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May 8, 2008 10:00 PM

Seattle's apartment boom expected to cool

Posted by Bill Kossen

Seattle currently is one of the country's top 10 markets for apartment construction, and it's also one of the 10 strongest for apartment demand.

But there may be a cloud or two on the horizon for developers, said Greg Willett, vice-president of M/PF YieldStar, a firm that tracks rental trends in 57 metropolitan markets.

"Seattle, everyone thinks, in in great shape, but we're worried," Willett said at this week's meeting in Dallas of the National Association of Real Estate Editors.

Seattle currently has 6,224 apartment units under construction.and that may be too many, he said. Plus Seattle is seeing numerous projects get converted from condos to apartments, reversing a recent trend that saw thousands of apartments lost to condominum conversion.

Credit the slowdown in home sales, and particularly the problems first-time buyers are having getting financing, with that. But Willett says any oversupply won't last long. Fewer new apartments will be built in the near future because the credit crunch affecting homebuyers is also making money harder to come by for developers.
--Elizabeth Rhodes from Dallas

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