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MARCH 12, 2025
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VOL. 106, NO. 11
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The Building Industry Association of Washington, in partnership with the Washington Center for Housing Studies, examined the costs associated with single-family homes and townhomes, focusing on bureaucratic impediments and market conditions
Report: Home construction costs in Washington state climbing due to red tape By Brett Davis The Center Square
One of the largest home building associations in America has released a report detailing the rising costs of home construction in Washington state, blaming onerous government regulations for higher prices. The Building Industry Association of Washington, in partnership with the Washington Center for Housing Studies, examined the costs associated with single-family homes and townhomes, focusing on bureaucratic impediments and market conditions. Key findings from the “Cost of Constructing New Homes in Washington State (2024)” report, released on Monday, paint an expensive picture. According to the report, the average cost to build a single-family detached home in the Evergreen State is $309 per square foot, with a median sales price of $690,701 for a 2,505-square-foot home. The cost
to build an average single-family home of a similar size in the U.S. is $428,215, according to the latest study from the National Association of Home Builders. The report states that townhome construction averages $404 per square foot and has a median sales price of $592,195. The median cost to acquire raw land in key counties in Washington is $286,996 per lot. Regulatory costs imposed by local, state, and federal governments account for 23.8% of the final home price, per the report, totaling an estimated $164,386 per new home. “Washington families are struggling to afford homeownership due to rising construction costs and burdensome regulations,” BIAW President Kent Arola said in a news release. “We need smart policies that encourage housing development while keeping costs manageable.” The report calls for the passage of housing affordability bills currently being considered by the Legislature,
including Senate Bill 5184 to modernize parking regulations, House Bill 1096 to allow for administrative lot splitting to open up more buildable land, and Senate Bill 5729 to allow a licensed and insured design professional stamp to represent a complete permit application to speed up permit approval timelines. BIAW’s report broadly reflects the general take of the private and public sectors regarding Washington’s housing challenge. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, there is a shortage of nearly 172,000 affordable and available rental homes for extremely low-income renters in Washington. In 2023, the Washington State Department of Commerce released its final housing needs projections, showing the state needs to add 1.1 million homes over the next two decades, and that more than half of them need to be affordable for the lowest-income residents.
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hen things don’t go our way, our first instinct is to find external conditions to blame. For example, we might say to ourselves, I can’t advance at work because of the corporate culture, the economy, or my boss’ personality. In doing so we fail to consider a most impactErica ful idea: that we are livBrowne ing within self-imposed Grivas limitations. Get Growing Why is this so important? First, because even if the culture, economy or your boss are factors in your professional success at your current role, those conditions are not under your control. Our self-beliefs are the strongest levers we have in shaping our perspective of the world, and while it may not feel like it much of the time, they are under our control. Second, we tend to have a long-standing blind spot when it comes to self-reflection, so it would be foolish to ignore what influence our self-view may be playing in our life. Our brains feed on past expectations to predict and respond efficiently to future situations. Conditional behavioral training techniques like Pavlov and his dogs use this mechanism to shape behavior. When the bell rings, it’s feeding time. When first training a trick or behavior, a dog may need treats and lots of repetition. Eventually, they need fewer triggers to elicit the behavior. As the behavior becomes reinforced, the trigger or signal can be phased from treats to a word or hand signal. Our bodies are doing this unconsciously all the time. We create protective patterns to avoid pain. If your shoulder is stiff, you might change your posture, leaning to the opposite side. That’s not a problem for a week or so, but over months can cause muscle imbalances and injuries. Playing tennis recently for the first time in a long while, I realized I was hanging back, not running for the ball, just in case I might tweak my tricky knee. It was casual hitting session, so I just let balls go by me. It made me wonder; what shots am I missing in other areas without realizing it? As our nervous systems seek input from the environment about our safety, our body and brain respond – usually with one of our preset belief or behavior patterns. Some patterns are more obvious, like a positive association with chocolate and warm blankets, or getting tense before a test or a visit to the dentist. Yet many were laid down even in childhood, based on something a parent or teacher said, or a mistaken conclusion you drew, and your brain has been building on that ever since. Because this process is lightning fast, and unconscious, it’s nearly impossible to prevent before we have a limiting response. The trick is in paying attention to the physical and mental chatter happening internally. For some, it’s easiest to scan your emotional register first – for others, thoughts or bodily sensations are clearer. The order doesn’t matter; they all work to increase your awareness of your emotional mechanics. Over time, you’ll notice your patterns such as, “When I’m anxious, my heart beats faster and I feel queasy.” If negative thoughts arise, note them. Do you think you’re not ready/too old/unsuited for this job? If you are feeling upset, try distracting yourself with another activity that feels good. If you are calm, try questioning those thoughts – are they really true? Are they serving you? The act of placing them in the spotlight, a little like ringing Pavlov’s bell, will help you be more aware the next time it happens.
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