Here is your open thread for the mid-week on April 29th, 2009. You may post random links and off-topic discussions here. Also, if you have an idea or a topic you’d like to see covered in an article, please make it known. Be sure to also check out the forums, and get your word in…
Author: The Tim
Tim Ellis is the founder of Seattle Bubble. His background in engineering and computer / internet technology, a fondness of data-based analysis of problems, and an addiction to spreadsheets all influence his perspective on the Seattle-area real estate market. Tim also hosts the weekly improv comedy sci-fi podcast Dispatches from the Multiverse.
Vulcan’s Rollin Street Flats to Convert to Apartments
I received an email tip from a reader that Vulcan’s Rollin Street Flats, a 197-unit condo building in South Lake Union is officially going apartment. Just four days ago, the Seattle Times reported that Vulcan had “pushed back the start of closings on its nearly finished Rollin Street Flats project.” An email being sent to…
Case-Shiller: Seattle Price Declines Still Accelerating
Let’s make our regularly scheduled monthly check on the Case-Shiller Home Price Index. According to February data, Down 1.5% January to February. Down 15.4% YOY. Down 20.9% from the July 2007 peak Last year prices fell 0.97% from January to February and year-over-year prices were down 2.70%. Here’s the usual graph, with L.A. & San…
Robert Shiller at SPU—Psychology and the Housing Market
Increasingly-famous economist and housing market sage Robert Shiller spoke in Seattle this morning at a business breakfast downtown and this afternoon at Seattle Pacific University. Mr. Shiller’s presentations focused on the role that psychology plays in economic markets, a topic that he explores with co-author George Akerlof in their recent book Animal Spirits. The morning…
Seasonally Adjusted Active Supply: A New Measure of Market Virility
With the increasing disparity between pending and closed sales, using “Months of Supply” as it is traditionally calculated to provide a measure of market “strength” is becoming more and more misleading. In order to address this issue, I have devised a new measure of market vitality: Seasonally Adjusted Active Supply (SAAS). To determine the SAAS,…