It's not uncommon for a normal family home of 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms to sell for over one million dollars in Seattle. Often homes will sell for over half a million dollars just to be torn down. In their place a newer bigger modern home is built, usually taller and with less yard space, walls up to the property lines.
Then there's the constant upgrades and expansions being built. When this happens, something odd sets into the neighboring homes and it's never long before another home on the same block is expanding, adding a new floor to their home.
This 'keeping up with the Joneses' virus has infected so many it's apparently even spread to the homeless living in cars and vans.
It truly is a bizarre thing to see such economic disparity only a few yards apart.