Seattle Bubble

Remember about four months ago, when NAR Chief “Economist” Lawrence Yun said this?
You may even say Seattle is underpriced if you believe Seattle is becoming a superstar city. Seattle is underpriced in relation to other West Coast markets.
Well, it seems he has changed his tune ever so slightly. Here’s a more recent quote, from [...]

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Time to clear out my inbox. Following is a handful of short excerpts from things I’ve been emailed in the last few weeks. Enjoy.
First up, a delightful “Home Economics Wall Chart” that is designed to “focus the consumer on the benefits of owning.” It’s Estate of Mind, Inc.’s Visual Guide to the [...]

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If you want to know why people don’t tend to trust real estate agents, here’s a great example from a Q&A with Bill Hutchinson, president of the Thurston County Realtors Association in The Olympian:
Q: Given where the market is today compared with a couple of years ago, what would your advice be for sellers and [...]

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Apparently the only necessarily qualification for becoming a “world class” or “superstar” city is to keep on repeating that it is so. That’s the message I’m getting from the latest quotes from the Realtor’s spokesman Lawrence Yun, anyway.
Seattle-area home prices are manageable for typical workers, according to the chief economist for the National Association [...]

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Here’s a minor roundup post for you, with a few stories from the last few days that are worth a brief mention:
After selling just 17 out of 114 units, an in-progress condo complex near Seattle Center will instead be completed as “luxury apartments.”
In recent months, developers have shelved plans to convert several Seattle apartment buildings [...]

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A number of people pointed me toward a “white paper” recently released from real estate brokerage John L. Scott titled “Why Now Is A Smart Time To Buy” (pdf). It purports to be “an objective assessment of the housing market as it stands at the end of 2007″ designed “to help home buyers assess [...]

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