Seattle Bubble

Seattle Times writer Melissa Allison seems a bit too excited about today’s report that retail spending in Washington State grew by 10.5% from spring ‘05 to spring ‘06.
Those were the days, back in the spring when the flowers bloomed and the housing market sizzled.
Washingtonians had such confidence last spring that they spent with abandon on [...]

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Our local condo enthusiast Matt made a post this morning pointing out an interesting sign of slowing:
For a limited-time, Queen Anne High School is offering a $5,000 BUYER BONUS on all homes under $400,000*!
With its close-to-downtown location, Seattle’s perma-hot real estate market, and all the free fawning press that this project got when it opened [...]

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Research company Morgan Quinto released its latest “safest and most dangerous cities” rankings today, and overall, the Puget Sound did not fare particularly well. The Associated Press story reprinted in the P-I explains a little bit about how the [...]

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Here’s a bit of balance for you after that rental horror story. Astoundingly, today’s “home buying isn’t always a walk in the park” story comes to you courtesy of the Seattle Times (but not E. Rhodes of course).
Katherine and Robert McCartney thought they’d found the perfect first home in a 1,400-square-foot 1950s rambler in [...]

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Maybe all those reports about the rental market getting tighter and tighter were true. In fact, the market is getting so tight, people are paying thousands to rent places that aren’t even available!
Imagine checking on a vacant rental house you own, only to find a family you don’t know living there.
It happened this week [...]

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Hissssssss…
Thanks to the reader / college mate that sent this in. Seattle got a mention in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal story: Home Prices Keep Sliding; Buyers Sit Tight.
The air continues to seep out of the U.S. housing market, according to the latest data, and some economists are warning that prices will keep declining through [...]

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