Seattle lands in top five ranked cities in the world
Seattle has been named one of the best cities in the world, placing fourth behind New York, London, and Paris. The ranking comes from the Oxford Economics Global Cities Index for 2026, which scores 1,000 cities across five categories—economics, human capital, quality of life, environment and governance—and gave Seattle an overall score of 92.8 out of 100. The report argues that the world’...
27-story residential high-rise planned for longtime Bellevue parking lot
Downtown Bellevue’s building boom has a new entry. The city has granted final approval for a 27-story residential tower at 205 105th Avenue NE, on a corner lot that’s functioned as not much more than a parking lot since 2018. Su Development, a Bellevue-based firm, is leading the project, called 205 Tower, with MZA serving as design architect. The approved building will bring 142 housin...
Suburban developers are trading big yards for a stronger sense of connection
Across the country, developers of master-planned communities are betting that buyers want more than square footage. As home prices and borrowing costs have climbed, the pitch has shifted from big houses and big yards to connection, walkability and a feeling of belonging. Master-planned communities are town- or neighborhood-size projects where a single entity controls the infrastructure and the ove...
Local Market Update – September 2026
August delivered a clear signal that our local markets are moving through their seasonal cool-down, though this year’s pullback landed harder than usual. Median prices dropped from July across three of our four areas, and more sharply than typical in August, likely a combination of the season’s usual slowdown ahead of fall and broader market conditions compounding it. Year-over-year declines w...
The “Donut Effect” is supercharging growth in Snohomish County as city centers stall
Several Snohomish County towns have quietly become some of the fastest-growing communities in the state as population centers like Seattle and Bellevue see growth slow to a crawl. State Office of Financial Management data shows Seattle grew just 0.8% last year and Bellevue only 0.2%, a sharp contrast to what’s happening farther north. It’s part of a broader pattern researchers have nicknamed t...
The Bellevue Collection, the Eastside’s retail crown jewel, could be up for sale
Bellevue’s core shopping destination may be changing hands. The Freeman family, longtime owners of Kemper Development Co., announced late August that it’s exploring a sale of the Bellevue Collection, the 5.5-million-square-foot complex that anchors downtown Bellevue. The family says the decision was driven by several factors, including Kemper Freeman Jr.’s retirement last year. The Belle...
World Cup attendance lifts Seattle summer tourism above pre-pandemic levels
Downtown Seattle posted its busiest July on record this year, according to new data from the Downtown Seattle Association. The organization reported more than 3.7 million unique visitors, a 5% jump from last July and roughly 12% above 2019 levels, the last full summer before the pandemic reshaped how people work and spend their time. That figure comes from cellphone location data and doesn’t eve...
Local Market Update – August 2026
July brought a shift across our four markets: after a year of building inventory and softening prices, every market area moved into balanced territory, with prices staying relatively steady across the board. Buyers, working with more leverage than in recent years, are finding more homes to choose from and taking more time to make decisions. Sellers are seeing that homes priced right and presented ...
Washington climbs to No. 9 in annual state ranking, reversing multi-year slide
After a multi-year slip down the U.S. News & World Report “Best States” list, Washington moved up to No. 9 in latest edition released in late July, edging out last year’s 10th-place finish. It’s not quite back to the No. 2 ranking the state held in 2023, but its trend reversal is good news. U.S. News builds its list using 71 different data points spanning eight categories: healthcare,...