Executive Vice President’s message

Greg Lane | Executive Vice President

In late June, a record-setting heat wave washed over Washington, but the weather isn’t the only thing that’s hot right now. The residential housing market is hotter than it’s been in decades. Redfin recently released a report that more than 4,500 Seattle-area homes have sold for at least $100,000 above asking price in 2021, versus 400 during the same period last year.

This may be good news for sellers but the struggle continues for new homeowners looking for an affordable entry point to pursue the American dream of owning a home.

Homes start here.

BIAW members across Washington have been sounding the alarm for years. We simply haven’t been able to build enough homes to keep up with demand. According to a 2020 study, Washington state underproduced housing by approximately 225,600 units from 2000 to 2015. It’s long past time to take a more aggressive approach to this problem—and that’s what we intend to do.

It’s time to start building Washington

At the recent Association of Washington Business Housing Forum, sponsored by BIAW and others, Lt. Governor and former Congressman Denny Heck shared seven principles for housing.

I’d like to share my top three:

• Housing is an ecosystem—The housing ecosystem is complex and multi-faceted. Well-intentioned but poorly conceived solutions have far-reaching effects.

• Housing is in crisis—Decades of underproduction have created a supply problem that’s pricing roughly three-quarters of Washington home buyers out of the market.

• All levels of government have a role—but local governments are the front line. Inflexible urban growth boundaries, delayed permitting processes, zoning and impact fees are all tools used to limit the supply of new housing. If we want to improve supply, we need change to start locally.

Decades of roadblocks to home building have brought the housing supply to a breaking point. The only way to address the housing crisis is to build. We need to improve the permitting process, reduce regulatory fees and red tape, increase the amount of land available for new housing and start building Washington again.

While BIAW has been sounding this alarm for years, our organization will be aggressively increasing the intensity of our public relations and government affairs efforts throughout the fall and into the 2022 session and elections—and we’ll need your help. Stay tuned for more details in the weeks to come!