Washington's largest metropolis has many regulations to promote "smart growth." Those policies encourage higher population density in the core city, more green space outside it and less urban sprawl.
Smart growth has costs, however. "It restricts the supply of single-family homes," said Lennox Scott of John L. Scott Real Estate.
By some estimates, housing in Seattle is as much as 80% more expensive than it would be otherwise. Prices rose sharply during the boom and have fallen moderately hard since then, down about 25%, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index.
The buy-rent ratio has shrunk thanks to foreclosures sending thousands of people into the renter category. That has firmed up rents, but it's still more economical to rent in Seattle because the median home price is more than twice the national average of about $170,000.
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