By MBAKS Senior Policy Analyst Allison Butcher

The Office of Financial Management (OFM) has posted its annual population update, which shows continued growth in the Puget Sound region. As of April 1, 2021, King, Kitsap, Pierce, and Snohomish counties added 66,200 people. According to The Seattle Times, the Seattle metropolitan area, which includes King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties, now exceeds 4 million people.

The Builders Bulletin is intended to provide a convenient way to track housing in our market and includes information from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, State of the Cities Data Systems, Office of Financial Management, and the Washington State Employment Security Department.

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Juli Bacon is the founder and president of JB Consulting Systems. With more than two decades of human resource and business experience, she has developed both a strategic and practical approach to HR within the residential building industry. Bacon is also the immediate past National Professional Women in Building chair.

We appreciate Darylene Dennon and Juli Bacon for being such motivational leaders in our Professional Women in Building Council.

Learn more about PWB and get involved at mbaks.com/pwb or facebook.com/groups/MBAKSPWB

By Noah Haglund, The Everett Herald

Everett, Wash.—A united Snohomish County Council passed a budget Monday that staves off most public safety cuts with help from a modest property tax increase.

The spending plan for 2017 followed the contours that council Chairman Terry Ryan had recommended a week earlier. Ryan's budget, in turn, hewed closely to a $238 million plan that Executive Dave Somers unveiled in September, though the council softened cuts to key sheriff's office programs.