You hear of people with a passion. It is more frequently associated with someone’s hobby, their work, or something one is good at doing. When you speak with Mark Goldberg, a businessman and local developer in the greater Seattle area in the State of Washington – we are talking about housing demand and ‘screaming’ opportunities. We wanted to share excerpts from an article he wrote recently with his permission.

There is much to hear and to learn from him regarding its market issues and concerns related to high housing demand and costs. The problems are unlikely to go away very quickly but there are solutions. We invite you to read on:

“This forecast can be summarized as follows: the stage is set for the market to experience tremendous growth, creating significantly above-market returns.

The lack of affordable housing is a huge national problem and it’s even a bigger problem in the Seattle metro area because land prices are so high it’s impossible to build anything even close to what could be considered affordable housing. Gridlock everywhere is unbearable and getting worse because people have to commute ever longer distances north or south to find affordability. It appears that there’s no relief in sight for either problem. There is an answer to both problems, to the west of downtown Seattle: Bremerton and Kitsap County. The commute and affordability issues can be solved. Bremerton has very cheap land that allows affordable housing to be built, both apartments and for sale housing. Commutes within the County are easy and short. Commutes to downtown Seattle are scenic, serene (compared to being in a car) and relaxing, 28 minutes via the new passenger only ferries and the car ferry, 55 minutes. The discovery of affordable housing in Bremerton and Kitsap County will prove to be a G-d-send to thousands of people.

There is unbridled conviction that Bremerton is shaping up to deliver real estate returns surpassing anything anyone has seen in the Greater Seattle area since the end of the Great Recession in 2012. This is not conjecture, but is based on solid facts of all the indicators that are used to gauge markets. The most important indicator is market demand. The net demand in Kitsap County (not including Bainbridge Island) is huge, over 4,000 units and that’s if everything under construction and planned through 2022 gets built according to a market study by CBRE. This imbalance translates into sustained upward pressure on rents.”

For the sake of disclosure, Deborah Luedy, our founder and principal of Exclusive C.A.R.E., is also the Exclusive Listing Agent, NAI Capital, Inc. for Mr. Goldberg’s three (3) entitled sites in Bremerton. Further details will be provided from the market study in our next blog to this series.