They would be foolhardy not too.

Of course the excess will all be spent by 2007 and cities will have to “cut back” which will force more people to sell and the whole house of cards will come crashing down at a faster and faster rate.

Yes, the dot.com bust was awful, but people don’t seem to correlate the 1999 stock “froth” with 2005 RE “froth”.

The field is different, the game….the same.

And most importantly, the outcome….the same.

I’ve seen 600 sq ft condos around greenlake with no view go for more than 400K.

There’s one across the street going for 759K with nearly the same size lot.

I am sure some idiot will buy this because he thinks he is getting a deal being close to GreenLake. We will see.

On another note a real piece of "chocolate" went on the market near me in Queen Anne for 637K a few weeks ago, I emailed the realtor and told him he would have to be lowering the price. The house is just not that nice and has lousy curb appeal. Anyway on my daily walk I just noticed it is down to 597K – still out of my range, but a reduction nonetheless.

I am absolutely convinced that the consumer is now being squeezed mightily (witness the drop in GDP which a lot of was due to lowered consumer spending) – this too will have an effect, although lagging on housing.

Also, this area will be forced to lighten up on real estate jobs, I personally know of two very unqualified people right now who are in the biz (houses and mortgages) solely because it is “hot” right now. This is ending as well.

I know this isn’t a rosy picture, but it is reality.

http://www.windermere.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Listing.ListingDetail&ListingID=6519091

6/20/2005 $235,000
Now $369,950

Is the remodeling worth $135,000? You be the judge!