Kendall Yards in Spokane is stilling moving along at a very slow pace. I have a birdseye view of the project from my office window. So far, they have only moved dirt and rock around. I’ve seen at most, 3 pieces of equipment operating at the same time and approx. 3 or 4 workers. No activities in the mornings and no building construction so far. In took about a month to get the electrical, cable and other improvements across Monroe Street.

I don’t have a lot of knowledge on the project, but I believe the City of Spokane has pledged the property taxes over the next 10 years (maybe longer) from the Kendall Yards properties and other nearby properties (added after the original plan) to pay the government debt needed for the infrastructure improvements at Kendall Yards. It would definitely be bad news if the City spent the money for the improvements and the project wasn’t completed. Like you mentioned, once again the taxpayers would be on the hook.

I actually like the Kendall Yards project. They are using some land that was an eyesore and will hopefully turn it into something useful. It’s all the condo development in downtown Spokane that I can’t stand. They built the ugliest condo I’ve ever seen right next to the Spokane River facing Riverfront Park. It looks like a jail. They say it’s finished, but the top level and the roof look unfinished (nothing matches). At work, I refer to it as the future Motel 6. My coworkers agree that the building is ugly. One person at work mentioned that the builder only has to sell the condo once to make money. Current condo buyers will have to wait a very long time to sell and not lose money.

Good luck with your overpriced home, and enjoy being upside down in your Countrywide loan…especially after Countrywide files BK and their CEO is hauled off and given an orange jumpsuit to match his orange ‘tan’…or haven’t you been paying attention?

I saw your post regarding the 6 months no payments that Steve Jensen Homes was promoting and was compelled to respond.

I live in the community where that promotion was offered and I speak with the sales staff regularly. So, I would like to correct you in your many false assumptions about Steve Jensen, his homes, and his relationship with Countrywide Home Loans.

Firstly, the reason it was “abruptly” pulled in August was because the home sold. Apparently it must have worked. The same promotion is now being offered on a different home.
After speaking with the sales staff regarding the reasons behind offering this type of promotion, they reported that it offered the opportunity for homebuyers who have an existing home that must first be sold, but who do not wish to make a contingent offer. Therefore, they can purchase the new home and have time to sell their current one without having to make double mortgages.

Regarding Countrywide…I used them to finance my new Steve Jensen Home and found their service to be outstanding. I had shopped for my loan for a great deal of time. Once I found the program that I wanted for the lowest rate, I spoke with Steve Jensen’s Countrywide rep, and he not only matched the program and rate, but also gave me $2500 towards closing costs (this is directly from Countrywide – not Steve Jensen), but also did not charge me an origination fee (usually around 1%). On top of that he closed my loan in 1 week! I would definitely recommend Countrywide again.

Steve Jensen Homes is about quality and service. I am sure that he uses Countrywide as a preferred lender because they help make our experience in purchasing a new Steve Jensen Home very smooth and pleasant.

Lastly, I have purchased many new homes in my life and have yet to find the quality that is found in Steve Jensen’s homes. Since you referred to his homes as ‘overpriced’, I am under the assumption that you are inexperienced in identifying quality and value.

http://www.stevejensenhomes.com

What is the status of Kendall Yards? Is all the funding still there? Are there really going to be buyers for all the residential and commercial real estate going in? Are the taxpayers of Spokane going to continue to front public money after what happened at Riverfront Square?

I am fascinated by this project (In a train wreck sort of way). To me, it is a perfect storm for a financial disaster to both the private developers and the City of Spokane.

A.) For some reason Seattle is different than the rest of the nation — always, if it happen some where else it can happen in Seattle.

B.) The less homes builders sale than more deals will be given — no doubt. Builders need to move “regular” houses off their books.

C.) People taking out Jumbos in this market are crazy. Do you understand the whole point of being required to take out a jumbo is you are financing a staggering amount of debt. If anything if people had half a clue they would look at the bottom part of the market.Taking out a jumbo now is about the worse financial move someone can make. Maybe an unique concept will strike the American people — live within your means — give up the granite counters, the 40″ plasma, and the 3 car garage — actually put some money in savings for that rainy day — because those clouds on the horizon look pretty dark — Live simply and sleep well.

b) Regarding a builder offering 5.375% 10 yr I/O loan, its a bad deal if you stay in the house for more than 10 years. You need to sell the house immediately in 10 years. Also, the deal is only for overpriced houses that the builder built but could not sell either because the buyer backed off at the last moment, or because the buyer’s mortgage was not approved. The deal is not available for regular houses that the builder built.

c) Jumbo rates coming down is a godsend for housing in this area. This is because jumbo loans was the only way people could afford houses more than $550K. Too bad the Fed’s plan of lowering interest rates to help housing seems to be working at least partially. The thing is, the high mortgage rates was a big deterrent to buyers. The super high jumbo rates was a bigger deterrrent in places like Seattle where prices has risen so high. This will be a big relief for people who plan to buy and who have a decent amt to pay for a down payment. Of couse, subprime has gone now, so that removes some buyers out of the market. The thing is, we need to see some really good price drops to cause the downward spiral – a few good hits to the prices will cause all speculators to flood the market thereby depressing them even more. Currently speculators are still holding on, since prices are appreciating here, albeit slowly.

Basically, Steve Jensen hopped into bed with Countrywide. If you financed your house through Countrywide good ol’ Mozillo and Co would make your first 6 mortgage payments on your overpriced Steve Jensen home. The promotion ended abruptly in August, but the Steve Jensen website had it advertised until about 10 days ago. I guess the Jensen/Mozillo fling wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

The 10/3 post on the Jensen website is a classic:

http://www.stevejensenhomes.com/index.php

The guy’s just a private citizen, not a public figure. Cut him some slack, in that “do unto others” way.

I am. That’s why I deleted the comment above that contained his actual salary information, which is in fact fully-accessible public information.

http://www.bennetthomes.com/

In other news, our household just got postcard out of the blue from a developer who’s got a new townhouse project up in our neighborhood, as well as a few others across town. Close on one of their units by the end of December and they’ll pay your mortgage payment for 3 months!

Mr. Orlando personally emailed me, requesting the removal of this comment as well as all discussion “referring to my personal finances,” referring to it as “both inappropriate and quite unethical to discuss my personal financial matters in the blogosphere.”

However, I am going to have to decline that broad request. By agreeing to be interviewed and featured in an article on an explicitly financial subject in Seattle’s largest newspaper, Mr. Orlando has implicitly invited a public discussion of his personal finances.

Attempting to suppress or control such a discussion is fruitless and nonsensical. I’m all in favor of respecting people’s privacy, but when you put yourself in the spotlight, you get to take the positive attention along with the negative.

Who do we have to thank for this attempt to be accurate for once? Other than Tim and his blog, I mean.

http://beat.downtownbellevue.net/2007/10/seattle-area-most-stable-housing-market.html

why would we need incentives to buy a home when there is supposedly a land shortage?

Answer:

“We can’t make any more of the land, but we can build huge high-rises on the beach.” – Robert Shiller

Why does that establish a floor? So many homes are not sold by builders but by homeowners and sometimes lenders.

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/3114

Third Date with Will Ferrell on FunnyOrDie.com

In parts of the country they’re already here, admittedly for a variety of reasons. Much of the Midwest has seen huge price drops. And in parts of Detroit you can’t give away a house. If 50% only takes us back to ‘02/’03 in much of the country, maybe a good world-wide recession can cause a significant portion of the remaining 40% to occur? The only certainty is that we’ll know soon enough!

That’s one of the ugliest POS listings I have ever seen. Less than 1500 square feet of hell on earth for $1.2m? No thanks!

The Meshugy clones are back.

Fred, I have to respectfully disageee. Your statement might be true if buyers always have perfect access to information and always make rational decisions. But, the article’s subject, Mr. Orlando, is a perfect example of people who get excited and pull the trigger with imperfect information and/or irrational decision-making.

The reality is that this most (or at least a significant percentage) of consumers jump at incentives. This is why people sign up for credit cards they don’t need at airport kiosks in exchange for a lousy t-shirt. Or pay $5,00 or $6,000 too much for a brand new car in order to get a 0% interest rate.

I guess I just assumed that everyone knew that this info was public and easily accessible, so I didn’t consider that anyone might have a problem with referencing it.

If it is offensive, please do take it down.

I think one of the moderators should delete that post.

Flippers have been dropping prices also.

This one started at $1,600,000 earlier this year….

http://redfin.com/stingray/do/printable-listing?listing-id=1244598

I know the info about his particular unit and his income were pulled from public records, but for the record, I think it’s bad form to be ferreting out and discussing this particular individual’s info. How would you like it if random people on the internet were discussing your income without your knowledge or consent?

Do you guys realize, though, that by spreading these pessimistic news we are helping push the market down? Moreover, I wonder how many of the regular readears of this blog (myself included) stand to profit from a downturn… I, for one, would love to see prices come down to more “realistic” levels.

This sorta makes me suspicious of financial news… just any news anywhere, including blogs.

Because of land’s shrinking availability and high prices, King and Snohomish counties have but six, Beekley says, which means the area may eventually have a new-home shortage.
Wow. Scarcity and low interest rates – again.

$78k sounds like a lot for a community college instructor – I don’t think that any schools pay that well these days (nothing against the guy, good teachers deserve good money but most places don’t pay it).

Has anybody seen incentives on the Eastside? The one builder that I spoke to seemed to think that once jumbo rates were fixed up (and he expected that to happen RSN) that this whole thing was a blip and things would go back to normal (ie asking for a million bucks for what used to be a normal family home).

Bravado or denial?

$5k off comes to 2%. The lottery? Really?

Why is Ms Rhodes reporting on incentives offered nearly two months ago? What are builders offering today? How much are incentives masking prices drops?

See today’s proof:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071028/us_nm/usa_creditcards_debt_dc

Also jumbo interest rates are dropping sharply: jumbo rates