AND THEY ARE CHANGING HOW YOU WILL DO BUSINESS!

This week I want to talk about what is changing in housing here in Washington State, with two new housing bills that Governor Jay Inslee signed-into law this past May, 2023.

The first one I want to talk about is HB1110. For those of you who don't know about it, please look it up. This legislation was designed to increase middle-housing opportunities in areas that were traditionally zoned single-family residential (SFR). That means that there are huge changes that have happened regarding what can be done with land that was originally zoned to only have one home on it. This legislation is changing how agents:

Price Property: Finding comparative properties and knowing how to price property that can support middle-housing development just got a whole lot more interesting.

Market Property: No longer are we just focused on the home. Suddenly, the property potential could be a huge game-changer to how you market a listing.

Research Property: If middle-housing development is an option, you need to know how this will benefit home sellers and how to communicate this opportunity to them.

If you are selling a single-family home now and that property or home has the ability to have additional units or product put onto it, could that property now be worth more money? These are the kinds of things that you will need to know.

SPECIALIZED ADU AND DEVELOPMENT TRAINING STARTS THIS OCTOBER AND LESS THAN FIVE SPOTS REMAIN!

This training on ADUs, valuation, condoization, development, density, and more will take place during ENCORE beginning in October through April. This is the cutting-edge training you need to understand the massive changes that are coming to our market with House Bills 1337 and 1110, as well as Comprehensive Plan Updates.

REACH OUT TO LEARN MORE

The other house bill that was signed into law is HB1337. This bill was specifically designed to expand housing options by easing the barriers to construction. This is a huge one. Here, you have single-family residence properties that can now support ADU/DADU buildings and additions. This is going to affect not just property value, but will affect neighbors, the selling and buying of property, and more.

Both of these house bills are changing everything that agents think they know about valuing property and I highly recommend that you become familiar with both of these bills, because you are going to be hearing a lot more about them.

I've been following these bills since they were first presented, the conversations around them as they have been debated, amended, and evolved. These bills weren't just introduced and then passed. They have seen extensive review, conversation, and input. The bottom-line is that at the highest levels of government in the State of Washington, they are aware that there is simply not enough housing. Affordable housing continues to be a major challenge in many markets and that is one of the reasons these bills were created. We must have that middle market for housing and the changes to the barriers for construction will be a big part of the long-term solution that these bills help provide.