To me it’s not a question of whether or not the ridiculous price gains of recent years will continue, but rather how long will they continue? Though other parts of the country have shown some signs of slowing, in the Seattle area the answer is apparently “a little longer.”
King County’s home price increase means the median home cost $385,000 in August — $56,000 more than the median home cost in August 2004, according to figures released on Monday by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.
That’s a 17 percent year on year increase.
In Snohomish County, the median price of homes soared 23 percent to $296,725, while the figure for single-family houses soared 24 percent to $311,525, the first time it has climbed above $300,000.
Yowza. Considering that even by semi-rational financial standards, my wife and I shouldn’t spend much more than $240,000 for a home, it looks like we’ll be continuing to rent for a while.
Maybe the bubble non-believers are right, and prices will never drop. Maybe we missed the time to “buy now before it’s too late” and we’ve been priced out forever. I rather doubt it though.
(Kristen Millares Bolt, Seattle P-I, 09.13.2005)
(Bill Kossen, Seattle Times, 09.13.2005)