Washington State has the 8th-High Life Expectancy in U.S., Study Finds, Seattle Homes Prices Again Lower than a Year Ago, and more news surrounding the local Seattle tech community can found in this week’s Seattle in the Spotlight.

Washington State has the 8th-High Life Expectancy in U.S., Study Finds

Seattle Times | Christine Clarridge | August 27

“While Washington gets a lot of attention for being a millennial magnet, it’s also a great place to grow old, according to a new study from Senior Living, which found that our state has the eighth-highest life expectancy in the nation. Washington residents can expect to live an average of 80.2 years, according to the study. Life expectancy nationwide has declined for the past three years, inching down from 78.8 years to 78.6, according to the study based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.”

Seattle Homes Prices Again Lower than a Year Ago

Seattle Times | Katherine Khashimova Long | August 27

“For the second month in a row, Seattle is the only major American city where home prices were lower than a year ago. Home prices in Seattle and the surrounding counties took a dip of 1.3% in June compared to last year, according to the latest data from the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller home-price index. Nationally, home-price gains are slowing. Housing prices nationwide, while still posting a strong increase of 3.1% year-over-year, are growing half as quickly as they were this time last year, said Philip Murphy, managing director at S&P Dow Jones Indices, in a statement.”

How Tech Keeps Seattle’s Transit System Running – and Why More Innovation Could Be Coming

GeekWire | Aria Thaker | August 24

“Amid a sea of green rectangles on a computer monitor, one had turned red. A RapidRide bus — the red rectangle — was traveling a bit too rapidly. It was almost 11 a.m. on Friday in the King County Metro Transit Control Center (TCC). Coordinators sat in front of large monitors, tracking the county’s GPS-enabled buses and communicating with drivers as needed. Within seconds after the bus icon turned red, Sam Aulava, the coordinator at the desk, radioed the bus driver. “Good morning, you’re running a little hot,” he said. “If you keep going the rate you’re going, you’re going to leave some passengers for your follower.”