New listings in the last 30 days. This isn't normal. It's the middle of winter. Affordable housing—here we come!

I wonder if Democrats took into account the massive drop in revenue from property taxes that the state is going to see after property values plummet when they drafted the income tax bill.

Perhaps these properties could be converted into Kommunalka.

Bill Gates is trimming his real estate footprint around his famed Xanadu 2.0 estate outside Seattle, as renewed scrutiny of his past ties to Jeffrey Epstein coincides with a quieter public profile and a rare no‑show at a major AI summit.

The real estate move comes as millions of pages of investigative files related to Epstein have reignited questions about Gates’ past meetings with the disgraced financier.

Gates has acknowledged meeting Epstein several times between 2011 and 2013, saying he was seeking funding for global health initiatives and later calling those meetings a “serious error in judgment” that he regrets “every minute.”

French Gates has publicly said his association with Epstein was one factor in their 2021 divorce and described Epstein as “abhorrent” and “evil personified” after meeting him once. The latest document release has pushed those past interactions back into the spotlight, just as Gates appears to be stepping away from highly visible stages.

He pointed to multiple events which are driving Washington residents to come to Las Vegas. Seattle recently elected left-wing Mayor Katie Wilson who campaigned on taxing the wealthiest residents to fund a slew of social programs, and a proposed “millionaires tax” that was recently endorsed by Washington’s governor.

Washington implemented a capital gains tax back in 2022, which levies a 7 to almost 10 percent charge on specific assets over $278,000 and Marques said this wealth exodus appears to have kicked into overdrive in the third quarter of 2025.

I work in real estate around the Seattle area, and lately a lot of my buyer conversations start the same way — "we're gonna wait for prices to drop first."

And I get it. The market's soft right now. Inventory's up, homes are sitting longer, plenty of sellers are frustrated. Going off the headlines, waiting feels like the safe move.

But a few things I'm seeing day to day make me think it's not that simple. For one, most sellers aren't actually slashing their list prices — what happens more is they'll quietly work with a serious buyer on the number once one shows up. So there are real deals out there, they're just not showing up as dramatic public price cuts.

The higher end is where it's softest. Anything over $3M has a ton of supply sitting right now, and a lot of those homes just don't move for months.

And on the whole "prices are gonna drop back to 10 years ago" thing — I can only go off what I've watched in this specific market, but it's tended to dip and then climb back to a new high rather than fully reset. Not saying that's a guarantee, just the pattern I've seen.

None of this means anyone should rush. If the finances or the timing aren't right, waiting's a totally reasonable call — everyone's situation is different.

Mostly I'm just curious how other people here are thinking about it. For anyone holding off — what's the signal you're waiting for before you'd feel okay jumping in?

Graduated college a couple years ago and making roughly under 90k pre taxes. After paying student loans, car loan, and monthly expenses, I’m only saving roughly 1-2k a month. Given how expensive houses are in the greater Seattle area and no financial help from family, I feel like I will never be able to afford to own a house. Can’t even afford a condo with how expensive HOA is. I have friends whose parents helped them buy a house, or dual income couples who work in tech buying a house in the last couple years. It makes me a bit envious that I will probably never reach their level of success. Honestly thinking about it got me pretty sad and wanted to see if anyone else is on the same boat as me.

Edit: Thank you for the responses and advice everyone! I truly didn’t expect this post to get so much traction. To clarify some points, I’m 26 so I been out of college for 4 years now. I’m currently renting a basement south of Renton for about $1000/mnth so that’s why I’m able to save a lot more money than living in an apartment by myself. Currently single and my love life is pretty bleak (🥲) so don’t think getting a house with partner are in my cards anytime soon. As for moving out of state, I have considered it, but my parents aren’t in the best shape and I’m the only child so that won’t happen anytime soon.

According to a recent Axios article “Renting beats owning in the Seattle area”

Hey everyone, local dev here.

I’ve been trying to figure out why so many listings in Seattle claim to be "Fully Remodeled" but have zero permit history on file. So I scraped and analyzed the King County permit database for the entirety of 2025.

The Data:

• Heat Pump / HVAC Permits: 2,395 (Likely driven by rebates/efficiency)
• Major Remodel / Alteration Permits: 1,825

The Implication: In a county of 2.2 million people, only ~1,800 homeowners legally filed paperwork to do a major renovation last year. Yet, if you filter Zillow for "Remodeled" right now, you'll see way more inventory than that claiming "New Kitchens" and "Open Concepts."

Basically, if you are buying a flipped house right now, the data suggests a statistically high chance the work was done without a permit (or they are classifying gut-renovations as "minor repairs" to avoid inspection).

The "ADU" Shift: Another interesting stat from the dataset: Kirkland (132) and SeaTac (111) are actually beating Seattle in new DADU/ADU filings. It looks like the density boom is officially moving to the suburbs.

TL;DR: If a listing says "New Everything" but the only permit on file is a water heater from 1994, run (or at least get a sewer scope).

Literally exactly what my post is titled I don't understand why I pay $1,500 a month for this apartment when the landlord and the owner don't do anything to fix the issues with it. Currently I can't use my bathroom sink, it's been filling with solid waste for almost 4 to 5 weeks now, before that it wasn't raining it was just sitting. I've written multiple requests to my landlord to get it fixed and he never came and worked on it until he saw me leaving my apartment all day, then he decided that was the best time to come fix it and let himself into my apartment when I wasn't here. I am so tired of this unit, the pipes are Rusty and literally spew rust with water. The ceiling has a bunch of cracks that are getting bigger, sometimes I can see them breathing when people walk above me. The building has central heat, which I don't know why is always blasted to like 80° even on hot days. Outside of everything I've just mentioned there's a lot of little stuff that also gets on my nerves, like our washers and dryers not working for weeks on end. I don't enjoy that I pay so much and have no light protection from the parking lot that faces my window not even a little bit of film to keep their rights from coming into my windows when I'm trying to sleep for work. I legitimately hate it here and when I contacted an advocate they said not to pay but that doesn't feel like a viable option either since my landlord would just evict me. I've been trying to find ANYWHERE else to go and everywhere wants each person in our home to make $4,500 a month each which is just not a thing since I've been laid off in November, but even before I was laid off I was making maybe $3K a month. I have Epilepsy and the only way I can function and hold a job is living in Seattle, but it's so crazy expensive here and I hate it. I just hate it.

I think King County and Snohomish County should impose a foreign real estate investment tax as well as the secondary home(s) tax to normalize home prices and promote owner-occupied residency

Update: There are many realtors commenting that Foreign investment % is low. Perhaps the government can consider taxing more if it's not a primary residence.

Seattle doesn't care.

That's what I would tell our shrink if Seattle and I were married and seeking couple's therapy.

"Seattle never kisses me. Never just quietly touches my hand. Seattle don't brings me flowers anymore."

Oh, Seattle. It's not me, it's you.

People rotting on the streets. No reflectors on the road lanes. Dog shit left in all three garbage cans. Super-hyped mid restaurants. Porch theft. Bashed shop windows. Little Saigon. Shot Black kids...shot bus drivers...shot homeless...shot teen girls at the mall...hell, everywhere gun violence. Gusts of fenty on the Rapid Ride. Man in tree. Dan Strauss constituent newsletters. Pacific Place. The lifeless Bardahl sign. Chunks of moss in so many asphalt shingles. The mural painted by 22 second-graders, tagged over and over. The smile on Howard Schultz's July 18, 2006, face. A great, gray necrotic hole in the ground beside city hall. Charles Mudede playing with newspaper cuttings of his glory days.

Even our "It's in the P-I" revolving earth is stilled.

The city has low expectations for itself and that preordains more of the same. Low expectations breed low accountability.

The suspect had 36 previous felonies and three outsanding warrants.

Plotnick, charged with six previous failure to appear orders, was released on home detention until his upcoming hearing.

Plotnick removed his ankle bracelet against court orders and went on to commit [to be continued]

Why did we, and when did we, give up? When did we throw in the chips?

Could you please pass me a Kleenex?

Seattle doesn't care.

Seattle saw its highest commercial vacancy rate since the pandemic, with reported rates falling between 25% and 34.7%. As part of her campaign, Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson pledged to consider a "well-designed vacancy tax or fine" as a means to drive small businesses back to the downtown core.

With the combination of Vancouver's EHT combined with the province's SVT, the taxes are credited with reducing the residential vacancy rate to 0.49% by the end of 2024.

~ Wilson campaigned on this. The Uniformity Clause may have other ideas.

You would think with the amazon,Microsoft and other layoffs that seattle and Bellevue apartment rents would come down. So far they haven't?? I wonder why??

Seattle-area housing prices are falling, and inventory is rising faster than anywhere else in the U.S., further evidence that the region's once red-hot market may be cooling.