Seattle Bubble

The Washington Center for Real Estate Research posted their latest “Market Snapshot” data (pdf) this week.
Here’s an article on the data from the Times: Home sales still sliding in state, Puget Sound region
WCRER director Glenn Crellin continues to blame the media and buyer fear for the floundering market:
“Buyers see and hear stories about the collapse [...]

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Foreclosures in the Seattle area were up 41% year-over-year, according to a report from RealtyTrac.
Seattle-area foreclosures continued to rise in July, according to a new report.
The area, defined as King and Snohomish counties, had 1,030 properties with foreclosure filings, up 41 percent from a year earlier and 13 percent from June, according to a Thursday [...]

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Redfin rolled out some great new statistical features today that are definitely worth mentioning.
Automated market statistics broken down by city, neighborhood, or zip code, with charts showing inventory, price per square foot, and price reduction trends over the last year.
CEO Glenn Kelman announces the new features in a blog post today:
Redfin released a big, beautiful [...]

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Lots of local real estate news hitting today.
Here’s another short one: Moda Condos in Belltown goes rental.
When Moda Condominiums started accepting reservations in September 2006, prospective buyers lined up hours early and quickly locked up all 251 units.
Now, with the Belltown building two months from completion, Moda’s developers have changed it to rental apartments.
“The market [...]

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The last time we checked in on unemployment data for the Seattle area, local data was rapidly catching up to national stats, with statewide unemployment jumping from 4.7 percent in April to 5.3 percent in May, and Seattle-area unemployment bumping up seven-tenths of a percent to 4.1 percent.
Well, it didn’t take long for Washington to [...]

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One of the topics discussed frequently on this blog is the notion that prices in the suburbs are likely to fall much further and faster than prices in the urban core of Seattle. Yesterday Zillow posted their quarterly market update data. I will say that while I’m ambivalent about Zillow’s “Z-estimate” feature, [...]

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