So why aren’t they building more condos in Washington State?

Headline at Puget Sound Business Journal: UW study aims to find out why so few condos are being built in Seattle

There are various reasons for the lack of new condos. The 2008 implosion of the condo market left both builders and lenders leery of a repeat. Building anything is now more expensive due to the crush of new apartment and office buildings.

Then there’s the Washington Condominium Act, which has “remarkably onerous construction defect laws,” said Windermere Real Estate Chief Economist Matthew Gardner. It allows homeowners’ associations to sue over construction problems. This is causing many developers to not build condos.

Short answer?  They’re not building condos because, they’d have to build them well!