Ten years ago people talked about how much Seattle was building and how many cranes were everywhere as well - then as now, it’s because all that building is in the same ten square yards of “urban villages” across the city where you are allowed to build densely.

And now we are running very short of buildable volume. There are not many places left you can build a tower. We need to allow a lot more. Also, in the meantime, we have added more time to the permitting process, all in the name of aesthetics/design, not safety.

... which are also the same ten square yards where all the butt-in-the-air folded-in-half fent zombies hang out.

Sorry but it's true.

Anecdotally, all of my friends renting have had their rents continually raised with no breaks. Perhaps there is a wider trend, but if so, their landlords do not seem aware of it.

Part of that is also a fact that renters face the pressure that real estate firms now use big data to manage the rent accross a set of units. They know people will keep paying to avoid the skids so they can keep both rents high, and vacant houses because the over under makes them money. If you had the state / city charge rent to owners on vacant property you'd see rents fall through the floor as realestate companies would quickly pack anyone that could pay something into an structure.

>If you had the state / city charge rent to owners

Also known as sufficient property tax.

There is actually currently a Seattle class action lawsuit on renting because a majority of the corporate landlords use the same big data company to set rents, and the big data company says you must use their rates (and so do the landlords instructing their property managers). It turns out you may not be able to launder price fixing using an algorithm.

There were cranes everywhere back in 2017, now the cranes are mostly gone. My rent increases every year, generally by 10%.

Your rent has doubled since 2017?

The market in Seattle has become softer for sure but is not evenly distributed. In my area, the vacancy rate for apartments appears to be in the 10-20% range depending on the building and the incentives are becoming more aggressive. A bit more surprising, some housing prices in nice neighborhoods have also declined since a couple years ago (some areas have also increased). Renting makes a lot of sense in Seattle right now.