The 1877 Seattle Real Estate Boom
A local newspaper editorial from 1877 argues that despite economic 'stringency,' land investment remains the safest bet for the city's future.
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.
It is a remarkable fact that, notwithstanding the business depression and the money stringency during the past year, real estate values in this city have held their rates up to the highest standard of flush times, and in many central portions, they have materially advanced. No one has ever lost a dollar by judicious investment in property here. During the last five years the actual value of property in the county has increased from $900,000 in 1871 to $2,133,028 in 1876, an increase of a fraction more than 100 per cent. This immense increase is almost entirely in the city. The greatest mistake which investors make is in disassociating the element of improvement from land in their purchases. Investments should be made with a primary view to improvability. If a multitude of those who get a little forehanded would secure a few suburban lots and devote a few months time to converting them into beautiful homesteads for residence or gardens and orchards for permanent income, they would find that for the same amount of labor expended they will have made money faster while thus working for themselves than while on wages. It is this combination of art with nature, the addition of labor to inert capital, that creates value.
“It is this combination of art with nature, the addition of labor to inert capital that creates value.”
This 1877 editorial highlights the historic roots of Seattle's obsession with property value and 'improvability.' Today's debates over zoning, development, and the financialization of housing echo this 19th-century push to transform land into capital.
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