Seattle Bubble

From today’s Everett Herald: Housing slump hits local banks hard
Low interest rates, the loss of the home construction boom and investor pessimism all are weighing down on bank stocks, dealing a big blow to all three of the local banks traded on Wall Street.
Lynnwood’s City Bank, along with Frontier Financial and Cascade Financial — both [...]

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The Puget Sound Business Journal reported Friday on some more news from WaMu that is likely to affect local homeowners.
Washington Mutual Inc. has slashed or suspended $6 billion in available home equity credit to its customers in an effort to reduce its risk in a flailing housing market.
If they haven’t already been notified, WaMu’s customers [...]

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I’ve got so many topics to talk about but very little time. I have to start somewhere.
Just months ago it was not uncommon (understatement) to see 100% financed nothing down purchase transactions with various ARM’s tied to LIBOR or other indices coupled with hefty pre-payment penalties, interest-only hybrids with no escrow [...]

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I apologize for not making a more timely post on this subject, but it’s taken me a while to wrap my head around everything that’s really going on, and rather than spit out an uninformed piece full of quotes from equally uninformed newspaper reporters, I thought I’d do some actual research first.
So here’s what just [...]

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I’m seeing via various sources that interest rates are moving up. Today I’m reading that 30 yr fixed rates are around 5.75%. The yield on 10 yr bonds has been increasing lately.
Have a good day.

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The inspiration for this post is from the existing homeowners, prospective homeowners and allied real estate professionals that have corresponded with me and commented on this blog over months past to the present.
I’ve learned and received much more than I’ve provided on this blog I assure you, but the common theme I’ve come away with [...]

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