Spokane’s Boom Years, in a chart

While looking up some real estate data, I came across an interesting chart. The following chart is from Zillow.com and shows what percent of our housing was built in which 20 year period, for the past 110+ years.

As you can see, the largest growth or boom periods were around 1900-1919 (Spokane’s mining boom years) and 1940-1959 (post WW II, Kaiser Aluminum, and agriculture growth). This chart might be skewed because some of the older homes were likely torn down and replaced (which means things are worse than they appear). Another factor would be population demographics, like the size of various age cohorts, but this should apply equally to most cities in the state.

While the years up through 2007-2008 were viewed as a local housing boom, the historical context suggests this was not much of a boom. Spokane does worse than all of these cities, even Tacoma.

Spokane

Source: http://www.zillow.com/local-info/WA-Spokane-homes/r_20604/

Compared to other cities around the state, Spokane’s growth pattern suggests a community in decline. Take a look at the following cities. This is an indicator of serious problems in river city – people here should be very concerned about this.

Vancouver, WA

Source: http://www.zillow.com/local-info/WA-Vancouver-homes/r_48215/

Olympia, WA

Everett, WA

Kenniweck, WA

Renton, WA

Tacoma, WA

Zillow did not have data for Yakima or Wenatchee.