In The News - 6/23/2024
The Spokesman Review
Spokane County multifamily occupancy dropped at start of year
Influx of construction projects saturate rental market in response to housing crisis
Spokane County’s multifamily market is shifting from one extreme of being underbuilt to one of oversaturation with more new units on the market in 2024 contributing to higher vacancy rates than last year.
As a result, rent concessions are becoming more popular as a way to attract tenants in a more competitive environment, some apartment market observers here said.
“There’s obviously been a lot of construction going on,” said Carl Durkoop, senior appraiser at Valbridge Property Advisors, Inland Pacific Northwest, of Spokane Valley.
The number of apartment units surveyed in Spokane County in the first quarter of 2024 increased 23%, compared to the year-earlier quarter, according to data in the latest Washington State Apartment Market Report by the University of Washington’s Center for Real Estate Research.
An increase of surveyed units in the first-quarter report is due to expanded stock from a year earlier, Steven Bourassa, director of the Runstad Department of Real Estate at UW, said in an email.
Spokane County’s first-quarter multifamily vacancy rate is 4.4%, according to the report.
In the last 12 months ending in March, 1,700 new apartment units, about half of which have been absorbed, entered the Spokane-area market, according to information from NAI Black’s Market Report for Greater Spokane and Kootenai County.
“We’re starting to see a lot of oversupply with a lot of projects that were in the pipeline before (economic) conditions changed,” Durkoop said. “Construction starts are finally slowing down, and I suppose we’ll reach some sort of equilibrium in the next year or so.”
Spokane County multifamily permit data coincides with Durkoop’s market observations.
The Washington Post
(Paywall - contact dsimonson@mac.com for full text)
His job is to save people from the heat. Could he do it?
Schuster’s task on this dangerously hot day is to make sure members of the District’s homeless population, estimated at 5,600, stay cool.
When it feels like a giant quilt has smothered D.C., Brett Schuster loads up a wagon with electrolyte packets, Narcan, body wipes and 50 bottles of cold water.
He starts walking at the hottest part of the day, looking for signs of heatstroke: red cheeks, slurred words, throbbing headache. The early days of scorching temperatures can be deadly.
“Hey guys, do you want some ice cold water?” he asks three men sitting under a tree at a park on New York Avenue. They’re in long pants, legs spread, slouched on a wooden bench. Each has a blank expression.
The temperature is 94 degrees, but the “feels like” number is 99 degrees.
“Thanks,” says Hamza Abdulrahman, a drop of sweat beading on his long white beard. “When are they going to open all the cooling centers?”
Some opened an hour ago, Schuster says. Abdulrahman, born and raised in Southeast Washington, says he plans to stay in the park for now, trying to conserve his energy by staying silent.
“It’s like a cast-iron skillet on a red-hot cast iron stove,” Abdulrahman says.
Schuster’s task on this dangerously hot day and throughout the record-hot weekend is to make sure members of the District’s homeless population, estimated at 5,600, stay cool.
Mayor Muriel E. Bowser had declared an extended heat emergency through the weekend, urging people to escape the high temperatures by seeking shelter in air-conditioned buildings. The city’s shelters, overflow sites and day centers could serve 1,500 people daily, city officials said.
“Today’s hot,” Schuster tells one man at a bus stop who initially declined water. “This weekend’s going to be even worse.”