The Speculative Bubble: Why Seattle’s Rents Are Unsustainable
An editorial in the *Seattle Daily Intelligencer* warns that rampant real estate speculation is driving up costs for actual producers, urging a return to sensible valuation before the inevitable crash.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
DULL TIMES.
The cry at "no money" is as abundant as "good morning," just at a time when our principal staple of export—lignite coal—is being shipped away from here in larger quantities than ever and a rising market at that. Now our other industries under any temporary suspension, for the foundries and factories are all busy. Yet dollars are scarce, and loans are past negotiation, while at Port Townsend and other places on the Sound, there is no lack of ready cash.
The cause of this stagnation is nothing more or less than the reaction of a system of speculation in real estate which was inaugurated here three years ago. It was far in advance of the improvement of the city for years to come. The place is growing and increasing all the time in commercial importance, but nothing like accordant with the figures that are being placed on city lots.
Rents are uniformly higher than in Portland and, when we consider the difference in the cost of building material, ahead of San Francisco. They must come down, or people will go where they can live cheaper.
If speculation was confined merely to men who are buying, or have bought, upon their own capital, then it would be bad enough; but most of them have mortgaged their homes to buy other property, and are now paying interest upon a valuation which, however safe it may be for note-brokers, is very unsafe for the makers. We have but little sympathy for such as do go to the wall, for they are the ones who directly cause heavy rents to be levied upon actual producers. Again we say, keep off speculation, if you would avoid hard times and Sheriffs sales.
This 1876 editorial captures the exact moment Seattle’s first major real estate boom began to bubble over, mirroring modern anxieties about housing affordability driven by speculative investment rather than organic growth. The editor’s frustration that "actual producers" are priced out by speculators who leverage their homes to buy more land is a narrative that resonates deeply with today’s debates on gentrification and the disconnect between local wages and property values.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.