haha
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
I would like it if people around the country might post a bit about the state of residential real estate in their cities.
As best I can tell, in Seattle sales have slowed somewhat and inventories are perhaps climbing, but prices have continued to rise albeit more slowly. My son who is in the market for a home says that there is some softness but no real distress. It is hard to get a clear picture, at least in part because so many powerful interests want the boom to continue.
Here are some pieces excerpted from: http://seattlebubble.blogspot.com/
"First up, it's Mark Trahant of the P-I with yet another thoughtful, well-reasoned take on Seattle's housing market.
What if housing prices decline by 20 percent? That would solve Seattle's affordability problem, right? Most folks would say this is impossible. The data from last week show that house prices keep increasing no matter what. Our boom continues, just slower and steadier. But both our region and our country have boom and bust cycles as predictable as weather. It's as much of our history as innovation, military might or baseball. One minute we're panning gold, the next we're trying to recoup our investment in those nifty machines that pluck gold dust from stream beds.
...
Just think about what those higher credit standards will require: A significant down payment, good credit and, in Seattle, a high income.
More than likely, what it will really mean is that the supply of homes will grow — and prices, sooner or later, will fall.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, we have the Seattle Times encouraging first-time homebuyers to "learn the fine art of compromise."
Rolf Johnson and Kerrie Cooley had different jobs, different priorities and different resources, but on their brave hunt for a $250,000 home in the Seattle area they both learned it came down to what they were willing to give up.
Cooley let go of any notion of buying a house or living in downtown Seattle to find the modern, two-bedroom condo she wanted.
Johnson spent more than a year, bumped up his budget and moved farther from work to find the house, property and studio space he craved.
Compromise is definitely the name of the house-hunting game in the Seattle area, especially for first-time buyers who often can't come close to the $450,000 or so that it costs for a typical single-family house in Seattle and are looking more realistically at prices around $250,000."
Ha
As best I can tell, in Seattle sales have slowed somewhat and inventories are perhaps climbing, but prices have continued to rise albeit more slowly. My son who is in the market for a home says that there is some softness but no real distress. It is hard to get a clear picture, at least in part because so many powerful interests want the boom to continue.
Here are some pieces excerpted from: http://seattlebubble.blogspot.com/
"First up, it's Mark Trahant of the P-I with yet another thoughtful, well-reasoned take on Seattle's housing market.
What if housing prices decline by 20 percent? That would solve Seattle's affordability problem, right? Most folks would say this is impossible. The data from last week show that house prices keep increasing no matter what. Our boom continues, just slower and steadier. But both our region and our country have boom and bust cycles as predictable as weather. It's as much of our history as innovation, military might or baseball. One minute we're panning gold, the next we're trying to recoup our investment in those nifty machines that pluck gold dust from stream beds.
...
Just think about what those higher credit standards will require: A significant down payment, good credit and, in Seattle, a high income.
More than likely, what it will really mean is that the supply of homes will grow — and prices, sooner or later, will fall.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, we have the Seattle Times encouraging first-time homebuyers to "learn the fine art of compromise."
Rolf Johnson and Kerrie Cooley had different jobs, different priorities and different resources, but on their brave hunt for a $250,000 home in the Seattle area they both learned it came down to what they were willing to give up.
Cooley let go of any notion of buying a house or living in downtown Seattle to find the modern, two-bedroom condo she wanted.
Johnson spent more than a year, bumped up his budget and moved farther from work to find the house, property and studio space he craved.
Compromise is definitely the name of the house-hunting game in the Seattle area, especially for first-time buyers who often can't come close to the $450,000 or so that it costs for a typical single-family house in Seattle and are looking more realistically at prices around $250,000."
Ha