Capitol Hill: Love it and leave it

For some reason we can conjure up a lot more empathy for longtime Seattle residents getting priced out of their neighborhoods by an incoming tide of people with longer lines of credit than we can for the Boise couple who complained to the P-I not so long ago about not being able to afford their dream cottage in Seattle. On the other hand, we're not quite ready to erect a barricade on the Hill, bring the AKs down from the attic and memorize the manifesto either. We do feel for the Nerd's Eye View blog, but neighborhoods do change, as her neighbor says and as we've said in the past.

From Nerd's Eye View:

“Neighborhoods change,” says a friend of mine, philosophical and sad. He’s just returned to the Hill after living away for the last few years and I’m sure he’s disappointed that just as he’s getting settled in to his rental apartment, in a house that’s sure to be torn down and sold to developers in the next few years, his people are moving away.

He tells me that we are in the most expensive zip code in the city. That explains why I’ve been unable to find what I want here: a little cottage house with suitable workshop space for painting. This seems not much to ask, but neighbors recently sold their tiny two bedroom cottage around the corner for 440k, well above what I can afford. Look at that number again. 440k for a 900 square foot cottage.

As I’ve told people about my upcoming move, I’m learning that I’m part of an odd sort of urban flight. I’m in the company of folks who really don’t want all that much - a modest house with a patch of yard - but can not bring themselves to pay half a million dollars or more to get it - if they can find even that. A friend who I consider to be quite well off told me how she and her husband were starting to question the wisdom of paying So Much Money on a mortgage.