urbnlivn, a seattle condo & real estate blog

This week The Stranger is running a feature on views, A View Without a Room – It’s the only part of your house that’s not part of your house. What’s a view worth, anyway? The article touches on how marketers get those view shots before the condo is built. One way is with blimps, example [...]

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The Stranger has a Stranger-esque article on ugly condos, It’s Ugly, Stupid: Seattle’s neighborhoods are trying to stop townhome and condo developments. But it’s not because of NIMBYism. They’re not fighting density, nor are they even opposed to the chaos and noise brought on by massive construction projects. No, Seattle’s neighborhoods want to put a [...]

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Last week’s Stranger had three articles relating to condos but I missed posting them during my move… Condo Crushed: Last July, Breene and Carroll’s eight-unit building was indeed sold to a developer—Tony Mai—whom, they say, began work on their building, converting it to condos, weeks before residents were officially notified.

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The Stranger had an article recently on the latest housing trend, Townhome Invasion: Townhomes are popping up all over Seattle as development booms, and some developers are using a process called “piecemealing” to expedite new construction. In piecemealing, a developer can purchase several small adjacent lots, file separate permits for each lot, and skirt the [...]

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Charles Mudude at The Stranger writes the article I wanted to write if I knew how to write (I know it’s not an excuse but I have a degree in mathematics), Where’s the Party? I Went to the Condo Expo and All I Got Was a Pamphlet and a Bottled Water: Why was the event [...]

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Last week’s The Stranger had two condo related tidbits. The first was a letter to the editor, Happy Homeowner: You stated you just wanted to get a feel from the residents of their experience of living there and if Vulcan had met their expectations. I went on to say that it has been a great [...]

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The Stranger blows open the situation at 2200, Lawsuit and Tenant Complaints Dog Vulcan in Denny Triangle. It’s a lengthy article with lots of thought provoking questions. Here’s a teaser to get you started: However, on March 26, 2007, O’Leary filed suit in King County Superior Court against the developers after a series of delays [...]

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The Stranger, Downtown Dilemma – Nickels’s Bar Restrictions Won’t Help Belltown Condo Owners Sleep Any Easier: The Cooks, in other words, personify the kind of empty-nest Belltown residents we at The Stranger have vilified over the years. They moved to a neighborhood with lots of bars and clubs (fewer then, but still more than other [...]

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I missed this Stranger article but the Seattlest pointed it out and it’s never to late to link to a blurb about condo’s in Erica’s column, In The Hall: Some of the most interesting findings in the report had to do with condo conversions, which increased dramatically in the last three years—from 358 in 2004; [...]

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Dan Savage writes on The Slog, Save The Parking Lots! about the uproar over the condos taking over Capitol Hill. I’ll be accused of being in the pocket of developers for saying this but, you know, I’ll take a drugstore—even a chain—and dozens of units of affordable housing over a gas station any day.

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