A year ago he was still blowing the Seattle/Ballard is special horn…….we tried to warn him.

Guess he is scared to eat crow.

What is the most disturbing about Seattle not turning out to be special is that even the Zune cannot stem the tide….

Bernanke is da man … though I still think he should come to this blog and learn a lesson or two on the ‘truth’ about real estate…

“The dollar tumbled to new lows after a top Chinese official called for China to diversify parts of its vast foreign-currency holdings into other currencies like the euro, which hit a fresh high against the greenback — climbing as high as $1.4730. 11/07/2007 By Kate Gibson at Fidelity Market Watch.”

The dollars decline is due to the future repositioning of the $1Trillion USD that China currently has sitting on Wall Street. Basically, the market is fearing China will dump dollars onto already soft market. Not much more to be said…

Also, at dinner time my wife and I were discussing 1972-4… 1) In a war we didn’t want to be in. 2) Dollar came-off the gold standard, dollar declines while gold surges. 3) Oil surges on Mid-East turmoil. 4) Sharp decline in new housing starts. 5) Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan all had revolutions 6) Start of inflation that lasted 6-8 years. 7) A Federal Reserve Bank paralyzed by the market. 8) A criminal for a president… 8) O. Bin Laden alive and well…

http://www.exchange-rates.org/history/CAD/USD/G/30

Instead of free houses we are going to have free money.

However, every economy which has ever modernized has seen booms and busts along the way. The USA had huge booms and busts in the 1800s. So in short, China will undoubtedly have a bust sometime reasonably soon (by 2012?). However, in the longer haul (next 20 years) they will still have far outgrown where they are today.

“Polygon’s Boeing Day at Crosswater New home community in Lake Stevens ~ November 15th from 4pm-6pm. Learn more about Polygon’s special Boeing employee incentives to purchase a new home. Refreshments will be served!
Mention Boeing affiliation & receive $3000 buyer incentive when purchasing a new Polygon home. At specific communities, Boeing customers will earn $10,000 in additional purchasing power. Restrictions apply. See location list for directions.”

Rlly? Y mst hv nvr bn dvrcd thn. ;)< hrf="#" clss="rplyt" nclck="rplyt('29444','∓#91;trll∓#93;',''); rtrn fls;">Rply – < hrf="#" clss="qt" nclck="qt('29444','∓#91;trll∓#93;','∓gt; Sctsmn:\r\n∓gt;\r\n∓gt; Pltclly, cmmnsm s lrdy dd\r\n\r\nRlly? Y mst hv nvr bn dvrcd thn. ;)',''); rtrn fls;">Qt

I get a lot of picks from there. I had C as well but sold it earlier (missed a few points on that one).

I had NFI, NEW and LEND back in the day – man what a ride that was! Pretty much since then I’ve seen the writing on the wall for mortgage and HB’s. Every month I buy far out of the money puts on HOV and BZH for 5 or 10 cents and just wait until BK hits…

1. Desperate Realtor yelling at client

2. Desperate husband yelling at wife.
3. Desperate homeowner yelling at Realtor

Whatever you pick, the common theme is desperation. . Fear is finally replacing greed as the driver of our real estate market.

Mine are WM, LEH, C with UDN(long), IEO(long). GS is a good one they can’t hide thaose bad books for too long. Morgan Stanley just came partially clean….

n wth th ‘trths’ nw…< hrf="#" clss="rplyt" nclck="rplyt('29438','∓#91;trll∓#93;',''); rtrn fls;">Rply – < hrf="#" clss="qt" nclck="qt('29438','∓#91;trll∓#93;','gtt hng n t th lws bfr w g hgh gn!\r\n\r\nn wth th \'trths\' nw...',''); rtrn fls;">Qt

Hey Jonathan & Scotsman -

You two are raining on the delusional entitlement parade! Knock it off! :)

It’s interesting, because WaMu is basically the bank behind the Seattle Is Special nonsense. And in more wasy than one, not just the 1-year ARMs and inflated appraisals, but also in terms of the very jobs the Special Seattlites go to in order to pay their inflated mortgages. Expect layoffs, bleeding, and major fallout from the on-going WaMu saga.

Down 17% in one day and 50% for the year — the first hole in the dyke…

what about Boeing?

will they improve international sales with a falling dollar or have order cancellations as cash-strapped families travel less?M

Personally, I know I have really had to cut back on my jet buying plans. ;^)

will they improve international sales with a falling dollar or have order cancellations as cash-strapped families travel less?

as for buying anywhere today, i’d give it at least another 6 months. i don’t think there is a single market that is below its historic values. not unless your capital is in euros or loonies.

Point taken though, I’ll try to be more sensitive and not let my short positions get over my head….

I don’t think it holds much weigh in Seattle, but in the markets that have already seen huge declines, Trump has a (marginally) valid point – if you have huge amounts of capital, buying a bunch of real estate isn’t a terrible investment right now. In places where there are hundreds or thousands of properties languishing, a low-ball cash offer will probably get the property. Rent it for a few years and sell it in five for a nice profit. Of course, most people don’t have Trump’s capital, and you can probably make more money quicker in other markets, but he’s not entirely wrong… IMO.

For what it’s worth, Miss Grind’s “Local Home Prices Slide” article is listing as the 2nd most read on the Times website. Seems that enough people are seeing it through the Prop-1 moping/gloating.

This mortgage mess adding to Seattle’s price plunges seems to have no end to its horrification.

biz.yahoo.com/rb/071107/cuomo_mortgage.html?.v=8&.pf=personal-finance

I love the smell of falling stocks, earnings, and housing in the morning—-smells like—- recession !!!!

All we need is layoffs now–first up–WaMu