The 2013 Seattle Downtown Density report is out and there are some fascinating details here if you are an investor in the Seattle market. There is a lot of data in the report related to downtown working/living and how Seattle stacks up against San Francisco and the like.
My favorite is this graphic that shows changes in population per square mile from 1990 to 2010. It is obvious the 5x population growth in Seattle’s downtown is a huge increase and affects building/land values tremendously. It is also interesting to see the decrease in density near the UW and east of Green Lake. You may also notice the increase in Ballard. It seems to me that increase in Ballard is getting even larger and will soon be in the highest growth quintile in the city.
Of course I also track more real time data, at least analyzed weekly by Dupre+Scott… the defacto standard in Seattle Multi-Family data. Reviewing their data lends a lot of light into the innerworkings of making that graphic above possible.
Enjoy the report and the blog.
Great info. It also supports why so many Seattle tech start-ups prefer Seattle versus the Eastside. It is driven by recruiting for talent and most employees now want to live near where they work.