The Legislature's $43.7 billion two-year budget—which took negotiations within hours of a partial state government shutdown—is signed, but some lawmakers haven't had quite enough brinkmanship for the year.

Until around 2007, McMansions mostly borrowed the forms of traditional architecture, producing vinyl Georgian estates and foam Mediterranean villas. But in the last 10 years, this has begun to change. We are witnessing the birth and the proliferation of modernist McMansions: McModerns.

Willows and Rose Hill neighborhoods expanded following last week’s Redmond City Council meeting, when 54 acres of unincorporated King County were annexed into the city. The area annexed is located along 132nd Avenue Northeast, is flanked to the west by the City of Kirkland, and is surrounded on the other three sides by Redmond.

Shannon Affholter is the executive director of the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties, the largest and oldest local homebuilders association in the nation. In The Money Hour segment today, Shannon talks about how the demand for housing has significantly outpaced residential housing supply.

This week, Nick Harper and Allison Butcher from our Government Affairs team provide an update on bringing administrative final plat approval processes to local jurisdictions, as allowed under MBA-supported SB 5674, signed by Governor Inslee this year. This change will save applicants six to eight weeks of time in the approval process.