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| Mayor John Marchione (Internet) |
Redmond grew its housing stock by about 15 percent this decade, behind only Seattle among major King County cities. Redmond is actually one of three King County suburbs (along with Issaquah and Federal Way) where a majority of homes are in multi-family buildings.
"Moratoriums and people who want to slow down growth exacerbate the housing problem." said Redmond Mayor John Marchione. "I hear people who say' I want you to stop the growth in downtown and I want to lower prices.' And that's economically impossible. It's illogical but people still ask for that."
"If you really want housing prices to be stable, you need to increase the supply to lessen the price hike."
Of course, a big part of why housing doesn't get built in my suburbs is community opposition. Marchione, the Redmond mayor guesses about one-third or his city's resident are generally opposed to all growth. What does he tell those people?
"I ask, where do you want your kids to live?" Marchione said. He also tries to counter the impression among some homeowners that renters are "other," different people, noting that he himself recently downsized from a single-family house to an apartment.
Source: "Housing Construction is at historic lows, while Seattle is setting records."
By Mike Rosenberg, 8/11/2018 "Seattle Times."
