Policy Today: Housing affordability in the Puget Sound

Washington Research Council

Buying an affordable home is a serious challenge for people throughout the Puget Sound region. Joining us to discuss the impediments to increasing the housing supply is Nick Harper, Senior Director of Strategy & Policy for the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties. Here's a statistic from Nick that really highlights the problem: Over the last five years on average, the city of Seattle has grown by 50 people a day, 35 jobs a day, but only 11 living units a day. And that imbalance can be extrapolated to the whole Puget Sound region. You can read our Special Report on the state's Growth Management Act, which covers problems with housing affordability, here: https://researchcouncil.org/files/docs/2016/07/wrc_gma_report_july_6_2016_final_for_web.pdf