Originally posted by @Aaron Nelson:
@Justin Frank said. The greater Seattle-Tacoma area still has a lot of upside and offers a blend of cashflow and appreciation potential. In many areas, we've seen double digit appreciation and rent growth for multiple years in a row. My wife and I just leased two of our Tacoma rentals in less than a week and got $100+ rent bumps on each unit.
The economy is very diverse with multiple tech companies, universities, healthcare, military, import/export, etc. It is important to keep the quality of jobs in mind when assessing an area's investment potential. There are a lot of tertiary markets where one or two major employers provide a large percentage of the employment. To me, that is a red flag!
I guess you didn't read the news. This doesn't make WA a landlord friendly state after over paying for properties and taxes. I voted with my feet and sold my WA properties.
Gov. expands statewide eviction moratorium, halts rent hikes
By Associated Press Thursday, April 16, 2020
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - Washington Gov. Jay
Inslee on Thursday extended and expanded his moratorium on evictions and
imposed a new freeze on increases of residential rents in an effort to
help residents better handle the economic shutdown amid the coronavirus
pandemic.
The order comes a month after Inslee announced a
30-day moratorium on evictions for residential tenants, the Seattle
Times reported. The statewide ban on evictions will be extended another
seven weeks and will include new measures meant to protect more tenants.
Part of the new eviction moratorium includes a
ban on residential rent increases during the public health emergency.
Commercial rent increases also will be barred if the commercial tenant
has been impacted by the coronavirus.
The state Attorney General’s Office said
earlier this week that it had received complaints of landlords sending
out rent increases during the pandemic, which could, under certain
circumstances, violate state law. Attorney General Bob Ferguson said his
office would be looking closing at those complaints.
The extended eviction moratorium will now also
cover people in housing such as motels and Airbnbs, on public camping
grounds and mobile home owners on leased lots.
Additionally, the order prohibits landlords
from threatening to add late fees or charges for non-payment, as well as
charge rent for housing where a tenant’s access to the unit was
prevented by COVID-19. The provision includes seasonal and college
housing in which tenants weren’t able to stay in the unit as a result of
the crisis.
“People are going to feel better about staying
home and I think this will ultimately help us fight the virus,” Xochitl
Maykovich, political director for the Washington Community Action
Network, said. “I hope the legislature is thinking about how we can put
these policies into law permanently. It shouldn’t just be for COVID-19,
because there are plenty of situations where people have emergencies and
can’t pay rent.”
Over 585,000 people in Washington sought
unemployment benefits last week, with 143,000 people filing claims for
the first time as businesses remain shuttered or with limited operations
