Seattle Bubble

Stop the Mortgage Bailout, Patrick.net, and Seattle Bubble were featured this morning in a segment called Opposition to Proposed Homeowner Bailout Growing on NPR about the various government bailout plans.

You can listen to the full three-minute segment on NPR’s website. Here’s a little clip of my appearance:

The house Mr. Kaste and I were standing in front of, which he says “may be the last gasp of Seattle’s bubble” is 145 NW 76th St, 98117, which I mentioned on the Audacious Flips and Renovations thread in the forums. Bought for $315k in 2005, now asking $800k.

At the end of the segment he used a quote where I talked about housing braggarts getting what’s coming to them. He was definitely fishing for a comment like that during the entire interview, so I’m not surprised that it ended up on the air. However, taken alone, it sounds like I’m cheering for people’s financial destruction, which is not the case.

Yes, I admit that I’ve got some schadenfreude with respect to one specific set of people: blowhards that simply would not shut up about their home’s ever-rising “value” during the bubble years (such as…). But do I take pleasure in seeing anyone foreclosed on or losing their job due to recession? Of course not.

All in all, I think it was a good segment. The UW professor quoted in the piece does make a good point that more people than just bubble-buyers are going to suffer as this unwinds. However, I agree with Sniglet’s comment in the forums that a bailout “will prevent the economy from properly re-balancing itself and clearing out mal-investments.” Recessions suck, but sometimes they are necessary to get the economy back to a solid foundation. I made this point in my interview with Mr. Caste, but obviously that clip didn’t make the final cut.

The UW professor said that “people depend on their home equity,” which is certainly true, but should they? This needs to be allowed to play out naturally so we can get back to a rational, sound economy.