EVERETT — The city will begin analyzing housing types and styles in the planning code soon.
It’s launching its Rethink Housing initiative with a virtual forum from 6-7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 8 on “housing for all” with keynote speaker former Governor Christine Gregoire. The link to the online meeting is at www.everettwa.gov/rethinkhousing
Rethink Housing is a follow-on to the Rethink Zoning effort completed this year. Late in the game, planners decided to split off the housing element from the much wider Rethink Zoning process to give housing more thought and focus.
The meeting includes details explaining the gap in affordable housing.
The city planning department predicts Everett will need “an additional approximately 23,000 new housing units” by 2035 to accommodate expected growth.
Mayor Cassie Franklin set a June 30 deadline to finish the Rethink Housing work and develop a citywide housing action plan under a mayoral directive issued Nov. 17.
The directive also says the city must:
• Improve procedures and permitting requirements to ensure Everett is a friendly, attractive place for investors to develop housing, and
• Aggressively address homelessness and support housing stability in 2021
Other meetings as part of Rethink Housing will discuss homelessness as well as the development market and how “gaps in housing supply at all price points happen,” a flyer states.
The city’s planning commission will chew over the Rethink Housing plans. The City Council will make the final decisions.
Everett apartment rents rise while others fall
You may have heard rents are dropping in Seattle and most major cities in King County. It’s been the reverse for Everett and in most suburbs, according to data compiled by ApartmentList.com
The market is being affected by the pandemic, the company gives as one reason for the shift. With activities and nightlife zapped by COVID-19 restrictions, “many renters today are questioning whether it still makes sense to pay a premium for city living.”
Another reason: real estate. Lately when people buy a home, the rental units they leave behind aren’t in as much demand in big cities since more people are able to work from home, the company said.
Everett rent prices have gone up 3 percent between January and September.
Rent prices in Seattle, Bellevue and Redmond all dropped — Seattle rent prices, for example, dropped 7 percent between January and September.
The tracking data covers Western Washington’s 10 largest cities up to September.
The chart shows rent prices in the major cities began to drop in May and June, and rent prices in many suburban cities began to go up around the same time. One that didn’t: Lynnwood. But during the year, Lynnwood’s average rent price had already gone up by 5 percent by mid-summer. Now it is experiencing a price deflation.
