pain is starting to bite in Bellevue...

[Markor]

[faster]

[sniglet]

I am hearing more and more tales of woe from friends and acquaintances in the Bellevue area these days. One of my wife's friends was just lamenting how her husband is really struggling as a car/home insurance salesman since business has fallen off like a rock (fewer new cars, or home sales, to drive insurance business). Her hair-dresser, who started working part-time as a mortgage broker a year and a half ago, has now become gloomy, predicting that local housing is going to be bad for at last a year (and this lady was on top of the world as early as fall 2007).

My wife has even over-heard women at community center play time talk about how they are going to rent for a while because prices are falling. Even more of a shock, some of my wife's friends are now telling her that we are "smart" to be renting.

This is such a sea change from just a few months ago. My wife has felt SO much peer pressure to buy a house, with her friends bragging about their equity gains, etc, that it was really becoming difficult to even hang out with them anymore.

By the way, our home-owner friend who was going to deliver pizza to supplement his day job (to keep up with debt and rising living expenses) wound up getting his second job at Starbucks and now has barely any time to see the family anymore. Boy, it's great we have so many jobs in the Seattle area: everyone needs two.

Has anyone else noticed a change in local attitudes?

[ira s]

I read The Millionaire Next door. Doesn't sound like a lot of those people like to show off how much money they have. Many of them drive Buicks. There's probably enough wealth in Bellevue to support a Tiffan's, but not enough to sell all those condos. And oddball real estate agent that I may be, I truly get a sense of satisfaction when I see millions of dollars like that flushed down the toilet...I 'd like nothing more than seeing Kemper Freeman have to go food stamps.

[rose-colored-coolaid]

I've been keeping tabs the east side a little, and things out this way seem to be in a complete freefall. It's almost like there is this complete disconnect where Seattle proper is into the steady decline domain while Bellevue is shedding money like .

Unless people place a massive premium (say 30%) on walking/biking to Microsoft, the theory that the 2 miles around Microsoft campus will not decline is complete bunk.

[Markor]

[sniglet]

To be fair, I should say that I don't hear a lot of bearishness around the office yet. Most of my immediate colleagues here at Microsoft still seem to be convinced that we are on an ever expanding upward trajectory of technology driven economic growth. They brush aside my comments about a housing downturn as just a blip. The growing negative mood I hear seem to come from acquaintances who don't have an umbilical cord into the Microsoft.

[rose-colored-coolaid]

[Ubersalad]

I live in Bellevue so I am witnessing this on a day to day basis. It is rare that I actually see a "sold" sign on a listing, in fact I can count with one hand. Every Sunday you will see at least one open house in each block, and more often a few. Perhaps I should start driving by these places and see what kind of traffic they are looking at.

There are two new developments on both ends of Bellevue Way, and both of them are moving at full steam. None of the new high-end homes have been sold over the last year+, ALL of them are still on the market, and none of them even move or change their sign. Bellevue isn't moving and that's a fact.

[rose-colored-coolaid]

Just to expound on Ubersalad's comments, not only is nothing moving, but essentially everything appears to be up for sale. If you drive through any residential part of the city, it is difficult to find a road with no "for sale" signs on it. In some neighborhoods, it seems like every third house is on the market.

[Ubersalad]

Waiting on the doom and gloom March NWMLS data...

http://seattlebubble.com/blog/2008/03/1 ... ry-update/

520 is pretty rough right now...whoever said DT Bellevue is untouchable...good luck.

[redmondjp]

And just north of MS where I live, prices/sales also appear to be at a standstill, although they are actively building 17 or 21 new homes just to the north of Grasslawn Park (on the other side of the Verizon central switching building from the park).

What I find unbelievable is that DR Horton STILL hasn't started on any foundations on their affordable townhome development on NE 85th st (or Redmond Way). These homes will be in the $450-500K range IIRC. Even in this market, I would think that these homes would sell very quickly being in the 'affordable' price range for new construction on the Eastside.

And the $1M foreclosure down the street from me still sits empty (and I suspect bank-owned), going on seven months now. I wonder if anybody has checked to see if the furnace is working over the winter?

Interesting times we live in, eh?

[Notabull]

"In some neighborhoods, it seems like every third house is on the market."

(close eyes, clasp hands together) Normal market. Normal market. Normal Market!!!

[rose-colored-coolaid]

[perfectfire]