It will be interesting to see if this has any effect on resales over the next few months, and the design (and location) decisions made for future Street of Dreams subdivisions.

Though, it did make the BBC. The word “Seattle” was spoken repeatedly in the same sentence as “Street of Dreams” complimented with images of burning houses as broadcast to televisions all across the world.

Good point on the (lack of) fire sprinklers!

One would think that for TWO POINT FOUR million dollars, the builder could pony up a few grand for a residential sprinkler system (which I see them installing more and more on these new-house shows on TV). In fact, many have been lobbying hard to change the codes to require all new construction to have sprinklers. Makes sense to me, although I have some serious reservations about the systems which use miles of plastic piping which is filled with pressurized cold water–the potential for leaks, as well as freezing issues in case of loss of building heat, are definite concerns.

Mission capability: The teams tied on most measures, but Air Force reviewers thought Northrop offered superior refueling and airlift capacity at certain ranges.

SOURCE: Lexington Institute

60% chance builder.
30% chance ELF.
10% chance a disgruntled Meshugy, angry over the precipitous drop of his Zestimate.

Insurance scam.

More important to the Housing Bubble IMO, where is the thread on Boeing and it’s lost tankers?

An old Schlock Mercenary strip does the math . . .

http://youtube.com/watch?v=QmEBlrRRMBQ

http://youtube.com/watch?v=EYbUCvz1LYE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ozc70JPGRMQ

I hope that Seattle takes a lead in the new trend where LESS IS MORE…this will happen as equities and bonds…along with home values fall MUCH MORE than anyone projects…THE CONSUMER IN THIS COUNTRY HAS BEEN LBO’d…now comes the work out, which will takes years, and most adults, all on legal drugs from BIG PHARMA, will still be in denial…and when panic strikes, this city finally realizes the WE ARE NOT IMMUNE FROM THE BUBBLES.. the rest of the country will be in a recovery…by the time the SEATTLE SHEEP figure out what has happened…people in this city ARE SO REMOVED..of course not TIM’s FLOCK..

Not only that, but one would assume the Street of Dreams would have security patrols at night. Leaving huge mansions sitting vacant with no security system or security patrol seems suspicious too me. I am sure some meth addicts would have wished they knew about that, they’d be the kings of scrap copper.

WHEW……….

http://www.500Realty.net

But what’s really interesting (to a Bubblehead like me) is that the Street of Dreams houses — the very creme de la creme of suburban development — just ain’t selling.

(To answer a Alan’s question: The houses were owned by a variety of builders; the burned houses were not owned by the same person. There was one land developer, however. Don’t know if he still owns a stake.)

Torching six houses at the same time is not something the neighbors do because they are pissed off by a land use decision.

No, but it’s something the builder might do. He’s out the land, he says? Did the land get demolished too?

If people who fancy themselves to be ELF arsonists really did this, their motivation was clear from the sign they left: they don’t want oversized houses, esp. advertised-as-green oversized houses, in so-called rural cluster developments. It’s not like it’s a doomed strategy. At one time European Americans didn’t want Native Americans living & pooping on “their” property, so they killed them. It worked. Is this arson going to raise insurance rates on rural McMansions? Sure it is. Gonna be harder to build & sell them now.

The decentralization meme is what ELF would like you to think – that random people just start committing arsons after reading EarthFirst! magazine without ever talking to a current ELF member, that existing ELF cells never take on new recruits, yadda, yadda, yadda. In fact, as recent prosecutions have indicated, the spate of arsons a few years ago in the Northwest was the act of a rather organized organization (which is why it was so easy to roll up the organization after the feds flipped a few people). To get to the point of committing arson, and to be trained enough to do it in a fairly sophisticated fashion, requires being in a milieu that encourages that sort of behavior for quite a while. Torching six houses at the same time is not something the neighbors do because they are pissed off by a land use decision.

Because they’re environmentalist nutjobs?

The intent behind this just doesn’t make any sense…

The thing about ELF is that it’s so decentralized… really, anybody can be ELF. Just start a fire for environmental reasons and — presto — you’re ELF. It could just as easily have been some local residents who were pissed off about losing their lawsuit to protect the local salmon stream and wetlands a couple of years ago.

As to the coincidental timing with the trial in Tacoma: hell, anybody can read the newspaper. ELF, real estate guys, copycats. If it was a real estate guy or a copycat, that trial might have INSPIRED this.

hmmm…

Well, a jury in Tacoma is currently deliberating in the Brianna Walters trial, a person accused of assisting in a number of ELF actions a number of years back. The arson would be a way of showing that ELF is still around, despite the prosecutions – make a quick hit in Snohomish County, and then scurry back to Olympia.

If the arson was done by RE types, they had an excellent sense of timing in making it look like it was related to the trial.

Slog link with comments:

http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/03/street_of_dreams

PI story:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/353498_arson04.html

Ten members of ELF were sentenced to Federal prison terms last year. There haven’t been any ELF incidents for several years. It seems really unlikely that they suddenly snapped back into action, just in time to torch some McMansions that have been stuck on the market since last summer (since teaser-rate jumbo loans dried up).

Also: the builders were on the scene immediately — WITH free-lance P.R. representatives — by 8 a.m. God knows I don’t have MY P.R. rep on standby like that. If I had a P.R. rep.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/realestate/02wczo.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=sears+house&st=nyt&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

…says the insurance will cover the cost of construction but not the land.
He’s estimating that he will be out 5 million and that this will not be a sustainable hit for him.

It might be interesting to track this property to see the “bubble”s impact on the high end.

Well, if they had just waited, given a few more months of Seattle’s housing bubble’s flaming collapse, these houses would have ended up squatter settlements anyway!

They should also know that none of these houses have been sold and their act would actually “benefit” the builders.

ELF wouldn’t use spray-paint. too many toxins.

besides, this year had an environmental theme, right? seems ELF would use their time burning SUVs and genetically engineered crops.