Eviction Numbers and Rental Housing Supply

Some of our readers may have seen the news stories as of late about eviction filings in King County being nearly double in October what they were in April of 2023. However, if you dig into the numbers and speak with those who work in the industry daily, you will be privy to a little more background information. I wrote last month about my opportunity to sit down with two local rental housing providers and a local attorney to speak about the long timeline for evictions. If you recall my article last month, many eviction cases are taking up to or over a year. Sometimes longer if the law changes during the case or if one small item was not filed properly. 

This leads me to the rise in eviction filings and how a fair number of those are just a refiling of the same case. According to a report released by the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington, eviction filings in King County are still well below pre-COVID numbers. For example, the rough number of eviction filings in 2017 was just under 5,000. The most recent data available ending in March 2023, shows filings over the last year were just over 2,000. This, in combination with the Housing Justice Project purposely dragging their feet at every possible turn, has led to a small crisis for rental housing providers. 

What I have for our readers today though is a preview of my conversation with Cory Brewer who works with Windermere Property Management Lori Gill and Associates. If you have been around RHAWA for any length of time or are an avid Current reader, you will know Cory’s name already. Cory and I spoke at length about the current timeline and safety issues with evictions whether you are the rental housing provider OR the tenant as well as the short-term outlook for the purchase AND rental housing market. 

“I think we have some pretty strong evidence prior to interest rates jumping to 7 and 8 percent what the housing market was doing in response to legislation. And the Seattle RRIO numbers tell that story pretty clearly. Where the number of units stayed relatively flat over the, I think, it was a two-year period, but if you look at the number of three and four and more bedroom units versus zero and one bedroom units, big change there. The way that database measures things is all those are all considered one unit. So a studio apartment is one housing and six bedroom ten thousand square foot house is one unit,” Cory explained while we spoke about rental housing supply. 

So, what we have is an issue of data being selectively chosen to tell the narrative that rental housing units in Seattle have increased in the apartment sector over the last several years. However, as Cory stated, the large majority of this housing is for people living and working in the city who do not have families to raise and can live in a studio or 1-bedroom apartment versus living in a single-family home in the suburbs with a yard and 1.5 kids. Small “mom-and-pop” rental housing providers provide a huge proportion of the single-family housing units in Washington State and many of the recently passed policies and laws are really starting to curb availability for people raising families. 

Cory went on to say, “Where we see it a lot on the single-family end is these larger families that are also subsidy voucher holders. They have limited choices to begin with and that’s great and everything that this new tower is being built with a bunch of studio apartments, but we need a four-bedroom house, on a voucher, in Renton and there’s none available anymore.”

You would think given the current housing shortage even including the apartment side of things, that local jurisdictions would be heavily incentivized to keep small rental housing providers who provide much of the single-family homes.

For my full interview with Cory Brewer, check out the RHAWA Podcast, Housing Matters. You can find that wherever you get your podcasts. If you prefer the video version, check out RHAWA’s YouTube page for all video episodes of Housing Matters. Make sure you like and subscribe so you will be notified every time we post a new episode.