neighbors all over the city, from height and sightline disputes to the preservation of historical buildings.
Whatever the future holds, Seattle, its buildings and its residents will continue to change just as they always have.
But there’s one axiom that will always remain true: Be it ever so humble, home is where your Great Dane sleeps on your feet.
Matthew Wilemski, an award-winning columnist, lives in Wallingford.
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