End of Summer Urban Living Meetup Report
I had a great time at last week’s meetup it was definitely the best event yet! Going into the meetup I was totally bummed out about my housing situation but left encouraged by hearing stories of people holding more units than me and by just chatting with lots of supportive folks (thankfully everything worked out this week.) And as always you folks tell me great stories and teach me a lot but many times I’m sworn to secrecy (the list of projects you should stay away from keeps growing.) Hopefully more of you will send me some anonymous emails that I can post here so that we can all benefit from lessons learned.
Big thanks to Carl for organizing and the CTC for hosting. The next meetup will be in a month once I’ve moved into Trace and I’ll have you all over to check the place out. For the meetup after that we’d like to find a developer or architect to come in and give a 15-30 minute talk. Suggestions for speakers and topic are welcome.
– Matt
By guest contributor Greg Raece
What better place to survey the state of Seattle’s condo market than from a perch above it all on the 75th floor of the Columbia Tower? If you were one of the real estate aficionados who showed up for last week’s Urban Living Meetup at the Columbia Tower Club, you got a chance to mix great condo conversation with a really incredible view.
More than 40 Urban Living fans met up for a few hours to just hang out and chat while snacking on appetizers and drinks. Conversations covered a wide gamut of topics from the adventures of closing their units at the Trace Lofts, to discussing the current state of land-use affairs in Seattle, to swapping information about a bunch of the significant condo developments in town. From the folks at the Meetup I talked with, it seemed like there was a pretty good mix of people who work in the real estate and development industry, to others like me who just like to follow what they’re doing. One of the discussions that kept coming up was whether Seattle’s current real estate market was headed for a correction. My completely unscientific poll left me with the impression that although most folks are bullish on Seattle’s growing economy, they are anticipating some additional softening in our real estate market.
Matt and Carl also addressed the group and we learned that “all Urban Living Meetup participants will have the opportunity to join the Columbia Tower Club during the next 30 days and pay the reduced initiation fee of $250 (versus the standard rate of $1,500).” Sorry, shameless plug, but the Columbia Tower Club really was nice to Urban Living. In addition, we also found out that:
- Matt does most of his blog posts during the wee hours of the night
- Urban Living gets more than 500 unique visitors a day [Matt: and sometimes way more than that; thanks for reading.]
- The Columbia Tower Club dress code police tried without success to enforce their ‘no denim jeans’ policy even though Matt’s jeans probably cost more than most dress slacks (various members of the Club are trying to get that policy changed to reflect Seattle’s more casual and high-tech style)
Anyway, I think I can also speak for Matt and Carl and say that everyone really enjoyed the Meetup and are already looking forward to the next one.
Update: You can find photos of the event at Mike Murry’s blog.
