(King County Assessor’s Office photo)
That mid-1940s house at 9425 18th SW [map] is proposed for demolition and replacement. An early-stage site plan (PDF) has just been filed to build 5 townhouses with 5 offstreet parking spaces. It’s right next door to the Muslim-American Society religious/community-center complex.
Why do they keep building when people can’t even get in and out of West Seattle?
Because they can, but it just takes longer now. This is near an upcoming Rapid Ride and access points to the 1st Ave S bridge.
There are people who take the bus who would love this location. The bus can take the low bridge, so being on the peninsula is only a bummer for people who exclusively drive. Or if they did drive, they’d be taking the 1st Avenue Bridge from this neighborhood anyway because it’s closer. They will also know both that the bridge has issues and what the future of the bridge is (in addition to the future of the light rail) by the time this project is completed (cause that will be YEARS from now).
Because we are still suffering an extreme and immediate housing shortage.
I agree with AMD, KM and Peter but would like to add that the bridge closure doesn’t mean things come a screeching halt in West Seattle. Especially with construction it can take a lot of time to get to this point and there is still much to do before construction starts as far as the permit process. Construction will be more expensive and slower now but with townhomes this likely is marginal. In the meantime the bridge traffic will settle into a new normal and people will figure out what is best for them. Bus riders to downtown will get the better end of this to be honest. Probably be faster as long as the lower bridge is open and enforced.
I wouldn’t mind these if they didn’t average around $900,000 per unit. Living in West Seattle I feel like I just exist around the fabulously wealthy and my high-upper-middle-class paycheck is just worthless monopoly money.
Interesting to see new projects going forward in the South Delridge area. I’m curious to see how the bridge closure will impact real estate prices and development in areas like South Delridge, White Center and Highland Park.
I will be interested to see the same thing. Most of the development that is just getting approved now will likely not be for sale/rent until after the bridge is reopened/rebuilt so I don’t think too many developers will be getting cold feet. However, I live in Highpoint near some townhouses that are nearly complete and I bet the developer of those is pulling their hair out since it seems like housing prices have already taken a substantial dip since the closure of the bridge.
“housing prices have already taken a substantial dip since the closure of the bridge” – care to share your data?
This is just my own observations from looking around Zillow a few times a week. I don’t have any real data here. There has been stuff for sale far cheaper than I am used to seeing in the last couple of days. I could be a victim of confirmation bias and be totally wrong.
Interesting. Zillow’s Zestimate tool says our house is worth 2% more than it was a month ago. I’ll have to add them to the followup list.
I don’t get why everyone is worked up about the impact of the bridge closure on housing prices; as far as property taxes, most homes are assessed at far lower than market price, and buying a house is a long game, unless it’s speculative. Are we worried that house flippers will suffer? Plenty of people love West Seattle and have no plans to sell; plenty of others who are looking for a great neighborhood will still want to move here and remain for many years.
So I researched this a little bit more and as far as I can tell I was totally wrong. When the pandemic and the economic crash first happened, home prices dipped a bit, and then they rose back up. Since the middle of March, home values in Seattle across the board have dipped a little tiny bit again. This doesn’t appear to have anything to do with the bridge. The dip hasn’t been greater in any part of West Seattle that I sampled more than any other neighborhood in Seattle. I basically fell victim to confirmation bias. I was looking for a specific correlation, and when I saw something that could possibly be evidence, I assumed that it was proof. It wasn’t. Good thing I am an arm chair re-estate agent and not actually getting paid to do this. Home values appears to be flat as of 2020, but don’t ask me, I don’t know what I am talking about.
I don’t think anyone can make conclusions about what the property market has done in reaction to the bridge. Too many conflating factors – C-19, Bridge, Economy, Date of Return, Return to What? The only rational conclusion will be 3 months after C-19 restrictions are lifted and – even then – values will likely be down all over Seattle due to a suppressed economy and we’ll need a crystal ball to figure out how much damage the bridge really did. Zillow’s “zestimate tool” is about as accurate as a Ouija board.
That is good news. That is the property that burned the outdoor homeless shed in the back in January. (Which they have been rebuilding at night) Hoping the elderly homeowner can be rid of them and live comfortably.
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