by davidlosh@davidlosh.com » Tue Mar 03, 2009 9:22 am
This post was about foreclosures. Foreclosures aren't working to reduce the price of housing. The other post that i responded to was about the bottom working it's way up, in terms of price reductions.
The reason I siezed on the term poor is because people throw the term around for people who have less than they do. As a renter paying $600 a month for a one bedroom when my job is paying me $2400 I'm rich compared to the guy on the street who pan handles for $20 and a cot at the mission is $15.
If I own a house have a good job and go to the movies twice a week, if my kids have activities, and my business does well, am I wealthy by comparison to the person in the apartment?
Define poor for me. Where is the magic cut off point that makes people poor. Is it having enough to eat, or starving to death. These are real issues for many people in the world today.
To tie that back to the bottom post and where the bottom is, it struck me as odd that the examples are in South Seattle and then meandered down to Tacoma. It seems the bottom is in what used to be called red lined areas.
There was a lot of unsaid reference to the crime rate. There's another definition I'm always interested in, crime. Unlawful behavior is a sticking point for me. People steal everywhere. Ballard has a very high crime rate and the property values in Ballard seem to be doing pretty well.
Then it was the meth heads that can crawl through a window. That is a very real concern, especially in neighborhoods like South Seattle and Tacoma. Why is that? Why are the drug problems in South Seattle and Tacoma more of an impact on property values than at 85th and Aurora?
The big problem in South Seattle is the economic base that was high jacked when people in Ballard sold for a higher price then bought in South Seattle and Tacoma for a lower price.
These were smart people who wanted to make an investment in the future appeciation. The problem was that all districts appreciated to a homogenious level with out regard for the economic base.