with Crystal, the pretty pink pony
Editor’s Note from The Tim: I’m pleased to introduce Crystal, the pretty pink pony; mascot of Seattle real estate. She’ll occasionally pop in (especially over the next few weeks) to share some of her thoughts about the Seattle real estate. She has a… unique perspective that I hope you will find entertaining. Please give her a warm Seattle Bubble welcome.
Hiya gang! I’m Crystal, and I’d like to thank The Tim for this opportunity to share some of my thoughts with you while we travel across the country! I’m so excited about Seattle’s real estate market, and like, this chance to see how other places stack up against our totally awesome town!
December 26:
Today we drove through Arizona and New Mexico. We drove through Flagstaff and Albuquerque, but sadly, we did not get to visit Phoenix, since we stuck to I-40. It was pretty and all, but I can easily see why real estate prices are dropping down here. First off, there’s like, a ton of land down here! I mean, in Seattle we’re totally running out of land, but in Arizona and New Mexico you can see for miles without even spotting a single house. Definitely not special.
Seriously, check it out:
The southwest also comes up short on specialness ’cause it’s way too sunny. As you can see in that picture, here in late December the sun is still shining away. What’s with that? Hey Arizona, hey New Mexico, have you met my friend Winter? Bleh. What fun is a state where it’s this sunny in December? No wonder people don’t want to buy homes here anymore!
Also, I kept a pretty keen eye out for the most common signs of specialness, and was mostly let down. Here’s how Arizona and New Mexico stack up on the checklist:
- Microsoft & Boeing: Barely.
- Trees: Not enough.
- Mountains: Yep!
- Rivers and lakes: Not many :(
As you can see, Arizona and New Mexico don’t have much hope of ever being as special as we are in Seattle. They are fun places to visit, but don’t count on real estate there to make you rich.