I don't know if you heard, but urbanists are developer shills. At least that's the common conception. In reality, many of us quite critical of certain developers and projects, while recognizing that absolute opposition to developers would get us nowhere. If developers are evil, they're a necessary evil—at least until we rise up, seize the modes of production, and turn Seattle into only to a full-blown socialist metropolis in which the government leads a huge construction boom to affordably house everybody.

No sign of the revolution yet, though.

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By MBAKS Senior Policy Analyst Allison Butcher

Single family permits are down 10 percent in the Seattle metro area the first 9 months of the year, compared to the same period last year. The single family permit decline is led by Snohomish County, which is down 25 percent, followed by Pierce County, which is down 14 percent. Within the three-county metro area, the only county to see a slight increase in single family permits through September 2018 was King County, where permits were up four percent.

Meanwhile, multifamily permits are up three percent throughout the metro area. While King County saw a nine percent decline in multifamily permits during the first three quarters of 2018, Snohomish County has experienced an 80 percent increase in multifamily permit activity, and Pierce County is up 35 percent.

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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Twenty members of the MBAKS Board of Directors and staff leadership team convened late last week for a two-day retreat at the beautiful Salish Lodge & Spa near Snoqualmie Falls.  The proceedings were facilitated by Donna Franza, Senior Consultant (Advisory Services) at NAHB, who is based in Washington, DC and has deep experience with the Association and our work.

The first day of the retreat began with creating a common understanding of the current state of the Association and of what constitutes good governance.  The team then built awareness of their individual leadership styles, and considered how those can be best leveraged to create a highly functioning Board next year.

Meet the 2025 Board!

After enjoying some evening team building and dinner, the group spent the second day discussing the MBAKS Strategic Plan, the status of its implementation and the extent to which the Association's current structure and activities align with that Plan.

All-in-all, the team left the retreat in a much better place to make home happen, carrying forward MBAKS' Belief, Purpose and Values in the coming year and beyond!