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A 25-story apartment building in Seattle was deemed unsafe for habitation a few weeks ago and will be torn down due to the astronomical price tag of the repairs. The shocker is that the building was only built 9 years ago.
Will we see more buildings and houses deemed unsafe? This building came before the housing bubble, so one can only imagine how much worse construction got in the boom years. Was this a fluke or a trend?
Everyone’s heard of the horror stories of boom housing: Defective Chinese drywall, mold, and other housing maladies are traits of construction and renovation from 2004-2008. But the problem could be more wide spread than that.
But who’s ever heard of a recently constructed building needing to be torn down? With hundred-year-old buildings standing intact, what made this one so dangerous and costly to correct?
If we start to see more of these across the country, it could cause a shift in the housing market. By forcing the of dismantling our worst housing stock, the government could shore up the housing glut right now and bring stability to the market.
Here’s what would happen if suddenly the government deemed x% of units unsafe…
The units sold/rented would decrease, but the price would increase. It’s the perfect scenario for housing.
Now, I’m not a conspiracy theorist, and I don’t think there will actually be a coordinated effort to make this happen. But if the construction is as bad as it appears, it could happen anyway.
