REALTORS® Support City Initiatives for Homeownership

REALTORS® have long supported, and been active and successful advocates for, local action to increase the number of housing units, both here in King County and statewide.

Those efforts to increase housing supply have included new financial incentives, and wide-ranging policies to increase middle housing, accessory dwelling units (ADUs), conversions of vacant urban commercial structures to residences, tiny homes, transit-oriented development, and increased urban density. In addition, REALTORS® have also worked to bring new housing to the market sooner through faster permitting and regulatory reforms.

Those efforts have resulted in the construction of new housing units, including ADUs. But often, those new units are multi-family apartment projects rather than homeownership opportunities. Part of the explanation for the plethora of new apartments is found in clunky and financially risky rules regarding the construction of condominium projects, the necessity to “condominiumize” ADUs to create new homeownership opportunities, and the fact that developers can achieve a financial return more quickly with apartment projects that can be sold to a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) at 65% lease-up—unlike condominiums where the developers do not receive their profits until the last few condominiums are sold.

As a result, Seattle King County REALTORS® is increasingly focused on ownership opportunities, not simply supply.

Ownership opportunities remain important for a variety of reasons:

• Most REALTORS® are brokers, not leasing agents. To make a living, REALTORS® need inventory that can be sold to buyers who need a place to live.
• Additional ownership opportunities are a critically important part of the answer to rents that are rising faster than incomes. Too many would-be homeowners are currently forced to rent. But every would-be owner who moves from “renting” to “owning” frees-up a rental unit, which helps to ease the competitive pressure on households that can only afford to rent.
• Ownership opportunities are important for stabilizing both communities and the workforce that businesses need for their own financial success, and for the economic vitality of our cities. Substantial research indicates workers will eventually move to other communities or states if they cannot afford a home of their own. Over time businesses tend to follow them out of town.

In South King County the ownership focus of Seattle King County REALTORS® (SKCR)’s advocacy efforts is aided by new provisions in state law, and the state-mandated update of every city’s comprehensive plan this year.

Similarly in Seattle, a group of leaders from SKCR recently met with the City of Seattle Office of Planning and Community Development to request greater ownership housing opportunities in the Mayor’s proposed Comprehensive Plan update, specifically ADU, DADU, and middle housing types that enable not just condominium ownership, but fee-simple ownership in order to reduce costs and ongoing legal compliance.

The Mayor has transmitted the plan to the City Council with many of the concepts we discussed. The plan is now under consideration by the Council's Land Use committee, chaired by Tammy Morales. Following a meeting with Councilmember Morales’ office, SKCR was asked to join a roundtable group that will meet through the balance of the year to offer our perspectives on how to elevate the need for density in the final comprehensive plan. Vice President-Elect of Governmental and Public Affairs Sol Villarreal will be representing SKCR on this group.