Construction Boom – Seattle crowned Crane Capital of America!
Emerald City is now Crane Capital of America. For the second year in a row, Seattle has been named the crane capital of America. If you take a look at our famous skyline you’re sure to see a number of cranes nestled in amongst the buildings. Local area construction boom currently has 58 cranes, 22 more than runner-up Los Angeles, scattered throughout the city. With no slowdown in sight! New cranes are going up just as quickly in place of those taken down due to completed construction. Residential construction accounts for over half of the count. Followed by mixed-use, commercial, hospitality, transportation, and education structures.
Residential construction is the highest it has been in over a decade. Despite the number of cranes, development hasn’t been able to keep up with the population boom. There is no slow down in sight. City planners and developers are racing to meet the growing housing demand driven by new arrivals for jobs created by the tech industry who prefer to have an easy commute to their workplace while maintaining the energetic feel of an urban Seattle downtown core. The city is expecting a record number of new rental units to open this year and even more scheduled for 2018.
Even with the increase in units, the city has seen six straight months of rent increases, up 5% from a year ago. In the second quarter of 2017, 2,340 units were absorbed by the market matching the annual rate of 9,000 units per year. In June the median rent for a one bedroom unit registered at $1910, up 7.9% from a year ago and two bedrooms have increased 4.2% up to $2500. With the continuous addition of new buildings, supply should hopefully ease the rent increases in the near future.