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.

Spoiler: It's the top 10 green neighborhoods list. Georgetown is number eight.

Apologies for the clickbaity title. You should know that we would never make you click through twenty pages only to find a mediocre surprise at the end of the journey.

Back on topic, this is actually pretty cool for Georgetown, the area formerly known for satisfactorily dingy bars, burgers, and a weird smell probably produced by a mixture of said beer and burgers with a hint of airline fuel.

Redfin found that 56 percent of Georgetown homes were considered green, meaning they had one or more green features.

The study, conducted by Redfin data scientists, analyzed real estate listings for homes sold between January 2017 and April 2018 in more than 80 metro areas. The study also found that homes with the aforementioned one or more green features sold at significantly higher rates than those boring old techless homes—green had a median price of $569,000, compared to $522,000 for all other homes. That's…like a $47,000 difference. Right? Yes.

Numbers one and two on the list were, surprisingly, in Cleveland—the Malvern and Fenway neighborhoods in the upscale Shaker Heights neighborhood known for its sustainability efforts, among other things.

Neighborhoods in Philly, Orange County (CA), and the hipster haven Red Hook area of Brooklyn rounded out the list.

What does this mean for Georgetown? Nothing much more than a brag piece. It does, however, bring to light the fact that our builders and residents are trying. And that means something. Built Green, which certifies green homes in King and Snohomish counties and advocates for sustainability, can likely take some credit for Georgetown's number eight spot; last year, the partner program of MBAKS certified more than 800 new homes, which isn't easy to accomplish. Homes must adhere to vigorous checklists to be considered Built Green.

Says Built Green Program Manager Leah Missik, "Building green is about more than the gadgets that go into a home. (Programs like) Built Green work hard to promote healthy, sustainable communities in a variety of ways." Missik and Built Green are proud to lead by example both locally and at a national level. In fact, Missik says, "Each individual (Built Green) home is more water and energy efficient, healthier, and more comfortable, but our checklist also promotes walkability, access to transit, and community resources."

Missik drives home the importance of all-encompassing, sustainable communities like Georgetown and those others on the list, saying, "Homes are, after all, part of a community through the people who live in them!"

It's no secret that in progressive cities like Seattle and its surrounding areas that green is quickly becoming the new gold. People pay more for healthier, more sustainable homes and builders know this. Money has always talked, but when you attend a Built Green event, you quickly realize the people involved in green building also walk the walk. It's about more than higher home prices, which are already doing just fine in our area. It's about building a healthier future for our kids, and their kids, and so on.

Congratulations on being green, Georgetown. We'd buy you a beer, but you probably already have that covered.

This week, Shannon talks to David Barnes with the City of Kirkland about our upcoming Residential Builders Council meeting. Join RBC and Built Green to learn more about green building incentives, how they work, and provide feedback to participating cities.

More details