“I can drive to work all week in my Camry, without having to tank up.” “I ride my bike to work, and get here in 10 minutes.” “Yeah, well I bought a condo in Issaquah, so I have to drive.” “I rent a house right here in Redmond.” “What do you pay per month?” “$1,700”…
Month: September 2007
Trendspotting
I’ve been gone a couple weeks on vacation, out of the country – where I was blissfully disconnected from the internet and all news of the US economy. In the course of catching up on goings on, I surfed over to Altos Research to see what they were reporting. I clicked through a number of…
Best, Worst, & Most Likely Scenarios?
Here’s something that should be fun to discuss. I’m interested in hearing everybody’s ideas about the types of scenarios that may play out in the Seattle-area housing market. Best case, worst case, and most likely case. Here are my wild-donkey guesses: Best CasePrices flat to +3% for ten or more years. Local economy keeps chugging,…
Robert Shiller: Fundamentals No, Psychology Yes
For those of you that are interested in more lengthy reading, a new paper by Robert Shiller (as in Case-Shiller) was released this weekend: Understanding Recent Trends in House Prices and Home Ownership (pdf). Here are a couple of money quotes: It does not appear possible to explain the boom in terms of fundamentals such…
Has Seattle Reached a new Plateau?
A reader going by the name Angie has been making some comments on a couple of posts the last few days that merit further discussion: …the fact is that in some places in the US all but the very rich have been priced out forever! NYC, coastal southern California, San Francisco, etc, etc. It’s been…