apartments, condos, my sordid history, etc.

[walkitout]

Once upon a time, when I was married to my first husband, I lived for about a year in an apartment in Seattle. It was a nice complex called "The Club at Bitter Lake". 130th got you to a freeway entrance/exit. There was a branch library in very easy walking distance. The complex had an outdoor pool, and outdoor jacuzzi and an indoor jacuzzi. We rented a 2 bedroom, 2 bath unit and had a roommate, which brought the rent ($750 for the unit, IIRC) into a manageable range (I had a job making $30ishK at a company on the east side; my husband was finishing up at college and had both health problems and a serious shopping addiction issue -- possibly both artifacts of his knowledge that I wasn't long for either the marriage or the religion). There was some chaos, I got a divorce and moved to a rental house in Ballard and eventually to a condo on Cap Hill and then swapped coasts.

I don't think it ever occurred to me to ask what was going on at that apartment complex, until I got to wondering about multifamily development in various locations. Apparently during the boom someone thought it would be a good idea to close up The Club, renovate it, and then put it back on the market as condos. The timing wasn't great, so it is back to renting, now under the name "Veridian Cove". But it's the same buildings, the same amenities, the same floor plans. Rent is just about double what it was back in the early/mid 1990s, but time passes (actually, to be completely fair, rent on the 2X2 should be under $1200 if you apply a CPI deflator -- that's housing inflation for you).

I'm feeling a little stunned by the new development up at Echo Lake, and the new YMCA nearby.

Comments

[jkonrath.livejournal.com]

Had to go check if my old Seattle apartment was still an apartment. The 500 square foot studio I first rented in 1995 for $600/month is now $994/month. CPI inflation-wise, it should be $890. The real question is how the hell I got all of these books into a 500-square foot apartment.

do you have any ideas what this might mean?

[walkitout]

I mean, other than that probably there's some pent-up demand for multi-family in the Seattle area and we sort of knew that already. It just seems weird that something not old enough to be interesting for that reason gets another 15 years old shouldn't really get more expensive (altho I guess they did upgrade the finishes).

I agree on the books-in-small-space question.