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Comment by doublerebel | Hacker News Reader

We're still more affordable per sqft than most top international cities and many US cities -- I think the mentality of needing a large sqft unit, or yard, or single-family home in Seattle needs to change. We have a ton of parks if anyone needs space. For the quality of life, I still think Seattle is very affordable.

That being said, I completely agree that zoning needs to be overhauled.

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Only a few cities are more expensive than Seattle ATM, like LA, SF, NYC, Boston maybe.

It isn't as simple as upscaling zoning, you need roads to go with it. West Seattle has horrible traffic these days because they built a bunch of high density housing around California Avenue. They did add rapid bus transit, but everyone still drives even if they have an apartment.

Yes we're between 5th [0] and 7th [1] depending on the measure, which is think is appropriate. Most of the places I'd rather live globally are more expensive [2].

[0]: https://nested.com/research/rental/2017/us/all

[1]: https://www.kiplinger.com/slideshow/real-estate/T006-S001-mo...

[2]: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/admin/1000000054865...

Paris’s rent doesn’t include the (train/métro) suburbs, where 80% of the people live. It’s a very different market than the Bay Area.

As far as international cities go, very few offer better than Seattle salaries for software engineers. Maybe maybe Zurich, but definitely not Paris or London.

And yet, in the mid 100s in salary one can’t afford a place here.

Compared to other international non-US cities? Seattle is still very affordable. Places in Zurich aren’t cheap. Heck, even Vancouver is more pricey.

I want a condo or townhouse. Apparently condos are unfeasible in WA due to state liability laws.

There are plenty of condominiums in WA, especially on the east side.

Lots of existing ones, but not a lot under construction. This[1] talks a little bit about why there haven't been a lot of projects in the last few years.

http://thelens.news/2018/01/10/the-need-for-condominium-liab...

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