NWREporter February 2007
One of the biggest challenges of the growing strength of the region's economy is the continuing demand for housing and the upward pressure on housing prices, according to authors of the 2006 King County Growth Report.
Strained housing affordability and traffic congestion seem to be the inevitable consequences of the desirability of King County as a place to live and do business, the researchers suggest.
King County's number of jobs has nearly returned to pre-recession numbers after 70,000 jobs were lost from 2001-2004. That finding is among details in the comprehensive report issued late last year by King County Executive Ron Sims.
The 144-page Annual Growth report (AGR), supplemented by maps, graphs and tables, provides details on demographics and development in King County. It includes information on jobs and housing units for each of the county's 39 cities, plus profiles for 10 potential annexation areas. The report also highlights residential construction and land development activity.
Wages and incomes are rising convincingly after several years of stagnation in which prices rose faster than average income, the report's authors noted. "Unemployment has returned to a low level and most families are better off than during the early part of the decade," the authors stated.
The growth of the economy can be seen on the county's highways, with increasing traffic and higher use of buses and park-&-ride lots, the report notes.
In a news release announcing the new report, King County officials cite a traffic study by The Seattle Times. It found a measurable increase in traffic congestion between 2003 and 2005, with the biggest gain attributed to truck traffic. That component is up more than 60 percent since 1994, reflecting growth in construction, retail sales and business activity.
Residential growth continued "unabated" in 2005, showing no sign of decline with the recession. Growth continued to be concentrated in urban areas of King County.
Builders in Seattle constructed 28 percent of the county's new housing units in 2005, while the remaining cities permitted more than 53 percent of the new units. Less than 4 percent of new construction occurred in rural and resource areas. The remaining 15 percent of new construction took place in urban unincorporated communities, many of which are slated for annexation to cities in the next few years.
House prices never dipped during the recession. The AGR features a map of home sales by price range that depicts locations for sales across the price spectrum.
Researchers found apartment rental rates are beginning to rise again after three years of high vacancies and stable rent prices.
Authors of the latest growth report believe the risk of foreclosure threatens marginal households who stretched to buy a house, and now face rising interest rates. They say almost one third of homeowners and nearly half of renters are considered to be "overpaying" in that they spend more than 30 percent of their income for housing.
County officials say a forthcoming Affordable Housing Benchmark Report will examine the housing challenges for households earning less than 50 percent of median income.
King County's Office of Management and Budget prepared the latest report, which was first published in 1983. Information contained in the AGR is drawn from an array of federal, state and local sources and presented in a standardized form.for use by government and private-sector decision makers.
The AGR 2006 is available online at www.metrokc.gov/budget/agr/agr06/.
