Seattle Bubble

A comment from reader seattle price drop in yesterday’s post got me thinking. In discussing what kind of research to do for an impending real estate purchase, spd suggested:
Step 2) Interview several realtors. Do this with an eye to finding out who will be truthful and represent your interests well when the time comes to [...]

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I read the a question and answer in the Everett Herald about researching the market before buying a home, and I couldn’t help but feel that the columnist’s advice was a little lacking.
Question: I’m attempting to research the housing market, but I don’t want to even think about buying for at least a year because [...]

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Most readers of this blog know that renting versus owning right now is almost a no-brainer, and buying real estate in order to rent it out right now is just plain foolish. Now, I haven’t been following the commercial real estate market as closely as residential, but I would have a hard time believing [...]

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Here’s a fun off-beat weekend story. Casket factory to become condo complex?
While the real-estate market is cooling in some parts of the U.S., demand continues to surge in the Seattle area. That has prompted developers to step up their search for properties — even old, abandoned addresses.
The North Coast Casket Factory, a red timber [...]

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Is the Seattle real estate market “cyclic,” “linear,” or “hybrid”? According to the analyst of the day, Seattle is a “hybrid market.”
Could the real estate action be shifting to the heartland, the vast swath of middle America that wasn’t really touched by the hyperinflationary housing boom?
That’s what a new statistical analysis of housing price [...]

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Here’s a delightful story for everyone out there that’s cheering on huge “price gains” in real estate and rooting for rents to climb.
The King County Housing Authority, which recently reopened its waiting list for rental assistance for poor residents, received 11,778 applications in a two-week period — an all-time high for the agency.
That is a [...]

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