Dive Brief:

• Lennar Multifamily Communities has put forth plans for Spring Street North Block, a pair of 330-foot tall residential high-rises in downtown Seattle. It will include 550 apartments, underground parking and a café, according to the Puget Sound Business Journal.

• This plan is one of many new buildings slated for downtown Seattle, where job growth in 2016 is on pace for 3.1%. More than 1,200 new units were added since 2011 with 2,600 more expected by 2019.

• Lennar also is building two other Seattle-area projects: a 389-unit apartment complex in West Seattle that includes a Whole Foods grocer and the 344-unit Atlas multifamily project in Issaquah, WA.

Dive Insight:

Let the bidding wars begin. Tight residential inventory on the West Coast means competition is up for homebuyers. There are few single-family homes for sale and they’re selling faster than last year. The landscape for apartments and condos is much the same.

Real estate website Redfin says that residential inventory is down 4% across the 60 metros it tracks and predicts inventory shortages to continue, especially in the affordable segment of the market. In April, Zillow reported a 10% decline in entry-level home inventory, which pushed up prices in that category. To top it off, builders say regulatory costs are making it difficult to build affordable residences. An NAHB study found regulatory costs account for nearly one-quarter of a new home's price, leading many builders to focus on the luxury market where margins aren't as tight.

Projects like Spring Street North may help ease the inventory crunch in the city, but a recent study from the National Association of Realtors found that most homebuyers want homes in the suburbs — where high demand and limited supply are pushing up prices.