Here are a few excerpts from an amusing series of radio reports that aired on KIRO in August 2005, the same month I started Seattle Bubble.
Conway: “We’re growing twice as fast as the nation, and that-that will certainly act as a buffer. If we-if we do see a downturn in the housing market, it shouldn’t be as great as-as what we see nationally.”
…
Brooks: If you’re buying a home to live in, history proves you’ll win in the long run.
Whoops. Wrong on both counts. Seattle’s price decline is pretty much on par with the national indices. While we didn’t decline as much as the really crazy bubble markets like Phoenix and Vegas, nobody tried to claim we would, either.
Bosch: Figure out what kind of home and financing you can afford long term. Remember, some loans are risky.
Codise: “Otherwise, what I fear is that we’re gonna see some record foreclosures.”
If only people had listened to this advice. Of course, by late 2005, it was probably already too late…
Brooks: Everyone wants to make money, the faster the better.
Al Pacino (as Ricky Roma): “Stocks, bonds, objects of art, real estate… what are they? An opportunity.”
Brooks: And that’s the first risk when it comes to real estate.
Pace: “Buyers and sellers will miss out on opportunities.”
Brooks: Sellers can get greedy waiting for the perfect moment, but the deck is stacked against buyers.
Pace: “If they take the time to sleep on it overnight, to decide whether or not they want to make an offer, by the time they make up their mind somebody else has already made arrangements to move their bed into the house that that buyer wanted.”
Brooks: Sam Pace is a housing specialist with the Seattle King County Association of Realtors. He says in bidding wars, buyers are offering terms that include no inspections, waving title review, or forgoing a guarantee for homeowner’s insurance.
I will never shed a tear over the fact that those days are long gone.
Gamble: Alex Eckhart is a Seattle Real Estate agent with Windermere.
Eckhart: “What you want, is you want to get as many offers as possible. If you have four people come through, who will write an offer on your property regardless of what the house looks like, well then you have two more who would not have written an offer. If the house wasn’t in as clean a shape as it is right now, you wouldn’t have had-you would have had four offers instead of six. So the value of the house clearly goes up.”
Seriously. What the hell were people thinking?