Vancouver prices have been driven entirely by Chinese investment. From '93-'99 it was Hong Kong wealth setting up anchor ownership so that they could be Canadian when the Hong Kong handover went pear-shaped. From '99-now it's been Chinese oligarchs sheltering their money overseas. There was some spillover to Seattle (which could be seen in the inverse relationship between Vancouver depreciation and Seattle appreciation when Vancouver passed their 15% tax but the Chinese priced it in quickly enough and Vancouver continued to outstrip Seattle. San Francisco prices are driven by geography, tech inequality and rampant NIMBYism. For much the same reason aspiring actors with degrees from Juliard live six to a flop on Fairfax, taking your lumps in tech means putting up with Bay Area pricing for at least long enough to get hired away by somewhere else that values your tour of duty. Both cities, it should be noted, are principal tourist destinations. On the other hand, Seattle is routinely listed near the bottom of tourist cities in the United States. This tends to blunt foreign interest and, as a consequence, foreign investment. California culture celebrates long fucking commutes, though. It's one of the most insufferable aspects of the entire state - "I'm more of a citizen because I commute further than you therefore I want it more." California roads are designed to drive really fucking slowly on in really boring weather; they're parking lots (except the winding mountain roads, which are theme parks). Seattle roads are designed to spend the minimum amount of maintenance on, and generally get less maintenance than that. As a consequence they're narrow, treacherous and require your constant attention. You can smoke a bowl and trudge from Ojai to Pomona in three or four hours and go "whoa we made it let's overpay for coffee" but fuckin' Everett to West Seattle is some Oregon Trail shit and everyone knows it because you'd best be paying attention the entire way. A drive time map of urban California is a lie during the day and a marvel at night; at 3am you can get from LAX to the Palisades in 20 minutes and at 5pm that's gonna be two hours. A drive time map of Seattle is mostly just discouraging. If you can get to the freeway quickly, you can make a great distance on the freeway, except during rush hour. It's a subjectively different experience. We have friends that we visited more when we were in PDR and they were in La Brea than now that we're in Lynnwood and they're in Mukilteo. it was an hour and a half on Sundays to get there but you know what? It's an hour and a half to get anywhere on a Sunday. Now? Fuckin' 20 minutes in the car is enough to get you downtown on a Sunday and why would you want to go downtown we'll meet you halfway. There's a lot more to growth than "is it as shitty as Palo Alto yet."I already know people who commute into Seattle from Everett, North Bend, and Enumclaw. And our density and traffic is nowhere near what the Bay Area was like when I left in 1998, and an hour-and-a-half commute (one way) was seen as desirable.
Yeah. There's no way to get east/west in King or Snohomish counties. Three roads. That's it. If you aren't going north-south, you are screwed. Well... yer screwed anyway, if it is anywhere between 6:AM and 8:PM, but it still ain't California Commute intensity... ROFL!!! That is SO TRUE. Holy crap. I never realized it before that your commute time is badge of Good Citizenship in California... ..."California culture celebrates long fucking commutes, though... "I'm more of a citizen because I commute further than you therefore I want it more."
Some of my least favorite friends felt the need to quote The Californians at us every time they talked to us because obviously we're all airheads with nothing better to talk about than traffic. That is, until I pointed out that Los Angeles doesn't really have weather per se whereas traffic has a more profound influence on the day-to-day life of Angelinos than literally anything else. Angelinos discussing which roads to take or not take and what traffic was like at any given intersection is very much the equivalent of fishermen discussing shoals or river pilots discussing flows past a jetty. So while every normal culture has meaningless chit-chat about the weather, Angelinos have meaningless chit-chat about traffic. Thus, your ability to negotiate that traffic is a fundamental part of your identity and any habits or skills or secrets are very much a part of your social clout. Waze has its haters in no small part because it forced every single skillful navigator to completely relearn the rivers after Google gave all their trade routes to the Stupids. Seattle? "It's raining, we're fucked." "It just stopped raining, we're fucked." "It's snowing, we're ultra-fucked." "That snowstorm? Yeah, I was so fucked." "My weekend would have been fine but the sun was shining so I was fucked." "Folklife was on so downtown was fucked." "Everyone moved out to Snohomish so I5 is fucked past Arlington." "The bridge is cracked so West Seattle is fucked." There is no clevering your way around Seattle traffic, it's just varying levels of pain. You can pass the time by antagonizing other players but even if you tune out there are abrupt stops, gunfighters willing to trade paint in order to gain a car length and landmarks that have suddenly changed so even though you've taken that exit every day for a year you just drove past it because something in your subconscious tripped an error subroutine and now you're going to Kent. California roads are the way they are because California is a land of grift. Someone made a buck on every square foot, which is what he had left after he paid the nine other people their percentage for making the road go left where every bit of common sense would have had it go right. Thus it's an overbuilt miasma of poor planning under perpetual construction. Seattle roads are the way they are because Seattle is a land of awkward conflict where everyone will die on the hill of their way or no way and in order to get something functional Dayton will be one to three blocks east or west every five to ten blocks from Fremont to Shoreline. Thus it's an underbuilt miasma of poor planning under perpetual construction. California? Gives you choice in your suffering, thus a sense of ownership. Seattle? Gives everyone the exact same poor choice, thus a sense of victimization.