Seattle Makes History With First Special Olympics Robotics Championship

GeekWire | Clare McGrane | December 7

http://www.geekwire.com/2016/seattle-makes-history-first-special-olympics-robotics-championship/

“Seattle’s Pacific Science Center is busy on your average weekend, but this past Saturday it was bursting…This was the scene at the first ever Unified Robotics Championship. The contest had all the trappings of a high school robotics club — chattering students, fiercely decorated bots and plenty of friendly competition…In Unified Robotics, athletes with intellectual disabilities team up with partners from the mainstream student body to build and battle their bots.”

 

Asian Investors Shift to Seattle As a New Vancouver Tax Takes Effect

Fortune | Feliz Solomon | December 6

http://fortune.com/2016/12/06/china-canada-vancouver-property-toronto-seattle/

“More and more Chinese and other Asian investors appear to be moving their money to markets in Seattle and Toronto, after a new tax on foreign property investment was announced in Vancouver—which in the past has been a prime destination for overseas buyers…Several brokers in Seattle and Toronto told the news agency that they were seeing a surge of foreign interest in high-end properties, many valued over $1 million. According to Bloomberg, about 12% of the homes sold in city this year netted seven figures, and the price for a single-family home rose by almost 15%, while sales in the metropolitan area have reportedly risen 50% over the past five years.”

 

‘Inexhaustible’ Supply of Homebuyers Means No Holiday Break for Seattle’s Housing Market

Puget Sound Business Journal | Marc Stiles | December 5

http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2016/12/05/inexhaustible-supply-of-homebuyers-means-no.html

“Even as the number of new homes listed for sale last month in the Puget Sound region increased by 10 percent, the number of houses and condos now on the market remains well below last year’s level. The reason is that pending sales shot up, with buyers still actively looking as we head into the holidays when sales traditionally decline. November’s pending sales in the four-county metro region were the highest for the month since 2005, said J. Lennox Scott, chairman and CEO of John L. Scott Real Estate. He said the result was “a mini power surge” for the market.”

 

How Self-Driving Buses Could Help Fix The Region’s Traffic Mess

GeekWire | Alan Boyle | December 3

http://www.geekwire.com/2016/driverless-buses-traffic-madrona/

“Self-driving cars are all well and good for cross-country trips, but what Madrona Venture Group’s Tom Alberg really wants to see is a self-driving bus that can take him on a winery tour…He and other stakeholders in the region’s transportation future gathered at Bellevue’s Meydenbauer Conference Center on Friday for the 2016 Advanced Transportation Technologies Conference, organized by the Center for Advanced Transportation and Energy Solutions. Just after his talk, two Bellevue city council members and Bellevue Mayor John Stokes bent Alberg’s ear about their plans to make the Seattle region an incubator for autonomous transit. The council is on track to get a full-time staff member working on ways to ease Bellevue’s traffic mess with “smart city” strategies.”

 

Seattle Ranks Eighth Among Nation’s Largest Cities for Patent Awards

Puget Sound Business Journal | Melissa Crowe | December 2

http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2016/12/02/seattle-washington-state-patent-award-ranking.html

“Seattle is one of the nation’s most innovative cities, ranking eighth among the top U.S. metro areas for total patents awarded since 2000. The region has steadily increased its patent awards since 2006…The Seattle metro area reached 44,406 patents over the 15 year period, just behind the San Diego area…Microsoft Corp. led the way with 1,860 patents awarded in 2016, followed by Amazon.com Inc. and The Boeing Co.”