Seniors want room for the RV, too

Q: How can we get developers interested in establishing affordable gated senior communities with homes that have an optional RV garage similar to what's available in many Southern states?

There are many of us who're not planning to move to Florida who'd love to find such housing in Pierce, King and Snohomish counties.

A: Besides these RV garages, what's available in numerous Southern states is abundant, affordable land. That's the catch.

The Western Washington counties you mention don't have that, explained Suzanne Britsch, senior analyst for New Home Trends, a consulting firm in Mill Creek.

She estimates it would take a minimum 6,500-square-foot lot to accommodate a house with an RV garage, or 7,500 if buyers want a one-story rambler.

But there are precious few affordable lots that large available in the three-county area.

"The typical lot now is 4,000 to 5,000 square feet," Britsch said.

Even if large enough lots could be found, they'd be so expensive that finished homes on them would likely sell for $750,000 or more.

Because of zoning, Skagit County lots are either too big or too small to easily develop such senior communities, Britsch said.

However, there's a lot of senior housing available in Thurston County. Homeowners may not be able to park their RV in their garage, but senior communities there do have RV storage on the grounds, Britsch said.

Thurston County real-estate agents can help you locate what's available if you're interested.

Q: I am on the board of directors of my small condo association in Snohomish County. Several of us strongly suspect that a fellow homeowner is dealing drugs on the property, and we want it to stop.

Is there a way to handle this situation that's relatively safe, yet effective?

A: In a rental, the manager has the power to enter units to inspect and ultimately evict anyone caught dealing drugs.

But in an owner-occupied condominium no one has this authority, and that makes situations like yours more challenging, said Lance Mann, vice president of Yates Wood, a Seattle property-management and commercial brokerage firm.

He suggests you contact your local police department. Ask if there's a community-services officer who can visit the condo and advise the board on how to make it safer.

Tell this officer exactly what you're seeing — the volume of visitors to the unit, the times you observe them, what they and their vehicles look like.

Ask this officer to request extra police patrols around your property; suggest they use your parking lot while stopped to do their paperwork. This may discourage unwanted guests.

Mann also suggests you keep careful tabs, plus a diary, on the condo owner's activities to see if they violate any of your rules.

For example, there may be bans on noise or after-hours disturbances.

"You can't control the number of visitors but you can control what those visitors do," he said.

That means you may be able to put the owner on notice that their guest situation is unsatisfactory and issue sanctions in accordance with your rules.

Finally, Mann says you need to not let this situation fester unsolved.

"You need to be proactive. Fear can handcuff people into not taking steps, but I think the fear is often on the part of the person in the unit. They fear getting caught."

Q: What percentage of local apartments is set aside as affordable units? What percentage is age-restricted?

A: Can't provide the total picture but can give you a ballpark look.

Tom Cain, president of Apartment Insights Washington, has researched apartment buildings with 50 or more units in King and Snohomish counties.

These big buildings contain 148,353 apartments and represent a large proportion — perhaps even a majority — of all units, he said.

Some 11.5 percent, or 17,060 units, in Cain's survey are so-called "tax credit" apartments.

This means the developer was given tax breaks for creating apartments with rents affordable to those whose earnings are on the lower end of the scale for their community.

Subsidized apartments, commonly called "Section 8" because the rent is partially paid by the federal government's Section 8 program, make up another 3 percent of the total.

In King and Snohomish counties, that amounts to 4,450 units.

And 4,005 units, or 2.7 percent of the total, are age-restricted units.

"We only survey those age-restricted apartments that do not include services, such as meals," Cain said.

This means retirement communities and facilities that provide continuing care are not included in his tally.

Home Forum answers readers' real-estate questions. Send questions to Home Forum, Seattle Times, P.O. Box 1845, Seattle, WA 98111, or call 206-464-8510 to leave a question on a recorded line. The e-mail address is erhodes@seattletimes.com. Sorry, no personal replies. More columns at www.seattletimes.com/columnists.