Redmond Ridge East: Here It Comes…..

Nice coverage by the Seattle Time’s Ashley Bach on Redmond Ridge East, the final phase of the master planned community East of Redmond. Redmond Ridge, with the development of a nice, user friendly commercial core of businesses and services, coupled with the Trilogy Golf Course, is a great place to live. Murray Franklyn agreed to purchase this final phase from Quadrant Corp some time ago, but just closed on the deal last Fall as Quadrant worked through the development approval processes (see below). It is projected that new homes will be priced from the high $600’s to $1M+.

This Guy Is Smart, But I Could Have Saved Him The Time………;->

Having built a home in unincorporated King County a few years ago, I was introduced to the quagmire known as the building permit process at the King County Department of Development and Environmental Services ["DDES"]. The fees, the time, the various departments and their processes, was enough to ensure that I would not try it again.

Having worked with several small volume builders through the 1990’s, I witnessed first hand the frustrations these people were put through by DDES. However, I generally thought the builders were exaggerating. Not so. It’s worse.

Last Friday’s Seattle Times featured an article by the fellow above, Theo Eicher. Theo did his homework, there’s no doubt about that. His in depth study of the regulatory costs associated with home building in our region revealed what I learned the hard way: it’s expensive!

For years folks have asked me why houses are so expensive in King County and surrounding areas. My pat answer was, “the land supply is artificially constricted by land use regulations”. I guess I was right all along. But I didn’t know to what degree. That is what Mr. Eicher has managed to accomplish with his analysis. He, and his work, are to be admired for the impartiality with which it is conveyed. This is very good reading if you want to know why homes cost more in our region.