Housing Boom in Seattle and Portland Brings Stability

Rents are mercifully beginning to decline in the high-cost/high-growth cities of the Pacific Northwest. Portland and Seattle are great examples of basic economics in action. Portland alone added 4,419 new housing units in 2016, more than it added in the five years prior to 2014 combined. As the number of apartment units being built has risen, average rents across the two cities has actually started to decrease. It turns out that the laws of supply and demand may be able to assist housing affordability in the Pacific Northwest.

For the latest news, videos, and podcasts in the AEC Industry, be sure to subscribe to our industry publication.

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!

Twitter – twitter.com/AECMKSL
Facebook – facebook.com/marketscale
LinkedIn – linkedin.com/company/marketscale

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!

Image

Latest

pre-clinical
From Classroom to Clinic: Pre-Clinical Talent Steps Into Healthcare’s Hard-to-Fill Roles
April 23, 2026

Healthcare systems are facing a workforce crisis that’s no longer temporary—it’s structural. Even before COVID-19, staffing shortages across nursing, technical, and administrative roles were already straining capacity; today, those gaps are wider, costlier, and directly impacting patient access. With labor shortages persisting and burnout rising, health systems are being forced to rethink not just…

Read More
learning
If Higher Ed Wants Experiential Learning at Scale, It Needs a Broader Playbook
April 21, 2026

The ground is shifting under higher education. AI is changing how people learn almost overnight—and at the same time, more than half of graduates are underemployed after finishing their degrees. That’s forcing a more uncomfortable question into the open: what is a college credential really worth today? As employers and governments shift their focus…

Read More
skilled trades mentorship
Why the Modern Data Center Is Forcing Communities and Policymakers to Rethink Infrastructure
April 21, 2026

Data centers have moved from largely invisible digital infrastructure to a highly visible source of public debate as artificial intelligence accelerates demand for power, fiber, and compute capacity. The modern data center is now being built closer to population centers to support low-latency services, bringing critical infrastructure into direct contact with residential communities for…

Read More
Inside the Spot Freight Shift: How Manifold Is Simplifying a Fragmented Logistics Market
April 21, 2026

The freight market is in the midst of a notable shift. With national tender rejection rates approaching 14% by the end of Q1, freight conditions have shifted back in carriers’ favor, often coinciding with increased activity in the spot market. At the same time, logistics teams are juggling an increasingly fragmented ecosystem of portals, emails,…

Read More