Seattle Bubble

• Steve Tytler's latest yearly prediction for the local real estate market: http://is.gd/4QwIN #
• Speaking of troubled local banks, the FDIC has given Evergreen Bank a one month deadline: http://is.gd/4SFzG #
• The Mastro looks like it's getting nasty… http://is.gd/4SFED #
• Seattle's Ben Huh was on Nightline last night, talking up recently-acquired Real Estate site Lovely Listing http://is.gd/4SIWs #
• Redfin raises another $10 million in capital http://is.gd/4TIaL #
• P.S. – I'm in NYC through Monday, so tweeting will be light. Blog posts will continue on a normal schedule. #
• http://twitpic.com/pf1mp – The Tim visits the National Debt Clock in NYC. $11,972,710,892,084 and counting! http://www.usdebtclock.org/ #

Powered by Twitter Tools

• Seattle has its very own foreclosure tour. http://is.gd/4JmKk #
• The only people who believe NAR's "pending sales" measure has any relation to reality are the willfully ignorant. http://is.gd/4LeQO #
• Seattle City Council unanimously approves "backyard cottages" http://is.gd/4LDaT #
• Wow, weird. RT @mattgoyer: New blog post: Moda Repossessed? http://bit.ly/24T0rB #
• Apparently Seattle Bubble placed 16th out of the "top 75 Seattle Media Websites" for 2009. http://is.gd/4Mi1C HT @moniguzman #
• Seattle Times:Seattle overwhelmingly passes affordable-housing levy – http://is.gd/4N6PB #
• Microsoft cuts 800 more jobs, moving beyond the 5,000 announced in Jan. http://is.gd/4N9DW #
• CBIC, a Seattle-based insurer of contractors, making big cutbacks with a combination of layoffs, pay cuts, and schedule cuts. #
• Seattle Bubble's 0×10000th comment! http://tinyurl.com/ye8rdj2 #
• King5: Neighbors left with dirty work in foreclosed homes http://is.gd/4Nwh4 #
• RT @mattgoyer: Redfin Delivers Near-Real-Time Sales Records for 1.4 Million Homes, Integrates Social Media: http://bit.ly/40wLbm #
• Seattle Weekly: Condo Demand? Not So Great. But the Homeless Are a Booming Market http://is.gd/4O1eM #
• $45 billion more in deficit spending. $33b homebuilder tax break, $10b homebuyer tax credit, $2.4b unemployment. WTH. http://is.gd/4O9wa #
• All the cool details about Redfin's sweet upgrade that shows full info on recently-sold properties: http://is.gd/4Oae4 #
• NWMLS October data post updated with charts: http://is.gd/4OnOH #
• U-6 Unemployment at 17.5%. As in nearly 1 in every 5 workers in the USA are unemployed or underemployed. Yikes. #
• RT @mikesimonsen: How Washington is encouraging big risk on high LTV jumbos. From the @AltosResearch blog. http://bit.ly/4zaDQg #

Powered by Twitter Tools

• Part 1 of another story on how WaMu killed itself. http://is.gd/4B1Yc Is it just me or does Killinger look a bit like Willem Dafoe? #
• Is Seattle losing recent competitions for new Aerospace jobs in part due to high real estate prices? http://is.gd/4BbR9 #
• Up north: Banks foreclosing on Whatcom County's unsold condo projects – http://is.gd/4BbVB #
• Part 2 of the Seattle Times' latest WaMu post-mortem piece. http://is.gd/4CT80 (focuses on the designed-to-fail Option-ARM) #
• Interesting commentary on the phony recovery over at The Housing Bubble Blog http://thehousingbubbleblog.com/?p=5702 #
• Looks like a convoluted, idiotic, and expensive expansion of the homebuyer tax credit may be "a done deal." http://is.gd/4F67o #
• Looks to me like Boeing's eventual departure from the Puget Sound is basically a done deal at this point. http://is.gd/4FuAS #
• Third quarter issue of Sound Housing Quarterly is live! http://housingquarterly.com/ #
• Major lawsuit against WaMu execs cleared to move forward http://is.gd/4G5WT #
• Obama: "The deficit is not big enough yet. Plz expand by another $10 billion or so. kthxbai!" http://is.gd/4HkT7 #
• Kendra "Bubbles are for Bathtubs" Todd was on the Kirby Wilbur show this morning. Apparently she has moved to Seattle. #
• Interesting… Google jumps into mortgages and real estate http://is.gd/4HPIY #
• Seattle Times: Loss of new 787 line may hurt Snohomish County housing market http://is.gd/4Ik8n Yeah, it just "may." #
• RT @Redfin: Broker to Congress: Don’t Extend the Credit (Just Keep Rates Low): http://bit.ly/4mu2A5 #

Powered by Twitter Tools

• 5,000-acre flopped development in Pierce made front-page news in the Tacoma News Tribune today: Chapter 11 for Cascadia http://is.gd/4oCjp #
• PSBJ: Mastro Properties is in worse financial condition than “many creditors imagined." http://is.gd/4oHFI #
• New Seattle web-based news outlet The SunBreak takes a look at Seattle's commercial real estate mess: http://is.gd/4oIvA #
• What the heck? Moody’s purged execs who questioned ratings: http://is.gd/4pxW4 Stop the looting & start prosecuting! #
• Real estate professional social network ActiveRain "shrinking and growing at the same time." http://is.gd/4sNWb #
• Senate plans to sneak through extension of the wasteful $8,000 homebuyer tax credit on an unemployment bill. http://is.gd/4sRgk #
• Seattle Bubble welcomes new advertiser 500 Realty. http://www.500realty.net/ #
• Only 0×38D more comments to go before Seattle Bubble breaks the 0×10000 comments mark! #

Powered by Twitter Tools

• "Americans are still delusional about the long-term trajectory for house prices" http://is.gd/4fMeE #
• Peter Schiff on the Dori Monson show right now on 97.3FM #
• "Washington has lost almost 1 out of every 20 jobs since the state's economy began slumping early last year." http://is.gd/4joCS #
• Seattle P-I takes on the new NWMLS rules that target Zillow http://is.gd/4jsJa (only 2 weeks after everyone else http://is.gd/4jsKF ) #
• I smell a new theme for plucky lawyer vs. evil megacorp movies & books… complex mortgage mess = no foreclosure. http://is.gd/4kU6j #
• Ouch: Ultra-green 20-home Green Lake dvlpmnt foreclosed on, now on the market up to 45% off old prices http://is.gd/4lqRR #
• State Treasurer James McIntire demonstrates a shockingly poor grasp on economic reality, promotes extending tax credit. http://is.gd/4lt4q #
• Seattle Times: Mastro's 'Friends & Family' investors to get little or no money back http://is.gd/4msIH #
• Another condo building going to auction this weekend, the Marcato in Tacoma: http://is.gd/4mvoJ #
• Still-growing trouble in commercial real estate is weighing on local banks, especially Sterling Savings. http://is.gd/4mvwj #
• Puget Sound Business Journal: Mastro's properties face foreclosure http://is.gd/4mFwj #
• Edmonds-based developer in default on 10 loans for $40 million to Frontier Bank: http://is.gd/4mUZS #

Powered by Twitter Tools

• via Mish:"We are at greater risk of a total meltdown due to a deflationary collapse than we were in 2007." http://is.gd/3XFvc #
• Wow, nearly 1 in 5 downtown Seattle offices are sitting empty right now, and vacancy "hasn't peaked." http://is.gd/3YwWH #
• Time to eliminate gov. subsidies that have turned homeownership into "an economic ball and chain." http://is.gd/3Yyaf #
• via the Seattle Times: Frontier Financial's acquisition called off http://is.gd/3YSBz #
• Difficult choice for the $1.25 mil homebuyer. http://is.gd/3ZeQ9 vs http://is.gd/3ZeQT #
• Surprising honesty from a Georgia Realtor: "Why not make the tax credit it $100k? Expand it to everyone?" http://is.gd/40mEm #
• Pierce Co. officials apparently have nothing better to do than scour aerial imagery 4 unpermitted decks on private prop. http://is.gd/40mWq #
• Why aren't landlords & large apartment management firms like Equity Residential lobbying against renewing the $8k credit? http://is.gd/40sx4 #
• Seattle #19, just above NY in Forbes' latest pointless list: "Where Americans Pay Most to Live" http://is.gd/42Kjm #
• via KING 5: Newcastle home permit revenue down 90% from "a few years ago" http://is.gd/42KsD #
• WSJ: w/ a 10.9% drop, Seattle office rents experienced the 6th-largest decline over the last year. http://is.gd/42KHp #
• Forbes.com lists @raincityguide as RE blog that "focuses tightly on a particular local market." I count 2 of the last 8 posts that are local #
• Sweet, I just noticed that Google Maps outlines parcel boundaries for Snohomish Co. in the default map view. Not King or Pierce though. #
• Fed. foreclosure efforts "may simply delay mortgage defaults for many" http://is.gd/46Pri #
• WA Dept. of Financial Institutions says developer Mike Mastro illegally sold $100 million in unregistered securities http://is.gd/48Qvi #
• Giant hole at 2nd & Pine to be filled in. http://is.gd/48Sbh #

Powered by Twitter Tools