SEATTLE – The Seattle area housing market in June saw a combination of a shortage of inventory and high buyer demand, pointing to a “very robust” market in the region, experts said.
Even as the novel coronavirus pandemic continues to change some of the ways people buy and sell houses, the housing market in the region appears strong, according to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service’s June report, which covers 23 counties in Washington.
“Multiple offers are back with a vengeance as buyers are handicapped by having only about half the inventory of a year ago,” said Dick Beeson, managing broker at RE/MAX Northwest in Tacoma-Gig Harbor, in a news release. “If a buyer finds a home they like, it’s likely 20 other people will be vying for it, and the battle is on.”
In King County in June, there were 3,471 total active listings, a more than 40% decrease from the same time last year and just about the same as the total number last month, according to the report. There was an increase in new listings month over month, but that number was also down when compared to the same time last year.
The number of pending sales was up slightly year over year, about 2%, but the number of closed sales in June was down about 17% compared to the same time last year. Month over month, the number of closed sales was up from 1,988 in May to 2,783 in June.
The median home price in King County also rose when compared to both last month and the same time last year. It jumped to $675,000, about 6% higher than June of 2019.
“What a difference a month makes,” Matthew Gardner, chief economist at Windermere Real Estate said. “What is abundantly clear is that the COVID-19 induced slowing in housing activity that we saw in May was not enough to freeze the Seattle housing market for very long.”
He said the signs point to a “very robust” housing market. But he added that the housing inventory is “perilously low.”
“The month-over-month jump in new listings was encouraging but it did not help overall inventory levels as they all sold too quickly,” he said.
J. Lennox Scott, chairman and CEO of John L. Scott Real Estate said they are seeing “intense buyer demand” as the summer begins.
“It’s almost like the cupboards were bare in the more affordable to mid-price ranges where the majority of sales take place. This led to a major increase in sales activity intensity, which measures the percentage of homes that sell within the first 30 days of going on the market,” he said.
He added, though, that they are also seeing an increase in listings, and said that could be a “welcomed sight for buyers encountering stiff competition and multiple-offer situations.”
“As the economy continues to open up at a steady pace, we anticipate more sellers will choose to list their homes,” he said.
Experts also reported buyers are showing interest in homes in suburban areas, along with neighborhoods in Central and Eastern Washington. That could be partially a result of companies becoming more flexible with work from home options during the novel coronavirus pandemic.
“The reasons are more space, lower prices, and lower taxes,” said Dean Rebhuhn, owner of Village Homes and Properties, Woodinville. “They have found they can accomplish most of their work and business from home.”
Buyers of single-family homes overcame the obstacles of the coronavirus shutdown and managed to clinch more deals last week than in the comparable week of 2019. The pace of sales was more than double the recent low point at the end of March.
New listings, after bouncing off early April lows, remain at a three-week plateau that’s still significantly below May 2019 levels as the region heads into a season that typically brings a surge in home sales.
If the number of recent weekly mortgage applications are any indication, they point to a remarkable (and unexpectedly early) recovery in homebuying.- Purchase volume was just 1.5% lower than a year ago, a rather stunning recovery from just over a month ago, when purchase volume was down 35% annually.
– Mortgage applications to purchase a home rose 6% last week from the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
So, If mortgage demand is an indicator, buyers are coming back to the housing market far faster than anticipated, despite coronavirus shutdowns and job losses.
Mortgage applications to purchase a home rose 6% last week from the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index. Purchase volume was just 1.5% lower than a year ago, a rather stunning recovery from just six weeks ago, when purchase volume was down 35% annually.
“Applications for home purchases continue to recover from April’s sizable drop and have now increased for five consecutive weeks,” said Joel Kan, an MBA economist. “Government purchase applications, which include FHA, VA, and USDA loans, are now 5 percent higher than a year ago, which is an encouraging turnaround after the weakness seen over the past two months.”
As states reopen, so are open houses, and buyers have been coming out in force, if masked. Record low mortgage rates, combined with strong pent-up demand from before the pandemic and a new desire to leave urban downtowns due to the pandemic, are driving buyers back to the single-family home market. It remains to be seen if this is simply the pent-up demand or a long-term trend.
Buoying buyers, the average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances of up to $510,400 decreased to 3.41% from 3.43%. Points including the origination fee increased to 0.33 from 0.29 for 80 percent loan-to-value ratio loans.
Low rates are not, however, giving current homeowners much incentive to refinance. Those applications fell 6% for the week but were still 160% higher than one year ago, when interest rates were 92 basis points higher. That is the lowest level of refinance activity in over a month.
“The average loan amount for refinances fell to its lowest level since January — potentially a sign that part of the drop was attributable to a retreat in cash-out refinance lending as credit conditions tighten,” said Kan. “We still expect a strong pace of refinancing for the remainder of the year because of low mortgage rates.”
Federal regulators this week changed lending guidelines for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, allowing refinances on loans that were or still are in the government’s mortgage bailout, part of the coronavirus relief package. Those loans can be refinanced once borrowers have made at least three regular monthly payments. Given tough economic conditions and rising unemployment, more borrowers may be looking to save money on their monthly payments.
Conclusion
This trend toward increased mortgage applications simply proves the adage: “Regardless of economic conditions, people always need to buy and sell homes.” So, rather than “wait until everything is perfect”, if you are considering the sale or purcha
The rebound of the U.S. housing market will not look like a “V” or a “U.” Rather it would be a “W,” according to the updated 2020 forecast of real estate listings website Realtor.com.
According to the company’s economics team, national home sales will improve in July, August and September, largely driven by demand from millennial shoppers and transactions in secondary markets, before they decrease again due to a projected winter spike in coronavirus cases.
“As cities and states begin the slow process of reopening, we’re going to see a see-saw recovery with ups and downs that will favor the nation’s secondary markets in the short-term,” said Realtor.com’s chief economist Danielle Hale.
After 2019 logged 5.3 million existing home sales, Realtor.com initially expected 2020 to post 5.25 million sales, a decline of a little under 2%. Today, however, in light of the pandemic-induced havoc in real estate, it projects annual home sales to slide some 15% to 4.5 million. Housing starts would also drop – by 11%.
Despite extremely tight inventory, an issue that has plagued the housing market for months, home prices would increase only modestly by 1.1% year-over-year, according to Realtor.com’s updated forecast.
In any situation in which sellers retreat from the market – and, thus, staunch supply – prices would jump exponentially. Yet, because buyers are also hesitant to complete one of the most consequential purchases in their lifetimes amid widespread economic uncertainty, the forces of supply and demand are offsetting each other.
“The coronavirus pandemic has kept both buyers and sellers on the sidelines, preserving market balance, for now,” said Hale.
If COVID-19 cases resurge later this year, inventory would likely dip further, creating a “what you see is what you get” environment potentially dominated by sight-unseen deals, says Realtor.com. Such a scenario, though, would hardly benefit sellers, whose residences would spend more time on the market and attract less offers overall.
Realtor.com further states that because house prices are to remain relatively stable, those still looking to purchase would not face the kind of competition that emerged during the 2008 recession, when all-cash investors swooped in to amass cheap properties.
2020 home buying headwinds
Nonetheless, home shoppers in 2020 have other types of headwinds to overcome. These include the stricter qualifying requirements that lenders have adopted due to the pandemic, including excellent credit scores and hefty down payments. These tougher mandates could depress house purchases even if mortgage rates are to remain at record low levels. (The 30-year fixed mortgage rate averaged a little under 3.6% in the first three months of 2020, a percentage point lower than a year ago.)
Realtor.com’s new forecast spells an interest rate below 3% by the end of 2020, mostly spurred by the Federal Reserve’s efforts to jumpstart the economy. “Shopping around for the best rates and terms will be particularly important over the next year,” the company says in a press release.
A number of unknowns remain in the housing market, namely the effects of the country’s record high unemployment rate and the possibility of any further federal economic stimulus. Americans with battered finances would probably turn to resilient secondary markets, away from pandemic hot spots and in more affordable homes.
In other words…
We’ve been fortunate in the Pacific Northwest – we’ve seen almost a decade of an “up only market”, which is likely to translate into a “more or less upward market” for the greater Seattle area. So our “W” might look more like a hockey stick, or a modified “U” shape, or some other unpredictable curve.
The temptation is to wait around until everything stabilizes into a steady increase in home sales, prices, buyers, mortgage rates, and so on. You might end up waiting forever.
Instead, give me a call so we talk about what you WANT to do, or NEED to do. Then we will measure your goals against whatever the current or future housing market offers as an opportunity.
The one thing that will never change, virus or not, is my commitment to your success and well-being. Contact me today!
Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith addresses a crowd of VIPs and employees at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the company’s new headquarters in Kent, Wash. A mockup of Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander stands in the background. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle)
KENT, Wash. — Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos’ space effort now officially has more space. To be precise, 232,885 square feet more space.
That’s the bottom line from today’s ribbon-cutting ceremony for Blue Origin’s new headquarters building — a multimillion-dollar facility across the street from the site of its original HQ and New Shepard suborbital spaceship factory in Kent.
Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith told GeekWire that the new HQ was required because “we’re growing like crazy.”
“We’ve grown a third in just the past year,” Smith said during an interview on the mezzanine of the U-shaped building. “So we’re now north of 2,500 people here.”
The new structure, built on a 30.7-acre site that the company purchased a little more than two years ago for $14 million, is built to accommodate 1,500 of those employees. Hundreds more are based elsewhere in the Kent area, south of Seattle, as well as at Blue Origin’s suborbital launch site in West Texas, the Florida rocket factory where Blue Origin’s New Glenn orbital-class rocket will be assembled, and at the site of its future BE-4 rocket engine factory in Alabama.
The mission that faced the construction team, headed by general contractor Sierra Construction, was to create an innovative, interesting facility that’s on brand for the company that Bezos founded back in the year 2000. And to do it quickly.
Smith said the builders succeeded. Construction started last January, and the project was finished in time to start moving in employees last month (and serve as the venue for Blue Origin’s annual holiday party).
A mockup of Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lunar lander, placed in a wide-open gathering space just beyond the lobby, serves as the building’s centerpiece — within sight of the employee lounge and kitchen facilities. An enclosed conference room on the mezzanine has a big picture window that looks down at Blue Moon. Workstations are placed in clusters beneath the hangar-style sloped roof in one of the block-long arms of the building’s “U.”
The new HQ has been dubbed the O’Neill Building — in honor of Princeton physicist Gerard O’Neill, whose vision of giant space colonies inspired Bezos’ oft-mentioned dream of having “millions of people living and working in space.”
As part of the transition, the old HQ was named as well. It’s now known as the Verne Building, in a nod to the Jules Verne-style rocket that graces its lobby.
The marquee of Blue Origin’s new HQ glows on a rainy morning. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle)
An overhead view emphasizes the scale (and the U-shaped structure) of Blue Origin’s new headquarters in Kent, Wash. (Blue Origin Photo)
Surrounded by VIPs, Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith wields a giant scissors for the O’Neill Building’s ribbon-cutting ceremony. The entryway bears the company’s motto – “Gradatim Ferociter,” which is Latin for “Step by Step, Ferociously.” (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle)
Smith said the O’Neill Building’s employees will be working on Blue Moon and New Glenn, among other projects. “We try to co-locate a lot of our employees working on the same things,” he said. “We have some of the New Glenn team that will be over here, but we can’t fit ’em all.”
Fortunately, Blue Origin was able to fit scores of VIPs, and hundreds of watching employees, into the Blue Moon gathering space for today’s official ceremonies. Smith played up the local angle in his opening remarks, saying that Blue Origin will be pursuing its space program “from a headquarters, and a population, that is actually based here in Kent.”
Kent Mayor Dana Ralph struck a similar tone, marveling at how quickly Blue Origin’s workforce has rocketed past 2,500.
“Every single time I come down for a tour, I feel like I’ve missed the last numbers, because I listen in and I say, ‘OK, they’re going to have 2,000 employees … oh, wait, no, they just said 3,000 … no, it’s going to be 4,000.’ ”
A trio of House Democrats from Washington state also took their turns at the microphone. U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer said he was “super-geeked to be here” and talked up Blue Origin’s contribution to international competitiveness in aerospace. Rep. Adam Smith, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, also took note of commercial competition in the space industry, “which is something we need.”
U.S. Rep. Denny Heck emphasized the long view, gesturing to the lunar lander mockup behind him as he spoke.
“We are going to space, my friends, we are going to colonize space,” Heck said. “In my children’s lifetime, we will colonize the moon. And Blue Moon will be there. In my grandchildren’s or great-grandchildren’s time, we will colonize the rest of the galaxy. In my grandchildren’s time, we will confirm that there is some level of life on other planets. And when we do all these things, Blue Origin will be there and will have been the cause of it.”
After the speeches, it was time for the ribbon-cutting ceremony, conducted just outside the entryway with rain dripping off the eaves. Actually, make that “ceremonies”: Smith wielded the giant scissors twice — first for the benefit of the elected officials, then with a fresh ribbon for the project’s contractors.
Bill Ellis, chief economic development officer for the City of Kent, said he expects Blue Origin and the O’Neill Building to add to a regional space heritage that goes back to the Apollo era. In March, Kent officials will seek to have the Boeing-built Apollo lunar rovers placed on Washington state’s register of historic places.
Citing the roles played by Boeing as well as Blue Origin, Ellis argued that the Kent Valley merits a place in space history alongside Florida’s Space Coast. “In the movies, that’s where NASA has the launches,” he said. “But all of the intellectual property — all that happened here.”
During today’s interview, Smith gave a status report on Blue Origin’s projects:
In the wake of last month’s uncrewed New Shepard suborbital test flight in West Texas — the 12th of the New Shepard program — Blue Origin is planning a couple of uncrewed demonstration flights to make sure the way is clear to start flying people. Smith said the current plan is to start sending people on suborbital space trips in 2020, but he declined to be more specific on the timing. Smith said he wanted to make sure that the New Shepard team doesn’t feel any undue schedule pressure. “We want to fly when we’re ready, and when we’re safe,” he said.
Blue Origin’s BE-4 rocket engine has racked up 6,500 seconds’ worth of test firings so far. “The performance of the engine looks good,” Smith said. “We’re trying to make sure that the durability is what it needs to be for a reusable engine.” He said engines will be delivered to United Launch Alliance this year for use with ULA’s next-generation Vulcan rocket. The engines are also slated to power New Glenn’s first-stage booster, due for its first launch in 2021.
The New Glenn orbital-class rocket is taking shape at Blue Origin’s Florida factory, Smith said. “We actually have produced our first set of development hardware as well as our first fairing,” he said. Blue Origin’s Cape Canaveral launch complex is also “coming together quite quickly,” he said, and the New Glenn recovery ship is being outfitted in Pensacola, Fla. “We should have a christening for that relatively soon,” Smith said.
Last month, Blue Origin’s nonprofit educational effort, known as the Club for the Future, flew 8,000 postcards to space and back on New Shepard, and those postcards are now being sent back to the students who sent them in. “We hope to do more along those lines,” he said. “I don’t know if it’ll be every flight, but we’re going to try to do as many flights as we possibly can. If we get the number of cards that we’re targeting, we’ll be stuffing them in every nook and cranny.”
Plans for a 4.8-acre redevelopment project near the Bellevue East Main Light Rail Station were recently submitted, making it the first East Main Bellevue Transit Oriented Development to begin construction. The site will include more than 1M SF of office space, 45K SF of retail space and 145 multifamily units. It will also feature a 2-acre enhanced pedestrian plaza. The Bellevue-based PMF Investments is developing the site, which is located at 100 112th Ave. NE. The East Link line will connect Seattle to Redmond by 2023. The project is set to break ground in early 2021 and be complete by 2023. The Sheraton Bellevue Hotel currently sits on the site. PMF purchased the hotel in 2016, before the Bellevue City Council approved an upzone for the 65-acre area west of Interstate 405. The area is designated as the Office and Limited Business District in the city’s Downtown Livability plan. The Eastside is flourishing around transit hubs, which are set to come online in 2023. Bellevue City Council member Conrad Lee recently told an audience at the Bisnow’s Future of the Eastside that the city’s planning around light rail transit hubs could be used as a model for the rest of the country. The city and services are being built around the hubs years before transit connects. GGLO principal Jon Hall echoed that sentiment, saying that developers of the Sparc Multifamily development in the Spring District made connections to amenities that didn’t yet exist.
Read more at: https://www.bisnow.com/seattle/news/construction-development/pmf-investments-submits-plans-for-48-acre-development-near-bellevue-light-rail-hub-102764?utm_source=CopyShare&utm_medium=Browser
Amazon’s main headquarters campus continues to take shape this month in downtown Seattle. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)
It pays to be in tech, and in Seattle.
The city landed among the top metro areas in the U.S. when it comes to strong wage growth in the Q3 2019 PayScale Index, which tracks quarterly and annual trends in compensation and provides a national forecast for the coming quarter.
Wages increased 4 percent year over year in Seattle, outpacing the national average of 2.6 percent. Austin, Texas, also showed 4 percent growth, and San Francisco led all metro areas at 4.3 percent.
The PayScale Index specifically measures the quarterly change in the total cash compensation of full-time, private industry employees and education professionals nationally, with additional detail on the 32 largest metropolitan areas, 15 industries, 19 job categories and three company sizes.
Seattle wages were up 1.4 percent from last quarter. The rise of 24.9 percent since 2016 is the largest of any city, including San Francisco, at 23.9 percent.
Click to enlarge. (PayScale Graphic)
The national average is up 15.1 percent since 2006, but when inflation is factored in, PayScale says “real wages” have actually fallen 9.6 percent, meaning the income for a typical worker today buys them less than it did in 2006. The PayScale Real Wage Index incorporates the Consumer Price Index (CPI) into the PayScale Index (which tracks nominal wages) and looks at the buying power of wages for full-time private industry workers in the U.S.
PayScale also reported that transportation-related jobs grew 4.9 percent annually, and information technology jobs showed wage growth up 3.2 percent year over year.
Art and design and social service jobs were at the bottom of the occupations list with a decline in annual wage growth of 0.3 percent and 1.3 percent, respectively. Wage growth in the oil city of Houston was the slowest in the nation, rising only 0.5 percent year over year, likely reflecting recent fluctuations in energy markets.
Microsoft President Brad Smith announced the company’s latest commitment to high-speed rail in the Pacific Northwest at the 2019 Cascadia Innovation Corridor Conference. (GeekWire Photo / Monica Nickelsburg)
High-speed rail in the Pacific Northwest has long been a dream of Microsoft and the tech giant is accelerating efforts to make that dream a reality.Next month, Microsoft will host government, transportation, and business leaders at the Cascadia Rail Summit, an event in Seattle dedicated to connecting Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver B.C. via a high-speed train. The proposed rail line would make it possible to travel from Seattle to Vancouver in under an hour. Its proponents say that would turn “Cascadia” — named for the mountain range that spans the region — into an innovation hub akin to Silicon Valley.
The Cascadia Rail Summit will take place Nov. 6-8, one month after Microsoft executives and government leaders in the region gathered for the Cascadia Innovation Corridor Conference, another event dedicated to turning the Pacific Northwest into a better-connected tech hub. The idea for a high-speed rail connecting Portland to Vancouver was born out of the inaugural Cascadia Innovation Corridor Conference in 2017.
Microsoft has donated a total of $573,667 to study the feasibility of establishing a high-speed rail line in the region. The first phases of that study showed that there is consumer demand and market viability for the project.
The Washington State Department of Transportation estimates that a high-speed rail line connecting the three cities would spark between $264 billion to $355 billion in economic growth in the region between 2035-2055. The project will cost approximately $24 billion to $42 billion and would generate between $160 million to $250 million in annual revenue, according to transportation officials.
The Cascadia Rail Summit will “build on those studies, create momentum for the project, and begin the important planning, financing and governance work to bring it to reality,” according to Microsoft and the U.S. High Speed Rail Association, which is co-hosting the event.
“This combined private and public sector support is a major catalyst that could move this project faster to reality and serve as a positive example for the rest of the nation,” said US High Speed Rail Association CEO Andy Kunz in a statement.
Speakers include former Washington Governor and current Challenge Seattle CEO Christine Gregoire, Microsoft’s government affairs director Irene Plenefisch, Washington Department of Transportation Secretary Roger Miller, Oregon Department of Transportation Administrator Hal Gard, and others.
The event will be held at Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Wash. It will include speaker sessions, networking, and tours of transit projects in the area.
Google expands Seattle-area footprint with huge office purchase at new Kirkland Urban development
Google now owns 400,000 square feet of office space at the new Kirkland Urban mixed use development in the Seattle region. (Ryan Properties Photos)
Google now owns 400,000 square feet of office space at the new Kirkland Urban mixed use development in the Seattle region. (Ryan Properties Photos)
Google is continuing its big growth across the Seattle region.
The tech giant confirmed that it completed its purchase of about 400,000 square feet of office space across two buildings (North and Central) at the new Kirkland Urban development in the city east of Seattle. The company bought the site, which includes retail space and a public parking garage, from Talon Private Capital, Ryan Cos., and PGIM.
“This new campus will provide room for future growth and further cements our commitment to the Kirkland community. We’re proud to call this city home and will continue to support its growing economy,” Eric Young, Google Washington Site Lead, said in a statement.
Google had been rumored to take a huge chunk of the mixed use development. Employees are expected to start moving in next year when the first building is completed.
Google is continuing its big growth across the Seattle region.
The tech giant confirmed that it completed its purchase of about 400,000 square feet of office space across two buildings (North and Central) at the new Kirkland Urban development in the city east of Seattle. The company bought the site, which includes retail space and a public parking garage, from Talon Private Capital, Ryan Cos., and PGIM.
“This new campus will provide room for future growth and further cements our commitment to the Kirkland community. We’re proud to call this city home and will continue to support its growing economy,” Eric Young, Google Washington Site Lead, said in a statement.
Google had been rumored to take a huge chunk of the mixed use development. Employees are expected to start moving in next year when the first building is completed.
Google already has a huge separate campus in Kirkland, the Seattle suburb where it first set up shop more than 15 years ago.
Google has more than 4,500 employees total in the region working on everything from Android technology to cloud computing. There are nearly 150 open jobs based in the Seattle area.
Amazon, meanwhile, said it recently surpassed 50,000 employees in Seattle, passing Microsoft as the biggest Big Tech employer in the Seattle region. Amazon also has big growth plans in Bellevue, Wash., a city neighboring Seattle and just south of Kirkland.
Facebook’s Seattle site lead, Vijaye Raji, speaks at an event Thursday at the company’s newest Seattle-area building. (GeekWire Photo / Monica Nickelsburg)
Facebook’s footprint in the Seattle area continues to grow as the social media giant now employs more than 5,000 people across the region.
Facebook’s Seattle site lead, Vijaye Raji, revealed the latest workforce numbers Thursday at an engineering fair to celebrate the company’s newest office at Arbor Blocks 333 in South Lake Union — just a stone’s throw away from Amazon’s headquarters.
“This kind of growth is a reflection of our commitment to being in this city and the region and our investment in the community that we’re making, not only in the local neighborhood but also in the engineering talent in the area,” Raji said.
Facebook’s ‘Arbor Blocks’ pay homage to Seattle’s iconic Pike Place Market. (GeekWire Photo / Monica Nickelsburg)
Outside of its own HQ at Menlo Park, Calif., Facebook’s next-largest outpost is in Seattle, where it has added about 2,000 employees since 2018. The Seattle office’s areas of focus include ads, analysts, gaming, and groups, Messenger, and others.
“As we grow our footprint, we also have products coming out of Seattle,” Raji said. “This has been growing over the years and I’m happy to share we have over 20 different product areas represented in the Seattle offices.”
(GeekWire Photo / Monica Nickelsburg)
The new office at 333 8th Ave N is part of a two-structure complex; the first building, Arbor Blocks 300, opened to employees this past May. There is room for 2,000 employees across the two buildings.
Facebook’s Seattle office includes libraries, mothers rooms, and other amenities. (GeekWire Photo / Monica Nickelsburg)
Facebook has 18 offices in total throughout the region. It just inked a lease for Block 24, a 200,000 square-foot building in Bellevue, Wash. at the new Spring District. The company also has a growing campus near Microsoft in Redmond, Wash., for Facebook Reality Labs, its virtual/augmented reality unit.
Facebook has more than 400 job openings in the region. It employs 39,651 people worldwide, up 31 percent from a year ago.
Facebook’s conference room names reference video games, movies, and defunct tech devices.
Facebook is one of the top tech employers in the Seattle region, trailing only hometown heavyweights Amazon and Microsoft. Its scale as an out-of-town tech giant is rivaled only by Google, which has nearly 2 million square feet of space.
‘Microkitchens’ are stocked with snacks and local goods. (GeekWire Photo / Monica Nickelsburg)
Google and Facebook were some of the first companies to open engineering centers in the Seattle region, tapping into the area’s technical talent base. Google planted its flag in 2005; Facebook came five years later.
The growth of Google, Amazon, Facebook, and other huge companies in the Seattle area has put significant pressure on the local real estate market. The vacancy rate, the amount of available office space, is down to 8.8 percent in Seattle and 9.6 percent across the region as a whole, according to a recent report from real estate firm JLL.
