A number of readers pointed out the latest series of rah, rah, real estate stories from Money Magazine that sing the praises of real estate in Washington State. The gist of the articles is that while the slowdown in real estate is undeniable in most of the country, the crystal ball predicts that a number…
Month: May 2006
Tax Breaks For "Affordable" Rent
Here’s an interesting/amusing little blurb from The Stranger: The city council’s housing committee voted May 16 to put off a motion that would grant $1.5 million in tax breaks to a University District developer in exchange for "affordable" rental units that would cost nearly $200 more than the average rent for the neighborhood. The average…
Insecure Realtor Spams Seattle Bubble
As you may be aware, Blogger has a feature that allows an email to be sent to the owner of a blog whenever a comment is made on any post. It’s a handy feature that allows me to easily stay on top of the lively discussions that take place on this blog. It also allows…
Typical Seattle Story
Thanks to reader Dukes for pointing me toward this story. When CNN wanted a typical story about a young couple getting in over their heads with ARMs and HELOCs, where did they turn? Seattle, of course. Shortly after they were married, Aaron and Lacey Blank, now 25 and 27, wanted just what you’d expect: to…
Let’s Talk Jobs
Let’s talk about jobs for a minute. Not the iPod selling, Pixar-owning kind, but the working for a living kind. I’m going to keep this really basic. Jobs make people money. People use money to buy things. One thing that people buy is houses. Therefore, in my opinion, one good indicator of what the housing…