Listen Now

Amid sharp criticism over how it treats its employees, Amazon is looking to fill nearly 55,000 open corporate and tech positions globally, including 40,000 in the U.S., the company announced Wednesday in the lead-up to its annual Career Day event for prospective job applicants.Amazon’s hiring spree is concentrated in Seattle, where the company, Washington state’s largest private employer, has nearly 12,500 open roles, more than in any other city. An Amazon spokesperson said that the open positions in Seattle are a combination of new roles and backfills for attrition and transfers out of the city.Trailing Seattle are Arlington, Virginia, where Amazon has roughly 2,600 open jobs at its second headquarters, and Bellevue, where the company lists roughly 1,500 open tech and corporate positions. Amazon has said it expects to locate 25,000 employees in Bellevue within four years.Join your host Sean Reynolds, owner of Summit Properties NW, and Reynolds & Kline Appraisal as he takes a look at this developing topic.https://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/amazon-looks-to-hire-12500-corporate-and-tech-employees-in-seattle-more-than-in-any-other-city/Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/seattlerealestatepodcast)

The divorce rate in the United State dropped about 20% over the last decade, according to data from the latest U.S. Census.But what about during the COVID-19 pandemic? Did the added stress affect marriages? Have divorce rates actually risen since the coronavirus entered our lives?To find out, KING 5 combed through the last 20 months of caseloads in Washington State’s Superior Courts where divorces are processed.We found dissolutions, which is the legal term for divorce filings, did go up in Washington state in spring 2021. But that's probably not because of the stress of the pandemic."There's a very pronounced seasonal pattern to divorce,” explained Julie Brines, a sociologist at the University of Washington with a Ph.D. from Harvard. “[Divorce filing] happens to peak in March, pretty consistently throughout the country, and then dips fairly dramatically in April. There also tends to be another peak in August and September, right after the summer vacation period."Join your host Sean Reynolds, owner of Summit Properties NW, and Reynolds & Kline Appraisal as he takes a look at this developing topic.https://www.king5.com/article/news/verify/verify-covid-pandemic-divorce-rates/281-fbfb42d3-789b-4f4f-8106-8d73e619e54bSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/seattlerealestatepodcast)

“We continue to see more victims being shot each year,” Interim Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz said.A few Seattle leaders held a news conference Tuesday morning to address the recent surge in gun violence. This conference came after six shootings took place across Seattle over the weekend, one of which left two people dead at a North Seattle apartment building. But Diaz says that’s just the latest in what’s been a disturbing trend.“So far, year to date, there have been over 100 additional shootings compared to the same time last year in 2020,” Diaz said.Officers are digging in to these investigations, but the big spike in shootings combined with the loss of nearly 300 officers makes it a struggle.Join your host Sean Reynolds, owner of Summit Properties NW, and Reynolds & Kline Appraisal as he takes a look at this developing topic.https://crosscut.com/news/2021/09/king-countys-rise-gun-violence-doesnt-have-easy-explanationSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/seattlerealestatepodcast)

The investment form in a report, said as many as 750,000 households could face eviction before the end of the year —and that as many as 3.5 million households nationwide are behind in their rent payments.At this point, the only thing stopping that would be an eviction moratorium from Congress, which has been hesitant to agree to such a policy so far. The Biden Administration ordered one previously, but that was overturned by the Supreme Court over the weekend. Many state-level eviction bans are also set to expire soon.While the government has taken steps to make it easier for renters at risk to receive funds from the Emergency Rental Assistance program, it’s unlikely that money will arrive in time for thousands of families.Join your host Sean Reynolds, owner of Summit Properties NW, and Reynolds & Kline Appraisal as he takes a look at this developing topic.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/seattlerealestatepodcast)

When Rebecca DiLorenzo’s landlord of 14 months informed her that he would be raising the rent by $300 a month on the apartment in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, she shares with her fiancé, Kyle, she started to look around for a place to buy. “Our mindset last spring was, ‘We’re getting married, we need to buy a house’ and for a while we were going to open houses every weekend, but the market was just getting crazier and crazier,” she said.After getting outbid on four houses — by as much as $50,000 — DiLorenzo knew they needed a Plan B. “We didn’t want to stay in our rental because it would have cost almost double what a mortgage would have been, but we also didn’t want to buy a house we really couldn’t afford,” she said.Priced out of both the sales and rental market, the soon-to-be newlyweds are now living with family until things settle down.Join your host Sean Reynolds, owner of Summit Properties NW, and Reynolds & Kline Appraisal as he takes a look at this developing topic.https://news.yahoo.com/americans-are-stuck-in-housing-limbo-173106061.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAH0mi_gI-hBOEFzjci2RomTKANPdv1dTUjKrmLD3PbaRdxi1vAmUbhhocSvxbM4iqi7idNt7JrijX5AhGMvc_1ruwI1-8PKdQlERW7DYQ9YmxVFtxljyTejBOdXgwBZTDOl90EjXhmW2Rt8wzP5bDn_kMXux7Yk5imwZjm1VUVrKSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/seattlerealestatepodcast)

Seattle police are investigating multiple weekend shootings that left two people dead, at least two people wounded and sent officers seeking suspects in neighborhoods across the city.This continues the 2021 trend of increased gunfire, including five shootings earlier in the week. In one of these, police say two teenagers shot at each other outside a Southeast Seattle school. There were 420 cases of gunfire in Seattle last year, and 370 so far in 2021, far higher than normal, interim police Chief Adrian Diaz said Saturday.Two people died Saturday in the Lake City neighborhood, where dispatchers received a 911 call a few minutes before 4 p.m., in the 3000 block of Northeast 140th. Police found the two people dead of apparent gunshot wounds inside an apartment. A spokesperson said the fired shots endangered people in nearby units.Join your host Sean Reynolds, owner of Summit Properties NW, and Reynolds & Kline Appraisal as he takes a look at this developing topic.https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/police-report-several-overnight-shootings-across-seattle/Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/seattlerealestatepodcast)

Seattle police are investigating multiple weekend shootings that left two people dead, at least two people wounded and sent officers seeking suspects in neighborhoods across the city.This continues the 2021 trend of increased gunfire, including five shootings earlier in the week. In one of these, police say two teenagers shot at each other outside a Southeast Seattle school. There were 420 cases of gunfire in Seattle last year, and 370 so far in 2021, far higher than normal, interim police Chief Adrian Diaz said Saturday.Two people died Saturday in the Lake City neighborhood, where dispatchers received a 911 call a few minutes before 4 p.m., in the 3000 block of Northeast 140th. Police found the two people dead of apparent gunshot wounds inside an apartment. A spokesperson said the fired shots endangered people in nearby units.Join your host Sean Reynolds, owner of Summit Properties NW, and Reynolds & Kline Appraisal as he takes a look at this developing topic.https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/police-report-several-overnight-shootings-across-seattle/Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/seattlerealestatepodcast)

A judge has ruled that Charter Amendment 29, known as “Compassion Seattle,” won’t go before Seattle voters in November. The measure’s potential effect on the city was still being debated, but it could have dramatically changed the way the city addresses homelessness if it had passed.But its spirit could still influence the Nov. 2 election, in which persistent visible homelessness, and its pandemic-related growth in places like downtown Seattle, will likely be key issues.King County Superior Court Judge Catherine Shaffer said that she actually liked the ballot initiative and would have voted for it if it were on the ballot — but her decision was about whether it goes beyond the power given to cities by state law.Join your host Sean Reynolds, owner of Summit Properties NW, and Reynolds & Kline Appraisal as he takes a look at this developing topic.https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/homeless/judge-strikes-seattle-charter-amendment-on-homelessness-from-november-ballot/Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/seattlerealestatepodcast)

The Supreme Court on Thursday lifted the Biden administration's newest federal ban on evictions, granting a bid from a group of landlords to block the pandemic-related protections for renters facing eviction in most of the country.In an unsigned opinion with the three liberal justices in dissent, the divided court said that "careful review" of the case "makes clear that the applicants are virtually certain to succeed on the merits of their argument that the CDC has exceeded its authority.""It would be one thing if Congress had specifically authorized the action that the CDC has taken. But that has not happened," the court said. "Instead, the CDC has imposed a nationwide moratorium on evictions in reliance on a decades-old statute that authorizes it to implement measures like fumigation and pest extermination. It strains credulity to believe that this statute grants the CDC the sweeping authority that it asserts."Join your host Sean Reynolds, owner of Summit Properties NW, and Reynolds & Kline Appraisal as he takes a look at this developing topic.https://www.cbsnews.com/news/eviction-moratorium-blocked-supreme-court/Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/seattlerealestatepodcast)

At the beginning of the pandemic, Seattle and King County tried a new approach to get people living in homeless encampments into stable housing. They started putting people up in hotels, with the ultimate goal of keeping people off the streets. Some new data suggests that approach may not be a silver bullet in solving the issue.Seattle Times reporter Sydney Brownstone has been reporting on the efforts of a coalition called JustCARE. She told KUOW’s Kim Malcolm about what happened to the residents of an encampment at Eighth Avenue South and South King Street in Seattle.Join your host Sean Reynolds, owner of Summit Properties NW, and Reynolds & Kline Appraisal as he takes a look at this developing topic.https://www.kuow.org/stories/how-did-one-seattle-unhoused-to-hotels-program-work-the-results-are-mixedSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/seattlerealestatepodcast)

Crime and public safety issues around the King County Courthouse in downtown Seattle are causing potential jurors to decline to serve, making it more difficult to fill juries, several King County judges said Wednesday.Public safety issues around the downtown courthouse, the seat of county government, have festered for years, but have been exacerbated during the pandemic, as downtown office workers largely stayed home and encampments in the area proliferated.“Of particular concern for us is the amount of feedback we’re receiving from prospective jurors who are indicating that they’re unwilling to serve as jurors in our trials,” said King County Superior Court Judge Patrick Oishi, the court’s assistant presiding judge. Jurors and witnesses, Oishi noted, are required to come to court.Join your host Sean Reynolds, owner of Summit Properties NW, and Reynolds & Kline Appraisal as he takes a look at this developing topic.https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/downtown-seattle-courthouse-safety-issues-are-keeping-jurors-away-judges-say/Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/seattlerealestatepodcast)

The Democratic Party’s quest to defund police forces, an act in which it kowtowed to its hard-left-wing base, has come to a very bitter end. The resulting surge in violent crime has produced a massive public backlash that threatens the careers of elected Democrats throughout the nation. Naturally, the endangered species is trying to distance itself swiftly from the wreckage that “defund the police” has left behind.The mayors of Portland and Seattle, who respectively slashed police funding by $15 million and $7.5 million last year, are now moving to restore those budgets amid spikes in violent crime made worse because police officers are choosing to retire rather than stay where their work is scorned by their employers.Something similar is happening in Chicago, where last year, Mayor Lori Lightfoot demanded that the police force leave vacant positions unfilled as part of a broader drive to cut police budgets. Lightfoot now faces a 60% increase in murders since 2019 , and suddenly, she sees the light — the police are not expendable, and the thin blue line between chaos and order cannot be allowed to get any thinner.Join your host Sean Reynolds, owner of Summit Properties NW, and Reynolds & Kline Appraisal as he takes a look at this developing topic.https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/panicked-democrats-switch-from-defund-to-refund-the-policeSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/seattlerealestatepodcast)

Multiple sources within SPD confirmed that officers from the former Navigation Team and North Precinct patrol provide 24/7 security outside of Mayor Jenny Durkan's multi-million dollar home in an upscale Seattle neighborhood.During cuts to the Seattle Police Department's budget last year in response to the "defund the police" movement, Seattle City Council voted to cut the Seattle Police Department's Navigation Team that had the responsibility of clearing the city's violent homeless encampents and referring campers to social services.However, it has been revealed that Seattle police officers who were on the Navigation Team have been reassigned to provide personal protection for Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, despite a significant increase in violent crime throughout the encampments and a decrease in deployable officers citywide due to early retirements and resignations in the wake of the defund the police movement.Join your host Sean Reynolds, owner of Summit Properties NW, and Reynolds & Kline Appraisal as he takes a look at this developing topic.https://thepostmillennial.com/revealed-seattle-mayor-utilizes-officers-from-defunded-homeless-response-team-for-personal-protectionSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/seattlerealestatepodcast)

An iconic coffee shop in Lower Queen Anne has closed its doors.The owner of Uptown Espresso says homeless issues in the once-thriving neighborhood forced him out.He says the conversion of The Inn at Queen Anne from a hotel brought more formerly homeless people into the neighborhood.He and his neighbors, located around the corner from The Inn, say the impact of that decision is being felt right here in Lower Queen Anne.“It’s kind of a bad situation to be a coffee bar retailer at the bottom of Queen Anne Hill right now,” said Paul Odom.The longtime owner of Fonté Coffee Roaster doesn’t mince words about why he closed Uptown Espresso’s flagship location after 37 years.Join your host Sean Reynolds, owner of Summit Properties NW, and Reynolds & Kline Appraisal as he takes a look at this developing topic.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/seattlerealestatepodcast)

When the public learned in May that 10 months of Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan’s text messages were missing, her office initially attributed the loss to an “unknown technology issue” with one of three phones she used during the period in question.But officials already had known for months why the texts were gone and when they disappeared, internal emails appear to show. And City Attorney Pete Holmes says the initial explanation from Durkan’s office was misleading.Durkan’s texts were set to automatically delete on a phone she started using in July 2020, shortly after racial justice protests had rocked the city, according to an email exchange between the mayor’s office and the city attorney’s office in January 2021.Join your host Sean Reynolds, owner of Summit Properties NW, and Reynolds & Kline Appraisal as he takes a look at this developing topic.https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/mayors-office-knew-for-months-durkans-phone-setting-caused-texts-to-vanish-emails-show/Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/seattlerealestatepodcast)

Far right-wing demonstrators and left-wing protesters clashed Sunday in Portland, a conflict that was punctuated with gunfire on a downtown street.Dustin Brandon Ferreira, 37, a left-wing activist, said he was with other activists Sunday evening when a man used a slur against a Black man in the group and fired multiple rounds in their direction. Portland police said in an email that “the entire incident” is under investigation.Dennis Anderson, 65, of Gresham, was charged with unlawful use and possession of a firearm and booked into the Multnomah County Jail shortly after the shooting, according to jail records. Anderson’s bail was set at $7,500. Portland police Sgt. Kevin Allen confirmed Anderson was the shooter.A video taken by one witness showed shots being fired toward the shooter at Southwest Yamhill Street and Southwest 2nd Avenue at one point, though it is unclear whether he was fired on first.No one was injured.Join your host Sean Reynolds, owner of Summit Properties NW, and Reynolds & Kline Appraisal as he takes a look at this developing topic.https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2021/08/demonstrators-congregate-at-portland-waterfront.htmlSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/seattlerealestatepodcast)

A federal appeals court on Friday said a pause on evictions designed to curb the spread of the coronavirus can remain in place for now, setting up a battle before the nation’s highest court.A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected a bid by Alabama and Georgia landlords to block the eviction moratorium reinstated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this month.The landlords filed an emergency motion hours later with the Supreme Court, urging the justices to allow evictions to proceed.The Supreme Court voted 5-4 in June to allow the moratorium to continue through the end of July. But Justice Brett Kavanaugh — who joined the majority — warned the administration not to act further without explicit congressional approval.“As five Members of this Court indicated less than two months ago, Congress never gave the CDC the staggering amount of power it claims,” attorneys for the landlords told the Supreme Court on Friday.Join your host Sean Reynolds, owner of Summit Properties NW, and Reynolds & Kline Appraisal as he takes a look at this developing topic.https://apnews.com/article/health-courts-coronavirus-pandemic-4a0e10d2919efcba1dd9ce116e99f75cSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/seattlerealestatepodcast)

Rent increases are nothing new, but one Tacoma man says he was shocked over the one he is facing, calling it "ruthless."Terrance Parsons has lived at Manitou Park Apartments in South Tacoma for the past five years. He says his rent is around $825 a month, including utilities."They want to raise it to $1,375," Parsons said.A 60-day notice of the rent increase signed by LandlordSolutions on behalf of the owner says $75 of the $1,375 is for utilities. They also tell tenants that they could get up to a $100 discount off the monthly rent if they sign a new 12-month lease."I understand property goes up, but for two years, that’s an extensive amount," Parsons said.Join your host Sean Reynolds, owner of Summit Properties NW, and Reynolds & Kline Appraisal as he takes a look at this developing topic.https://www.q13fox.com/news/tacoma-man-shocked-over-60-rent-hikeSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/seattlerealestatepodcast)

Portland City Council unanimously voted Wednesday to crack down on street racing, beefing up penalties for those who shut down intersections and roadways and speed around city streets.The ordinance will create two new misdemeanor crimes with which to charge street racers: “unlawful street takeover” and “unlawful staging of street takeover events.” Potential penalties include towed cars, a fine of up to $500, and jail time. If it’s a first offense, the driver could instead take part in a diversion program approved by the district attorney.The ordinance, introduced by Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, passed 4-0. Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty is on vacation throughout August and was not present for the vote.Join your host Sean Reynolds, owner of Summit Properties NW, and Reynolds & Kline Appraisal as he takes a look at this developing topic.https://www.opb.org/article/2021/08/17/portland-city-council-street-car-racing-/Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/seattlerealestatepodcast)

In the race to distribute millions of dollars in rent assistance to thousands of tenants, King County is lagging behind its neighbors.The state’s most populous county says it has distributed $6.5 million, or 4.5%, of $145 million in available federal funding to help struggling renters and landlords.Pierce County has spent about 59% of $53.4 million in federal and state money, and Snohomish County has spent about 47% of $57.8 million, according to county spokespeople.King County says the process of building a new data system to manage the federal funds has slowed the distribution of money, along with new federal requirements for verifying tenant and landlord information.Join your host Sean Reynolds, owner of Summit Properties NW, and Reynolds & Kline Appraisal as he takes a look at this developing topic.https://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/king-county-lags-in-distributing-rent-assistance-for-tenants-landlords/Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/seattlerealestatepodcast)