Seattle Bubble

• Poll: Is it ethical for a home debtor to “walk away” from a mortgage?
• Poll: You win a free home anywhere in the Puget Sound area. Where to you choose?
• Poll: You would like to buy a house in the next…
• Poll: What do you consider a good value in terms of $/sqft for a Seattle-area SFH?
• Poll: Do you personally know someone that has bought Seattle-area real estate as an “investment”?

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19 responses so far ↓

• 1 The Tim // Oct 28, 2007 at 5:03 pm

  Two things:

  1) This poll could also be phrased as simply “when do you expect home prices to be reasonable in the Seattle area?”

  2) The “I am a liar” part of the last option is tongue in cheek. I realize that there probably are some people that really would stay in their current home. Maybe.

• 2 e-sidedave // Oct 28, 2007 at 5:29 pm

  How much in the lottery? 1 mil? No, I wouldn’t move. $5 mil, maybe.

• 3 Chuck Ponzi // Oct 28, 2007 at 6:05 pm

  No offense, but If I won the lottery, I wouldn’t be in the Seattle area.

  I like the sunny southern California coast too much. But, it’d be pretty clear I wouldn’t live in Orange County, I’d go to San Diego.

  Even with the wildfires, they have hands down, some of the best weather (in my opinion) in the world. And I have lived in some great places.

  Otherwise, if I loved the area, I’d buy right away… why postpone the inevitable? You either get busy living, or you get busy dying. (Shawshank Redemption). You’ve got tons of money, why not spend it on yourself?

• 4 Ubersalad // Oct 28, 2007 at 6:27 pm

  I like that attitude Chuck. If I see something I like, I buy. Who cares about timing, life is too short to save a few bucks.

• 5 faster // Oct 28, 2007 at 6:41 pm

  That kind of depends on how much I win. If I win Mega Millions*, which is currently at $63 million, I’ll buy a house as soon as I find one I like. If I win something like $1 million, then I don’t really change my life much. Maybe I fret a little less about having dinner out, but other than that it’s not a life changing amount of money - esp. after taxes.

  * I had to look that up. I don’t play the lottery, so I guess it’s not something I need to worry too much about.

• 6 AndyMiami // Oct 28, 2007 at 7:10 pm

  I cannot understand why, no matter what the lottery gives you after tax, that 35% would buy now. It’s a bit depressing that folks that visit Tim’s great work would, with lots of cash in the bank, buy a depreciating asset…buy gold, buy yen or euros, wake up and realize that all your assets are falling in value quicker than the Red Sox winning the World Series. Please, wake up….

• 7 Ben // Oct 28, 2007 at 7:28 pm

  AndyMiami - a lot of folks would rather have the joy of living in a pimp house now than save a bit of money, especially if you are rich.

  Honestly, trying to save your money here and there is one thing, but there is a difference between surviving and living. Do you eat the cheapest food that you can find that will sustain you? No? Why? You could do that, and invest the difference in %great investment%, and have more money in the future!!!11!!

• 8 Jose // Oct 28, 2007 at 7:33 pm

  If I won a lottery tomorrow, I’ll offer to pay asking price minus 20% to the seller(s) of the houses I’m interested in. FULL CASH. If more than one seller took my offer, I’ll pick the best house. If nobody, I’ll invest that money somewhere else. Stock market looks good.

• 9 EconE // Oct 28, 2007 at 7:33 pm

  Think of the kick-a$$ rental you could get with all that money!

• 10 AndyMiami // Oct 28, 2007 at 9:49 pm

  Ben said,

  on October 28th, 2007 at 7:28 pm

  AndyMiami - a lot of folks would rather have the joy of living in a pimp house now than save a bit of money, especially if you are rich.

  most are not rich and if they buy now no matter what they can save, they will be under water on their real estate purchase…wait for the crash and save and then buy in a one to two year window and it could even be longer…it is not Seattle, but the world credit and real estate bubble fueled by the Merrill Lynches of the world.. and now their CEO resigns..this is just the beginning and let us hope this does not lead to a deep recession…but I have my doubts

• 11 Alan // Oct 28, 2007 at 10:00 pm

  If I won $50M, I wouldn’t sweat losing a few hundred grand. My wife however would still rather rent in a very nice place and not buy for at least two years.

• 12 Byron K. // Oct 28, 2007 at 11:11 pm

  I would buy real estate in another country where the GDP is much higher, to make up for inflation (currency dilution). The islands off the coast of Croatia might be my first choice. Second, Vietnam. Third, Panama.

  The glory days of the US are over. Our currency is shot and we are buried in debt beyond debt. Time to get out.

• 13 what goes up comes down // Oct 29, 2007 at 6:36 am

  Like everything else it depends on the amount of dollars we are talking when it comes to the winnings. 50m buy now who cares about a lose 1m wait for a year or two and buy it on the cheap.

  Just like the people looking to sell now, it is all about the price — if they get it through their noggins the boom is over, price right they will sale, if they read Elizabeth Rhodes’ crap they will think this spring the sellers market will return and they will get screwed, which will be kind of funny to watch.

• 14 Kime // Oct 29, 2007 at 7:11 am

  We just downsized to a much smaller home because the kids are mostly grown and moving out of the house. We especially chose this home because we feel it is just right to live in for the rest of our lives, and I have planted a lot of fruit trees that I want to eat the fruit of in the years to come. There is no way we would sell just because we had more money, but we will do some remodeling in a couple of years.

• 15 what goes up comes down // Oct 29, 2007 at 8:28 am

  I wonder if this is are very own Elizabeth Rhodes? Hmmm, is Lizzie selling — http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AaMXDNi3ZNWG2

• 16 on topic // Oct 29, 2007 at 9:22 am

  even with just 1 million after taxes, you could comfortably live on the interest in most places in the world, assuming the $ doesn’t continue its devaluation trend indefinitely.

  i think i’d travel and do “engineers without borders” types of projects, maybe set up a small rural energy consulting company in Bolivia

  no sense sitting around rich and bored in Seattle. why live with the rain and traffic if you don’t need to?

  wow. that is a bit too introspective for a monday morning.

• 17 ferber // Oct 29, 2007 at 11:42 am

  We are currently renting what it would be nice to call a fixer. If we won the lottery, no matter how much, the plan is to buy this house from the landlord and fix it up so we could either sell or use it as our home base for world travel. (that last is assuming we won mega millions and not just a little 1 or 2 million)

• 18 old timer // Oct 29, 2007 at 12:42 pm

  I’m assuming the lottery is a Mega-Millions type in which case, I’d wait a bit for my Seattle purchase but my SoCal buy would be as soon as the check cleared!
  Yep, I’d really like to have a summer home and a winter home.
  Call me piggie.

• 19 TheDexter // Nov 6, 2007 at 3:20 am

  Won the lottery? If you know anything at all, you are buying in Montenegro. As far as Seattle, you will park cash in Mason County/Hood Canal or buy land outside of Zillah, Yakima and Prosser. Or, you will blow it like so many lottery winners do anyway.

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