How come we’re printing slumping economy welfare checks; yet in denial and telling everyone unemployment is somehow so low and we need more workers in the city to make it even worse with more competition driving wages and real estate even lower?

Sometimes I think a good portion of our Dem/Rep government leaders need to take common sense 101. And what’s wrong with lower home prices anyway?

I’m guessing that the inventory that’s due to come online throughout the year will be more weighted towards the the beginning of the year than it usually is.

My guess is that a lot of people that would otherwise list in Spring are deciding to “beat the rush” and list a little earlier. Once we get YOY declines (coming soon to a newspaper near you!) I think this rush for the exits will get larger.

Yeah, that’s probably it. It should show a hefty increase in the next 60 days to start the hot spring season.

Interesting drop in inventory at 2AM.

Date Time
02:00 9541 10327 9631
02.01.2008 03:00 9551 10327 9257
02.01.2008 04:00 9551 10327 9259
”

This happens every month at about this time. I think, but am not sure, that this relates to expired listings.

Hm. I put Adsense ads on my once-and-future blog pages and IIRC there was some infinitesimal accumulation for per-page-view, and a lot bigger payback for a click. I thought that was through Google, but it’s all sort of hazy to me now, and it’s sure not like I made any money at it!

I say we all make a habit of idly clicking around these ads to jack up Tim’s take, and then make him buy the beer at the meetup.

Date Time
02:00 9541 10327 9631
02.01.2008 03:00 9551 10327 9257
02.01.2008 04:00 9551 10327 9259

If the Seattle RE prices continue upward you can use your bubble proceeds to make up the difference…

how else will i find out about how to make over $30k/ mo every month for the rest of my life?

If a person does not pay back a loan (either because of short sale or foreclosure or any other reason), then is the amount of default considered ordinary income, subject to federal income tax?

This used to be the case for both short pays and foreclosures, but the “The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007″ (H.R. 3648) provides for a 3 year suspension of traditional tax treatment on forgiven debt from a foreclosure (1/1/07 through 12/31/09). This is also known as the “jingle mail” bill. Passed in December.

Actually Angie, Adwords ads are only charged to the advertiser when clicked, no page view charges. There may be other ad networks that charge per-view, but not Google’s.

The Housing Bubble Blog has had them for quite a while, usually horribly inappropriate as they are here. The advertisers could use negative keywords to block these bubble sites, or even choose individual sites they don’t want to appear on, but that’s somewhat advanced and time consuming.

Buceri // Jan 31, 2008 at 12:37 pm

Off topic – but it looks like we’ll finish January’s inventory at +20% over December 31st

Anyone else notice that the inventory didn’t drop by 100 units this morning like it usually does?

Oh, and if it stays at ~9500 that will be up 60% over last January’s figure of 5,932 listings.

I wonder if those people are more or less likely to vote? My gut reaction would be less, but what the hell do I know?

“singliac, I will be addressing the new ads sometime in the next few days. Stay tuned.”

Please also explain what brand of private jet you will be purchasing as part of your incredibly lucrative participation in the Google AdWords campaign! (grin)

I think the, shall we say, poorly targeted Google ads are a common problem for consumer-oriented websites and blogs. I recall you’re a reader of Get Rich Slowly, right? JD’s been dealing with that for a long time—all kinds of goofy get-rich-quick ads get targeted to his site because of its name, whereas his blog’s real focus is about avoiding crap like that and being responsible for one’s personal finances.

Tim will get more money if we click on the teeny little adlets, but just having them on the site racks up money per page view. They’re pretty ignorable, and we can have a lot of fun making fun of them, so I say, no worries.

Just feed the pony the money!

The bottom is in!!

Maybe the Governor will come up with a matching funds program- wouldn’t want to let a great opportunity to buy some cheap street cred get away!

“I don’t blame you for wanting some payment for all the hard work you put into this site, but it’s pretty jarring to see ads for Ballard Condos littered around the page. I just cringe at the thought of my friends saying “Of course they say there is a housing bubble. That’s how they make their money.””

I think that it is reasonable for Tim to get some compensation for lots of hard work. Besides, having ads for “Ballard Condos” and other RE sales pitches is hilarious – talk about advertising to the wrong demographic!

What’s with the new google ads? I’ve always told people that the bloggers here have no financial incentives behind their reporting (besides wanting cheaper housing). That gave you a lot more credibility in my eyes.
I don’t blame you for wanting some payment for all the hard work you put into this site, but it’s pretty jarring to see ads for Ballard Condos littered around the page. I just cringe at the thought of my friends saying “Of course they say there is a housing bubble. That’s how they make their money.”

Bubbles and huge declines end up being bad in aggregate, so I understand the desire to prevent a decline, but it’s too bad they don’t try to prevent a bubble too, but instead seemingly feed it.

And for how long, if it’s not to nit-picky to ask. And does this contrived % figure include this recent housing bubble that has left many owing considerably more than what their home is worth ( it would take a hell of a “stabilization loan” for these folks)? Ugh, every time I see figures in newspaper articles I cringe!

Also, I’d like to think that the City is smart enough to not make these loans “no strings attached”. But for the true-blue exotic financing cases, this can’t be sufficient. How do you steer someone into a workable loan when their payment has reset and they are now needing to make payments that are twice what they can afford?
It all comes down to how many people got exotic loans in the Seattle area, and how much (and if) home values slide this year.
Oh, wait, I forgot were in Seattle and there where likely only two or three such loans, tops! People here make more than enough on average to finance $500K homes, so we can expect another 5-10% increase in value in this year. They don’t call it the “emerald city” for nuthin’ y’know.

Nothing original, but quite applicable if you’re going to foreclose anyway.

Wow, $5,000, huh? That will let some overstretched buyer keep making their adjusted-ARM payments for about… six months. After which, they’ll either need to find another sucker to front a loan, or they’ll end up in foreclosure anyway. Or maybe they’ll just take the $5,000 and get in touch with You Walk Away. Cha-ching.

My thoughts exactly, as I watched the story last night on the 11pm news. And it’s another LOAN, so if they can’t pay their mortgage, how in the world are they supposed to pay this back (which means that WE will end up paying)? Oh, it just makes me sick how politicians at all levels (from Shrub all the way down to Nickel-dime) are pandering to the underwater homedebters who should have never bought in the first place.