Construction has been picking up speed since the economy began recovering from the recession that struck back in 2008, and the latest housing project to take place in Seattle, is a large one. Local developer Holland Partner Group is breaking ground this week on a new project to build a 40-story apartment tower in downtown Seattle, according to the Seattle Times.
When completed, this 386-unit building will be the tallest residential skyscraper to be built in Seattle in the past five years. The structure, called 815 Pine, is expected to be finished and ready for tenants to move in by 2014, and the news publication indicates it is one of many urban developments that will be offering new housing options in the downtown Seattle area by the time it opens its doors. In fact, there may be more than 7,700 new apartments available in Seattle, in addition to those at 815 Pine, by 2014, but officials working on the new building are not concerned about having tenants to occupy the units.
"Demand for housing in these urban, walkable neighborhoods is effectively insatiable for the next two or three years," Clyde Holland, chairman and CEO of Holland Partner Group, told the news source. "[Young adults] have no desire for suburbia. They want to walk out their front door and be within walking distance of a dozen restaurants."
Seattle is not the only city that has seen an influx of cranes, pile drivers, excavators, work trucks and other construction equipment. Urban construction has become common across many other cities in the U.S., and the increased demand for multi-family housing is the reason for growth in this sector, the Los Angeles Times reports. Much of the reason for the increased demand is due to the single-family housing market, which collapsed during the recession because few could afford to buy homes or pay mortgages. However, the Times reports this construction boom will be short-lived.
"Of course this boom in multi-family construction will have within it the seeds of its own destruction," UCLA economist David Shulman told the news source. "As rents rise, consumers will shift out of rental into ownership units."
Shulman and other UCLA researchers reported that the increased demand for apartment buildings will likely ebb by 2014, when the number of new apartments will equal the number of people looking to live in them. Plus, as more people are seeking apartments in the current economy, this will likely drive up rental costs to the point where buying a home may become a more sensible economic decision for some. This could lead to a rise in single-family construction in coming years.
