t*****r
发帖数: 4431 | 1 朋友发过来的，不到15分钟以前的新闻，谢谢这位远方关注西雅图的朋友：
Updated Monday, November 3, 2014 at 09:58 AM
Teardowns transforming Bellevue neighborhoods
By Lynn Thompson
/ Seattle Times staff reporter
On a rainy morning on the northwest edge of Bellevue, a backhoe chews up a
1950s rambler in room-sized chunks. Over the next three hours, the carport
that had been converted to a third bedroom, the large picture window
overlooking the quiet residential street, even the updated kitchen with
granite countertops, break apart into splinters and bursts of drywall dust.
In its place on the large wooded lot, a builder plans a new luxury home more
than three times the size of the rambler, with a sale price of more than $2
million.
Builders and city officials in Bellevue say the trend of tearing down modest
, midcentury houses and replacing them with larger, more expensive ones has
accelerated over the past two years, as the economy has rebounded and
increasingly affluent professionals seek neighborhoods close to city centers
with good schools and shorter commutes.
But the gradual makeover of entire suburban blocks where a generation of
baby boomers came of age alarms some longtime residents. They, and some new
arrivals, worry about the changing character of their neighborhoods, rising
property values, and the area’s affordability for a new generation of young
families.
“I hardly recognize it anymore,” said Penny Gates, 88, who with her
husband moved into a College Hills rambler in 1975 when, she said, the busy
arterial in front of the house “was a nice country road.”
Now, from her front deck, she can see the raw two-by-four frames going up on
six houses whose sale price, according to the builder’s website, will
start in the $900,000s.
Behind her is a 15-house development built two years ago on 5 acres where
two low-profile houses had stood. Down the hill, another 3-acre parcel,
currently leased to a towing company, is for sale for almost $4 million.
“I don’t know if I can keep this house with all the million-dollar houses
going up around me. My taxes are going to go out of sight,” Gates said.
In Bellevue, almost half of all single-family construction in 2013 and 2014
involved teardowns of existing homes. Most of that activity was concentrated
near downtown, in West Bellevue and Northwest Bellevue, areas west of
Interstate 405 and between Interstates 90 and 520.
In those two neighborhoods, 118 new-home projects were demolitions and
rebuilds, while just 16 were new houses on vacant land.
On Mercer Island last year, 58 of 59 new housing construction permits were
for demolitions and rebuilds, according to that city’s development-services
department.
Although the numbers are striking, officials in both cities note that most
new residential construction is apartments and condominiums in their
downtowns. Both suburbs were largely built out by the 1970s, and little
undeveloped land remains.
Homes snatched up
More than half of Bellevue’s housing stock was built in the 1950s and ’60s
, as returning war veterans and city dwellers flooded the suburbs around
Seattle in search of new houses in safe neighborhoods with big yards and
room to grow.
Those features are still attractive to buyers today.
Mike Brennan, director of development services for the city, said that
during the last burst of development activity, starting in about 2005 and
lasting until the recession hit, developers started tearing down some of the
aging ramblers and split-level homes and erecting big new homes.
Over the past two years, the trend has picked up again.
During the last burst, Brennan said, the city heard lots of complaints from
residents about the new homes being out of scale and character with existing
homes.
The city adopted guidelines to limit the size of new houses to a proportion
of the lot size and the scale of adjacent homes, retain mature trees, and
ensure that the new construction didn’t completely block sunlight for the
old.
This time around, city leaders say, the angst over redevelopment of
residential streets hasn’t been as loud.
“The city responds to citizens. The public hasn’t camped out at City Hall,
” said Conrad Lee, a 20-year member of the Bellevue City Council. He said
Bellevue leaders have made the city’s quality of life a priority. Good
schools, low crime and an attractively built environment have all served to
draw new residents and businesses.
The redevelopment of older neighborhoods is a good thing, he argued.
“It means people want to live here. We are in more demand.”
And while Lee said many neighborhoods in East Bellevue remain affordable to
middle-income families, he also said the city needs to address the issue of
affordable housing and work-force housing so people who work in Bellevue can
afford to live there.
Christina Konig, her husband and two children rented a house in Northwest
Bellevue when they moved from Oakland, Calif., last year. She said they were
attracted to the “really good schools” and the quality of the city
services including police, fire and roads. And though they loved the quiet
neighborhood and the midcentury homes, they found those homes getting
snatched up by developers for $600,000 to $800,000 only to be torn down and
replaced by new houses that cost three times as much.
“All the houses in that neighborhood were getting knocked down. One day a
house would be there, and the next it would be gone. There was nothing in
West Bellevue we could afford,” Konig said.
She and her husband found a midcentury split level in the Lake Heights
neighborhood of South Bellevue. It was designed by an architect and was home
to the original owner. They got it only after upping their bid by $110,000.
“We were happy to have it. We’d already lost out on one bidding war,”
Konig said.
No end in sight
The redevelopment boom is likely to continue as long as high-tech firms and
other good-paying companies on the Eastside are growing and recruiting top
workers from around the world, said Marc Rousso, a co-owner of JayMarc Homes
, which builds luxury houses in Bellevue and Mercer Island.
In 2011, he said, his company was buying ramblers in old neighborhoods for
about $450,000. Now he pays upward of $600,000, more for large lots that can
be from 9,000 to 20,000 square feet.
One of his new homes in the Enatai neighborhood of Bellevue, which went on
the market last month, features hardwood floors, an expansive kitchen in
gleaming silvers and grays, a master bedroom with dual walk-in closets, kids
’ rooms with corner window seats, a three-car garage and an arched stone
entry way. Last year, one of Rousso’s new houses, a 4,300-square-foot
Craftsman with four bedrooms and 3½baths, sold for $1.8 million in
one day.
The buyer was a doctor with a young family relocating from Seattle, Rousso
said. Other buyers include midcareer professionals from Microsoft and Amazon
, entrepreneurs and Chinese nationals. About 40 percent of his sales over
the last year have been to Chinese clients, he said.
“People want a close-in location. They want to be closer to the downtown
core, and that’s not necessarily Seattle anymore,” he said.
And while it’s uncertain how long the boom will last, he predicts that the
aging ramblers will continue to disappear.
“The redevelopment will be forever,” Rousso said.
Last week, as the backhoe devoured the 1950s house in Northwest Bellevue,
Charles West stood with his walker before the picture window of his own
rambler next door.
A retired Boeing engineer, West bought the three-bedroom house for $15,800
in 1955 with his wife and raised six kids.
There were kids up and down the block, he recalled, not only in and out of
each others’ houses but in and out of each others’ refrigerators. The
grown-ups organized block parties and dances. Everyone knew everyone else.
In July, West, 93, agreed to sell his house to Rousso for $800,000, the same
price the builder paid for the rambler next door. The street is now a mix
of the old and new. Across from his house, West said, one of the luxury
homes built by a different developer sold for $2.4 million.
West doesn’t think anyone actually lives there. He’s only ever seen a
caretaker who checks on it once in awhile.
“Nobody knows anybody anymore,” he said, “and I’m a pretty gregarious
guy.”
West is still fond of the rambler where he’s lived the last 59 years.
“This was a modern home with clean lines. It was very comfortable, very
efficient. I’m sad to see it go.” He’s moving to an apartment in downtown
Bellevue where, he notes, he’ll be able to walk to the library and stores. | q******n
发帖数: 4479 | 2 有人知道在156街上，老无极妈呀边在造的建筑是什么？ 公寓？ condo? 廉租房？ 包
子感谢。
.
【在 t*****r 的大作中提到】
: 朋友发过来的，不到15分钟以前的新闻，谢谢这位远方关注西雅图的朋友：
: Updated Monday, November 3, 2014 at 09:58 AM
: Teardowns transforming Bellevue neighborhoods
: By Lynn Thompson
: / Seattle Times staff reporter
: On a rainy morning on the northwest edge of Bellevue, a backhoe chews up a
: 1950s rambler in room-sized chunks. Over the next three hours, the carport
: that had been converted to a third bedroom, the large picture window
: overlooking the quiet residential street, even the updated kitchen with
: granite countertops, break apart into splinters and bursts of drywall dust.
| J****h
发帖数: 623 | 3 Bellevue 可建地没了， 一地难求啊！ 破房子当然值钱 . 除非你买东面很乡下的新房
， 交通不方便啊 |
|
