Forty MBAKS members and staff traveled to Olympia Thursday, January 29 for our Annual Hill Day where we met with elected leaders to advocate for housing. The event was timed strategically just before the first policy committee cutoff, ensuring that industry voices were heard at a pivotal time for our priority bills.

MBAKS took part in 43 meetings with legislators from King and Snohomish counties, as well as the Governor’s office and Lieutenant Governor Denny Heck, to elevate our housing priorities.

“This year marks the highest number of face-to-face meetings ever held on one of our Hill Days,” said Dylan Sluder, MBAKS’s state government affairs manager. “Many thanks to our MBAKS members who showed up, shared their expertise, and helped make the day such a success!”

Read MBAKS’s 2026 State Legislative Priorities to learn more about the bills members highlighted in conversations with state leaders.

In addition to meetings with legislators, MBAKS had the opportunity to participate in a legislative hearing on one of our priority bills to modernize and streamline state subdivision laws, SB 5633. The bill was heard by the Senate Local Government Committee on January 29.

Special thanks to MBAKS members Mark Villwock of DR Horton and Ian Faulds of Core Design for joining MBAKS General Counsel Brian Holtzclaw in testifying on behalf of this priority legislation.

Hill Day is MBAKS’s most important advocacy event of the year. It’s an opportunity for members to engage directly with Washington state legislators and share real-world perspectives on how state policies affect housing supply, affordability, and our ability to deliver homes in our communities.

Read our latest Legislative Session Update.

By MBAKS Senior Policy Analyst Allison Butcher

Housing inventory for sale fell between September and October to 1.74 months’ supply in King County and 1.51 months’ supply in Snohomish County. In both counties, this is down from a year ago. Meanwhile single-family and multifamily building permits were down 6% in the Seattle Metro Area (including King, Snohomish, and Pierce counties) in September compared to the same period last year.

The Builder's 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.

Download this month's report:

How Well Does Seattle Recover From Disaster?

Turns out, pretty well.

80.5 percent* is the percentage of Seattle metro area homes that have recovered to peak pre-recession value, according to a recent Trulia article.

What does this mean, exactly?

It means that the Seattle area has recovered quite well compared to a large amount of the United States. The region ranks #22 nationally in recovery percentage (a bit surprising we're that low), currently sitting behind Colorado smoking buddies Denver (#1, with an impressive 98.7 percent recovery rate) and Colorado Springs (#7, 93.4 percent), San Francisco (#2, 98 percent), and Oklahoma City (#3, 94.3 percent—and give us back the Sonics, please).

Other cities beating us at the moment include Dallas (#9, 92.5 percent), Honolulu (#11, 91.5 percent), and Portland (#13, 90.3 percent—grrrr).

Find the full list here.

Among the areas with the lowest recovery rates, including the bottom tier of Las Vegas—#101, with just 0.6 percent of homes back to pre-recession value), Tucson (100, 2.4 percent), and Fresno (99, 2.5 percent), it's no surprise to find that these cities have seen the worst income growth in the years spanning December 2009 to January 2017.

And guess what?

The cities with the strongest recovery rates, including our beloved Seattle, also have the strongest income growth. With the median Seattle proper home price currently clocking in at $638,000 (and $426,000 in the Seattle metro area), that's no big surprise, really. It takes a heavy wallet (or a lot of big wallets) to help dig us out of such a monumental disaster, especially considering that just 34.2 percent of all homes nationally have fully recovered to their pre-recession peak value.

The three big factors that set the tone for quicker recovery include, alongside income growth, job growth and population growth, as well as post-recession vacancy rate.

It's a bit humbling to see just how far into the hole the housing market was just eight years ago, spurred by the foreclosure crisis that was so big it now has its own major motion picture. The good news is that, according to Trulia, U.S. home recoveries have been steadily—albeit slowly—climbing since the stuff that hit the fan began to get cleaned up, to the tune of 5 to 6 percentage points per year. While Trulia's data suggests we won't see 100 percent of homes fully recovered until September 2025, the fact that we can again use terms like "thriving" and "booming" when it comes to the housing market and our economy feels good. Let's hope we can keep wearing these buzzwords out.

Now, if we can only figure out where to house all these home-hungry folks…

*All data courtesy of Trulia.com