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Airbnbs Running Out of Oxygen
The hospitality industry has taken a huge hit during the pandemic. How about the short-term rentals like Airbnb and VRBO? They might be considered a less risky alternative to large hotels, and lower overhead would allow them to hang in through the rough times.
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Apartment Rents Continue to Fall
Apartment rents have continued their freefall across most of the Seattle area. But even with high vacancies, a lot of apartments are in the pipeline. In 2019, over 14,000 new apartments were permitted in King County.
North, to Idaho! From Golden to Gem
No state has grown faster than Idaho in the past five years. The primary source of growth: a big one-way pipeline from California to Idaho.
Grateful Dread: Our San Francisco Connection, Part II
A region that had been flying high for decades suddenly seems to have hit a slump. Is it contagious? Is Seattle’s social distance of 700 miles enough?
Continue Reading Grateful Dread: Our San Francisco Connection, Part II
Is Seattle Catching What Ails San Francisco?
With increasing technology business ties between Seattle and San Francisco, the longstanding sisterhood is getting closer. So, we might ask how much of what seems to be ailing San Francisco these days has migrated up the coast.
Continue Reading Is Seattle Catching What Ails San Francisco?
Hey, Be Safe Out There
An area of concern going forward is the relatively high death rate in the transportation sector, and the rapid growth in that sector, especially through e-commerce.
The Boozy Pandemic
One sector that is certainly thriving during the pandemic is alcohol. Third quarter statistics on alcohol sales indicate that Washington residents have accelerated a longer term trend of drinking more liquor.
Who Pays For Your Bus Ride?
Increased costs per trip are a concern when the region has made a major commitment to transit as part of its land uses policies. Adding new transit riders is expensive and getting more so.
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Covid: Recovering From The Holidays
The downward trend in the summer began to reverse itself as people went back indoors, and health authorities feared the impact of holiday travel and gatherings later in the fall.
School Enrollments: Where the Kids Are
Just as overall population growth is unevenly distributed around the region, so is growth in school enrollments. And the two are not as closely related as you might think.
Creeping Up On Normal
2021 is the year when everything goes back to normal, right? So, how close have we gotten? It turns out that in the aggregate, we are not too far off from normal.
On The Move Again
Statewide, driver’s license trade ins were down 38 percent from last year. By later in the year, though, migration activity was picking up.
Paying For Their Ride
Vanpools are the most cost effective and energy efficient of the major forms of public transit.
Who Pays For Your Ride? Paratransit and Ferries
Ferries turn out to be pretty good performers. They carry a large number of passengers per trip and charge high enough fares to cover a good share of their costs. Farebox recovery rates for ferry services are higher than almost all bus-based transit systems
Continue Reading Who Pays For Your Ride? Paratransit and Ferries
Murder and Other Violent Crime in Seattle
2020 has seen a spike in homicides in cities across the country, including Seattle: 3.7 homicides per 100,000 in Seattle in 2019, and a projected 6.7 homicides per 100,000 in 2020.
Air Traffic Recovery—Still Needs More Runway
If all this looks pretty grim for SeaTac, it is not as bad as elsewhere on the West Coast. While LAX had about 40 percent more operations than SeaTac before the pandemic, they both have about the same number of operations today.
Continue Reading Air Traffic Recovery—Still Needs More Runway
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Foreign Direct Investment—More Of An Eastern Thing
Washington may be among the most trade dependent states, but by another measure of international integration—foreign direct investment—it sits toward the back of the pack.
Continue Reading Foreign Direct Investment—More Of An Eastern Thing
If You Build It, Will They Ride?
An assumption has been that to increase bicycle commuting and biking in general requires a more complete network of dedicated lanes and tracks so that rider feel safe. So, are we gaining riders as the network expands?
Not an Equal-Opportunity Pandemic
The variation in death rates across cities is quite large. The death rates in Detroit and Boston are about eight times the rates in Portland and San Francisco