The post Merry Christmas & Happy New Year appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

Answers are collected anonymously. I’m not asking for names, emails, or any other contact information, just a little bit of basic demographic information and your honest opinions.

Since it’s been nearly four years since our last reader census, it’s time for an updated look at who is reading Seattle Bubble.

I’d appreciate it if you would take a couple minutes to head over to the survey site and complete the survey.

Thanks!

The post Seattle Bubble 2014 Reader Census appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

One of these years I’ll make a new digital greeting card for you. But not this year.

Merry Christmas!

The post Merry Christmas appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

Hope you have a nice day off with family and friends. See you tomorrow!

The post Happy Thanksgiving! appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

PayPal

$25 Tip: $25.00$10 Tip: $10.00$50 Tip: $50.00$100 Tip: $100.00$250 Tip: $250.00$500 Tip: $500.00$1,000 Tip: $1,000.00

Direct Financial Contribution

Tips are always welcome. You can use the PayPal form at right or use your credit card on our fancy new tips page here.

Hire Tim to Speak at Your Event

Tim is available for speaking engagements, expert testimony, and other events. To learn more and contact me about coming to speak at your event, visit the new speaking page.

Advertise your business on Seattle Bubble

If you have a local business, advertising on Seattle Bubble is a great way to reach an engaged and active audience. If you’re interested in advertising, contact me here.

As always, thank you for your ongoing support. The last eight years have been great thanks to you.

The post Enjoy Seattle Bubble? Here’s How You Can Support Us appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

Happy Independence Day, everybody!

The post Happy Independence Day! appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

Assuming Case-Shiller is posted tomorrow, I’ll be here with your regularly-scheduled post. It just might show up a little later in the day than usual.

The post Merry Christmas! appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

Taking the day off with family, so no substantive post today. See you tomorrow!

The post Happy Thanksgiving! appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

In case you aren’t aware, this site is run by one individual (yours truly, Tim Ellis) in my spare time. I pay for the domain and the hosting, and dedicate an average of an hour or two a day to bringing you fresh, relevant content about the Seattle-area real estate market.

It’s become quite popular recently for content creators like myself to run a Kickstarter campaign to get reader support. However, since I don’t have any t-shirts or signed prints to give you, just daily insights and analysis on the Seattle-area housing market, I’ve decided to just stick to a simple digital tip jar. If you enjoy this site and/or have found it to be useful, please consider dropping me a little monetary token of your appreciation via the Google Wallet or PayPal buttons below.

Google Wallet

$25.00 – Tip$10.00 – Tip$50.00 – Tip$100.00 – Tip$250.00 – Tip$500.00 – Tip$1,000.00 – Tip

PayPal

$25 Tip: $25.00$10 Tip: $10.00$50 Tip: $50.00$100 Tip: $100.00$250 Tip: $250.00$500 Tip: $500.00$1,000 Tip: $1,000.00

Thank you in advance for your generosity, and thank you for your participation in this site, which helps to make it by far the largest and most active local real estate news resource in the Seattle area!

The post Enjoy Seattle Bubble? Support this Site! appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

The post Merry Christmas! appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

I’m thankful for yet another year in which this sign I photographed in 2006 is shown to be the ridiculous drivel that it is.

Have a great day with your family, friends, pets, internets, or whoever / whatever you choose to spend the day with.

The post Happy Thanksgiving! appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

Thank you:
Conrad S. (2x!), Raul B., William P., Todd W., Kurt O., Aleta K., David L. (4x!), Ahmed S., Tri P., Charles C., Stan B., Ira S. (2x!) Andrew H., Tiffany F., Gabriel N., Darren H., Fabio F., Kary K., Chris M., Christopher F., Erik H., Eric S., John W., Viktor K., Troy D., Douglas D., Jason L., Katherine P., Bradley V., Ricki H., Jeffrey C., Daniel W., Daniel M., Daniel A., Timothy L., Timothy M., Joel K., Devaraja M., James D., Jose S., Constance T., Ivan A., John M., Hsu-Chieh Y., Charles A., Ken D., Karen H., Evelyn L., Andrew B., Michael K., Jillayne S., Joseph R., Richard O., Jennifer D., Richard L., & John M.!

[Addendum: Also thanks to Brian L., Ted R., Conor M., Christopher H., Sam R., Dana C., Jon R., Marina M., Samuel K., Lori M., Greg E., Timothy W., Gautam S., Raymund W., Robert T., & Gordon W.!]

Also, I’d like to extend a special thank you to the reader who mailed me the card you see at right. Inside it reads:

Hi Tim and Jeni,

Congratulations on adoption of your daughter.

A loyal bubble reader.

[name withheld by The Tim]

Awesome. Thanks again, everyone!

The post Thank You For Your Support! appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

In case you aren’t aware, this site is run by one individual (yours truly, Tim Ellis) in my spare time. I pay for the domain and the hosting, and dedicate an average of an hour or two a day to bringing you fresh, relevant content about the Seattle-area real estate market.

If you enjoy this site and/or have found it to be useful, please consider dropping me a little monetary token of your appreciation. I have provided convenient Google Checkout (my preferred method) and PayPal buttons below for this purpose.

Google Checkout

$10.00 – Tip$25.00 – Tip$50.00 – Tip$100.00 – Tip$250.00 – Tip$500.00 – Tip$1,000.00 – Tip

PayPal

$10 Tip: $10.00$25 Tip: $25.00$50 Tip: $50.00$100 Tip: $100.00$250 Tip: $250.00$500 Tip: $500.00$1,000 Tip: $1,000.00

Thank you in advance for your generosity, and thanks for participating in this site and helping to make it by far the largest and most active local real estate news resource in the Seattle area!

The post Enjoy Seattle Bubble? Support this Site! appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

Taking the day off with my family, so no substantive post today. See you tomorrow!

The post Happy Labor Day appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

For now though. I’ve got to shut down my Wi-Fi hotspot and get on a plane.  See you tomorrow.

The post Missing Post: Tim In L.A. Edition appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

I’m thankful that this site has been able to save a few people from ruining their financial lives by following the baseless hype spewed non-stop by most real estate agents, like this sign I photographed in 2006.

Have a great day with your family, friends, pets, internets, or whoever / whatever you choose to spend the day with.

The post Happy Thanksgiving! appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

As of Monday night, I have switched the blog half of Seattle Bubble over to a brand-spanking-new layout.

Highlights:

• News Wire on the sidebar (via Twitter)
• Market charts updated daily on the sidebar courtesy Altos Research
• Better category organization w/ dropdown menus
• Less wasted space at top of page
• New comment preview function that doesn’t bog down your processor while you type.

In addition, the sidebar is much cleaner when you navigate away from the front page. Also note that The log in / out and new account creation has been moved to bottom of sidebar under “Accounts.”

The new layout is based on the Hybrid News WordPress theme, created by WordPress guru Justin Tadlock.

I will be working on updating the forums in the next month or so as well, in addition to going through all of the old content and sorting it correctly in the newly-organized categories.

Let me know what you think, and whether anything is broken. Thanks!

The post New Seattle Bubble Layout! appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

The post Merry Christmas! appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

First up, a subject that we’ve discussed a few times here in the past: name change. “Seattle Bubble” is a name that made sense when I started the site in 2005 as a simple blog to explore the idea of a growing housing bubble. Now that the site has evolved into more of a general news and discussion site on the subject of local real estate and related economic issues, it’s time for a new name that better reflects our identity.

To that end, beginning in 2010 Seattle Bubble will become Sound Housing News. This name reflects both our regional focus on the Puget Sound, our topical focus on housing issues, and our analytical approach to the data (with “sound” as an adjective meaning “reliable, sensible, or based on reason”). It also matches Sound Housing Quarterly, the subscription product I launched last year as a sister project to Seattle Bubble.

Once the name change takes effect, we will be moving to a new domain at SoundHousingNews.com. Don’t worry though, all your old bookmarks and links will still work and will be automatically forwarded to the new address. From a reader interface perspective, the change will be seamless.

Next, in the coming months there are a number of site function and form improvements that I’ll be making. Here’s a brief list of upcoming features in the pipeline:

• More newspaper-ish format front page featuring a variety of content / sections.
• Weekly podcast (ideally structured as a 1-hour live call-in program).
• Better integration of the forum and the blog.
• Better organization of archives, highlighting the most useful content like how-to’s and real estate resources.
• Improved methods of highlighting related quality content on other sites.

So what is my list of improvements missing? What would you like to see that would make this site a better resource for you? Let’s hear your suggestions and your thoughts on the upcoming changes.

The post Changes on the horizon at Seattle Bubble… appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

Have a great day with your family, friends, pets, internets, or whoever / whatever you choose to spend the day with.

The post Happy Thanksgiving! appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

The post Official Seattle Bubble Twitter Feed—New! Shiny! HIGH TECH! appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

Tune in to the Weissbach show today at 5:30 PM on AM 570 to hear me (The Tim) discuss the local real estate market with host Peter Weissbach. See Tuesday’s post for a little more info on Weissbach’s program.

If you’re at a computer, you can listen online here.

Update: If you missed the program, here’s the audio.

Thanks again to Peter for having me on!

The post Tim on the Radio Today (for real this time) appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

Tune in to the Weissbach show today [this Thursday] at 5:30 PM on AM 570 to hear me (The Tim) discuss the local real estate market with host Peter Weissbach.

Almost all the local radio hosts I listen to have recently been hawking real estate “investment” opportunities (especially a particular “resort” in Eastern WA) and/or pushing mortgages with “rates are about to go up” scare-talk. I don’t believe I’ve heard Weissbach join in on that nonsense. On the contrary, I have specifically heard him denounce the misplaced notion that buying a home is somehow the path to riches.

Weissbach’s program is always entertaining and unfortunately only lasts an hour, so I am grateful that he has invited me on. I’m looking forward to joining Peter today, and hope you all tune in. [Thursday] AM 570, 5:30 PM. If you’re at a computer, you can listen online here.

The post Hear Tim on the Radio [Update: Later this Week] appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

Hopefully things should be fully operational again by the end of Saturday with minimal disruption, but be aware that it may take some time for your internet provider’s DNS servers to update to the new site host.

Update: If you’re reading this update, then you are viewing the site on its new host. Everything should be up and running. Let me know if you experience any difficulties. Thanks!

The post Announcement: Site Migration This Weekend appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

Exciting Independence Weekend Contest!

Whoever guesses the closest lat-long coordinates to the location where the above picture was taken wins a Made in Washington gift bag with some MarketSpice tea, a Fran’s chocolate bar, some Cabernet chocolate cherries, Biringer’s lemon tea cookies, and an Almond Roca.

One entry per person, leave your guess in the comments along with a valid email address so I can contact you if you win. Contest closes at midnight Monday morning / Sunday night.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Update: Congratulations to Joe @ comment #4, whose guess was just 16 feet from the correct location! Incredible. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he somehow cheated. Here’s a map of all your guesses, with the correct answer marked in green:

View Seattle Bubble Independence Weekend Contest Results in a larger map

The post Happy Independence Day appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

DATE & TIME: Tuesday April 21st at 7:00 PM
PLACE: Third Place Books (Lake Forest Park at the corner of Bothell Way (522) and Ballinger Way (104))

Parking is plentiful and free both below at the main entrance and above behind the building. We will be meeting in the commons area near the main stage. We’ll be sure to put some sort of “Seattle Bubble” sign up again on our tables.

See you there!

The post Reminder: Meetup Tonight at 7:00 appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

First-time home buyers would get their $8,000 tax credit as a state loan at closing, under a measure the state Senate Ways and Means Committee approved Wednesday night.

The federal government is offering the credit to first-time buyers who buy a home through November, but won’t pay the credit until after buyers file this year’s tax return. Under the new budget amendment, which State Treasurer James McIntire wrote, buyers would get the money as a loan at closing, meaning they could use the money for down payments, then pay it back when they got their tax refund.

As you could probably guess, this is being pushed for by the Washington Realtors and Lennox Scott.

As it is currently executed, the $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit is not able to influence the price of homes that are purchased, since it is not received until up to a year after the actual home purchase was made.

If the state starts handing out the $8,000 during the purchase, that money is immediately tied into the house. With homes continuing to depreciate (at an increasing rate), by the time the actual credit is received from the IRS and paid back to the state, the equity will likely be gone. $8,000 down the drain.

In contrast, if the homebuyer is forced to practice the lost art of delayed gratification, when they receive their $8,000 government handout in 2010, they will be able to invest it, maybe buy some furniture, or—here’s a crazy idea—save it.

Also, who knows what the homebuyer’s situation will be by the time they actually file their 2009 taxes next year? What if they end up owing some money, and they don’t get the full $8,000 from the IRS in an actual check? If they pre-used that money to buy a bigger/better house than they otherwise would have been able to, it is unlikely they will have saved much in the interim to be able to pay back the state. Or what if the homeowner loses their job? If they had not pre-spent the $8,000, it could have been used to tide them over for a few months on their shiny new mortgage.

All in all, this is a terrible idea. Shame on the Washington Realtors (the organization, not necessarily the individuals) and Lennox Scott for encouraging more of the same the type of irresponsibility that got us into this mess in the first place.

(Aubrey Cohen, Seattle Real Estate News, 2009.04.17)

The post State Considers Irresponsible Plan to Pre-Distribute $8,000 Tax Credit appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

Here are the details:

DATE & TIME: Tuesday April 21st at 7:00 PM
PLACE: Third Place Books (Lake Forest Park at the corner of Bothell Way (522) and Ballinger Way (104))

Parking is plentiful and free both below at the main entrance and above behind the building. We will be meeting in the commons area near the main stage. We’ll be sure to put some sort of “Seattle Bubble” sign up again on our tables. Call 206.313.1914 if you need help or can’t find us.

Here’s Google Street View of the spot, just because I can:

Again, this is just an informal get-together with no official agenda, just to meet up and hang out. Third Place Books is a more open space than where we met last time, so it shouldn’t feel near as cramped. Also, there is a little food court there, but be aware the most restaurants at the commons stop serving around 8:00-8:30 PM. So if you are hoping to buy food, you should plan to arrive by about 7:30 PM.

I’ll be there, as it’s practically right in my backyard.

The post Seattle Bubble Meetup Tuesday, April 21st appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

Hit the forums for more details. Unfortunately I will not be able to attend, due to prior commitments at church.

The post Unofficial South End Seattle Bubble Meetup appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

The post Poll: Which type of comments do you prefer on Seattle Bubble? appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

Also, I’m updating the theme to the latest version. You can now reply to comments directly.

Current known issues:

• Forums totally broken.
• Inventory tracker not updating.
• “Recent On-Topic Forum Posts” sidebar widget is experiencing technical difficulties.

*Slaps forehead*

Somehow my server PHP version got switched to 4, which killed first the two functions in the list above. It has been switched back to 5, and things appears to be working now. Please let me know if you encounter any issues.

The post Site Migration Note appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

DATE & TIME: Tuesday January 20th at 6:00 PM
PLACE: Kate’s Pub (Wallingford; located near I-5 and many bus routes)
RSVP: Optional; E-mail eli [at] eligoldberg [dot] com and we’ll save you a spot.

Our table will have an improvised “Seattle Housing Bubble” sign. Call 206.313.1914 if you need help or can’t find us.

See you there!

The post Reminder: Meetup Tonight at 6:00 appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

Well, an intrepid reader got tired of waiting for me to put something together, and has planned the first Seattle Bubble meetup for next week. Here are the details:

DATE & TIME: Tuesday January 20th at 6:00 PM
PLACE: Kate’s Pub (Wallingford; located near I-5 and many bus routes)
RSVP: Optional; E-mail eli [at] eligoldberg [dot] com and we’ll save you a spot.

Our table will have an improvised “Seattle Housing Bubble” sign. Call 206.313.1914 if you need help or can’t find us.

Here’s Google Street View of the spot, just because I can:

And as long as I’m getting all Google-riffic, here’s a link to allow you to add it easily to your Google Calendar:

It’s just an informal get-together with no official agenda, just to meet up and hang out. Thanks to Eli for setting this up. I’ll be there.

The post Seattle Bubble Meetup Next Tuesday, Jan. 20 appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all thro’ the land
Not a creature was stirring, not even Suzanne;

Bad mortgages hung by the treasury with care,
In hopes that Hank Paulson soon would be there;

The realtors were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of six percent danc’d in their heads…

No substantive post today. For those that choose to stop by, enjoy this open thread, and this majestic photograph of Crystal, the pretty pink pony, Seattle’s real estate mascot.

Merry Christmas from Seattle Bubble!

The post Merry Christmas from Seattle Bubble appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

So far I have sent requests to:

• Todd Britsch of New Home Trends
• Dick Beeson, Windermere broker and NWMLS director
• Matthew Gardner, local economist
• Dick Conway, local economist
• Dan Klusman, Master Builders Association (RightTimetoBuy.org)
• J. Lennox Scott, CEO of John L. Scott

Unfortunately, Lennox’s Director of PR has already denied my interview request with him.

If you have any additional individuals that you think we should interview, let me know in the comments. Furthermore, if you have specific questions you would like to see asked, leave those in the comments as well. I can’t promise that I’ll ask every question that is posted, but I will do my best to include the most relevant and interesting ones in the interviews.

General questions for any and all of the interviewed industry insiders are acceptable, as are specific questions for one particular person. I’d like to expand the conversation and give the “other side” a fair shake.

The post Ask the Industry Insiders Why “It’s a Great Time to Buy” appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

I just wanted to take a moment to extend a big thank you to everyone that donated. Your financial contributions allow me to continue operating this site, providing an independent alternative for real estate news and analysis in the Seattle area.

I look forward to rolling out the exciting things I have planned for Seattle Bubble in the coming months, and I greatly appreciate your continued assistance.

Thanks everyone!

The post Fundraising Drive: Thank You! appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

Unfortunately, in recent weeks a handful of people have been coming in here and leaving comments that are quite clearly intended to antagonize, anger, and upset others.  You can thank this small group of people for ruining the hands-off policy for everybody.

So, starting now and for the foreseeable future, this is the comment policy that will be enforced on Seattle Bubble.

If your comment contains any of the following, it will be either edited or deleted:

• name-calling
• blatant antagonism
• swearing

Antagonism is obviously subjective, but I will probably more readily delete a comment that seems like it might be antagonistic than leave it up.

Also, from now on, no commercial links may be left in the body of the comment.  If you want to fill in your business link in the comment form where it says “website,” feel free to do that, and it will be linked to your name.  But posts with links to a business in the body of the comment will be edited or deleted.  If you want to advertise your business on Seattle Bubble, you need to pay just like everyone else.

Commenters that repeatedly choose to violate these simple rules will be banned.

Feel free to express whatever opinion you want, but find a way to express it that doesn’t come across like a jerk. I gladly welcome dissenting opinions, but I do not welcome rude and hostile trolls.  The comment section of Seattle Bubble is intended to be a place for productive discussion of the posts.  It is not some sort of internet fight club.  If you want to sling insults at people, go find some other forum.

March 4 2009 Addendum: Please keep comments on-topic relative to the post that you are commenting on. For off-topic comments, please use the provided open threads and the forums. Off-topic comments may be deleted or moved to the current open thread.

March 31 2010 Addendum: Comments relating to health care may be posted only on the Health Care Open Thread Smackdown. If you post a comment about health care somewhere else, it will be either deleted or moved to that post.

June 13 2010 Addendum: Registration is not required to comment on Seattle Bubble. That means you’re free to use whatever made-up name you want when you participate in discussion here. HOWEVER, we ask that you pick one name and stick with it. Changing names every few days or weeks is annoying to other people trying to participate in the community, and it’s more unnecessary administrative work for me. If you are found to be changing names, your comments may be deleted.

September 7 2010 Addendum: Comments relating to the global or national economy and not directly related to Seattle-area real estate may be posted only in the Global Economic Open Thread. If you post a comment about the global economy that is not directly related to Seattle real estate somewhere else, it will be either deleted or moved to that post.

February 20 2013 Addendum: Everyone gets up to 5 comments per post, then you’re done. Regular open threads have a limit of 15 and the long-running politics/economics/healthcare open threads have much higher limits. Use your comments wisely.

The post Seattle Bubble Comment Policy appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

At 4:00 today I’ll be joining Dustin and the Rain City Guide crew for a live podcast sort of thing that they’re calling Rain City Radio.

You can join in on the conversation via chat or call-in by going here, or via the embedded widget on this post (if I did it right).  If you can’t listen live, you can listen to the recorded call there later.

Update: That was fun. You should be able to use the widget on this post to listen to the recording. Here are a few of the posts I mentioned in the call:

• King County Home Prices: 1946-2007
• King County Affordability: 1950-2007
• Buy Now, or Wait it Out?
• Pink Ponies on the Forums

The post The Tim on Internet Radio with Rain City Guide appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

The post Debt: The American Way appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

So, I created my own map based on some more detailed pdf versions of the maps that I was pointed toward by Greg Perry (thanks Greg!).

I’ve finally finished drawing all the perimeters, and before I do much more work on it, I thought I’d solicit some feedback from you. So what do you think? What would be the best way to display this? What features does the map need? Any and all relevant feedback is appreciated.

Also, I haven’t posted regarding the Fundraising Drive lately, and as a result donations have somewhat slowed. Thanks to the 54 people that have contributed so far, we’re nearly 50% of the way there. Thank you everyone!

Please consider donating if you have not already. Your money helps make Seattle Bubble a better resource for everyone. Thank you!

The post NWMLS King County Area Map appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

Time for another update on the fundraising drive. So far 39 people have donated a total of $885, putting us over 1/3 of the way to the goal. Thank you for your generosity!

If just 65 more people were to donate $25 each, the goal would be reached. Please consider making a donation if you have not already. If you have—thank you again.

Someone left the following comment on the previous fundraising post:

I’ve wondered how you monetize your detailed, quantitative knowledge of the real estate market once the local market passes its bottom. Seattle Bubble, by the nature of its title is a bit time limited.

That’s a great question, and it’s something I’ve definitely been thinking about. When Seattle Bubble launched in late 2005, the purpose of the site was to explore the housing bubble and how it related to the local real estate market. Since then, I feel like the site has grown into much more than that, and become more of a general news and analysis source for the local residential real estate market.

I think this is a service that has a place even after the housing bubble has played itself out, and as I have said, I intend to continue growing the site and making it an even better resource to that end. That being said, I am interested in more feedback regarding the name of the site. Technically speaking, it would be a piece of cake to re-name the site and automatically redirect visitors to a new domain, but is that really necessary? Does the name of the site really matter if the content is quality? What’s a “Zillow” or a “Redfin”?

I’d like to hear your thoughts on the “branding” of the site, keeping in mind the goal of where I’d like to bring the site over the next few years (which I described in the initial fundraising post).  If you have any good name ideas, feel free to list them here as well.  Thanks!

The post Fundraising Drive Day 5: Looking Forward appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

Well, after two days of the fundraising drive, we’re over 19% toward the $2,500 goal. I’d like to extend a big thank you to the 22 donors so far. I greatly appreciate your generosity.

The level of contributions is more or less in line with any similarly sized drive, as far as I can tell, but I will admit that 22 people doesn’t seem like very many when you consider that over 3,000 people read Seattle Bubble each of the last two days. (This is the obligatory guilt-trip part of the fundraising drive.)

Remember that your contributions help allow me to dedicate more time to bringing continuous improvements to Seattle Bubble. We’re talking extra content, spiffy tools, and useful resources. You are helping to evolve Seattle Bubble into an even more useful and valuable tool for the local housing market.

Just 100 people (less than 4 percent of the usual weekday readership) contributing $25 would be enough to achieve the entire goal. Of course, I completely understand that donating to a free website is not likely to be high on most people’s to-do list, which is why most public TV and radio pledge weeks take forever to reach their goals as well, despite having far, far, more viewers/listeners than a niche website like this. That being said, every donation is appreciated, and brings us that much closer to reaching the goal. Even $10 lets me know that you appreciate the effort that I am putting in daily to bring you the latest comprehensive look at the local housing market.

Thanks for your support.

The post Seattle Bubble Fundraising Drive: Day 3 appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

As you may or may not know, Seattle Bubble is one of a handful of projects that now make up my full-time job. Since dedicating a larger amount of time to improve and expand Seattle Bubble, I have been able to greatly improve the aesthetics, add useful widgets like “recent forum posts” on the sidebar, and create more in-depth and interesting posts.

However, as the housing market returns to sanity, my work here is only just beginning.

So, I’m taking a page out of the public TV playbook, and running a donation drive this week. The goal is pretty modest: $2,500. Considering that a popular local political blog was recently able to raise $6,000 in a week, I think this is a wholly realistic goal.

I would like Seattle Bubble to become so much more than just real estate news and discussion. We’ve already got a lot of useful resources here for anyone that wants to research the local housing market, but I want to give you more. Here’s a sampling of what I’ve got cooking for Seattle Bubble:

• Comprehensive checklists for home buyers and sellers
• Simple to use and easy to interpret market statistics (i.e. – not just the usual static graphs and charts)
• Interactive maps (in-progress sneak preview)
• Succinct quarterly market newsletters

In order to do all these things, I need to keep growing the income generated by Seattle Bubble. So I’m coming to you, the readers with a request for a few bucks. If you would like to support what we’re doing here, there are a number of ways you can donate.

If you’d like to donate up to $25, I recommend the under-utilized Bulls, Bears, and Ponies gimmick.

Alternatively, for donations of $10 to $250 (in round increments), you can use this handy-dandy button here:

For anyone generous/crazy enough to want to give more than that, you can enter any amount you like through PayPal here.

If you want something more tangible in return for your money, consider buying some advertising on Seattle Bubble. Our rates range from $65 to $200 a month, and we are fairly flexible in how we display the ads. Please read through the advertising page and contact us through the link there for more information.

Please consider donating to Seattle Bubble to help this become an even better resource to educate and empower regular people that just want to make the most out of buying or selling a home.

As is the custom with donation drives, I’ll be popping in throughout the week with updates and a renewed request for your support. Rest assured, this will not mean a reduction in the number of quality on-topic posts you get in the mean time. I’ll keep bringing you the latest news on Seattle’s housing market whether you choose to support me financially or not.

Thank you in advance for your consideration and generosity.

The post Seattle Bubble Fundraising Drive appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

One of the segments later this week will feature me gabbing with co-host Jim Dever about Seattle Bubble and the local market. I’ll probably post that particular segment on here once it airs.

P.S. (If the King 5 website tries to get you to register to view any of the above links, just remove the “http://www.king5.com/sharedcontent/membership/join.jsp?fw=” part from the address bar and try again.)

Update: I’ll be on tomorrow night. In the promo after tonight’s show they plugged my segment with the line “he’s the Seattle Real Estate guru who doesn’t even own a house!” That’s amusing to me, because I have never, nor would I ever refer to myself as a “real estate guru.”

The post King 5 Evening Magazine: Real Estate Week appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

The post Poll: What’s your favorite pet? appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

I’d like to take a moment to announce a fun new gimmick that I’ve created for donating to Seattle Bubble: Bulls, Bears, and Ponies. A lot of people have given some money to Seattle Bubble, and your donations are greatly appreciated. However, until now there has been no way to get a little recognition for your contribution to keeping this site running.

That’s where Bulls, Bears, and Ponies come in. It’s just a fun little way for me to say “thank you” to people that donate to Seattle Bubble. When you donate through the Bulls, Bears, Ponies page, you’ll get your very own little icon over on the sidebar under the advertising block, with whatever message you choose. It will even link to a site if you like.

For the full details, check out the Bulls, Bears, Ponies page. Have a great weekend everyone.

The post Fundraising Gimmick: Buy Bulls, Bears, and Pink Ponies appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

First off I want to thank Dylan W. and the Seattle Metroblogging crew for putting on this tournament. It was a fun way to learn about new and interesting blogs that I haven’t previously known about. I enjoyed the good-natured contests against Eugene Cho and versus food blog Accidental Hedonist, and through the contest was introduced to the delightful Vintage Seattle.

Unfortunately, the good-natured competition of the tournament was poisoned in the quarter-final round as the match between Huskies Fan and Lookout Landing degraded into a contest of who could cheat the best. When both blogs were allowed to continue to the semi-finals against Seattle Bubble, I had hoped that the over-the-top cheating would be left behind in the quarter-finals, and that we could have a fun, easy-going, and above-the-board competition like those we experienced in the previous rounds.

Regrettably, as the saying goes, bad company corrupts good morals. I don’t know who was responsible for kicking off the cheating in this round, but it would appear that both sides are equally guilty of some serious monkey business in the semi-finals. It seems likely that there were no more than a handful of cheating individuals on either side of this match, but even one determined cheater is enough to ruin the contest for everyone. Previous rounds were entertaining and fun, but with all the cheating and personal attacks that have been flying around, this round has been about as enjoyable as a fistfight.

Therefore, for the sanity of our readers, and in the interest of fairness to the blogs in the Coyote bracket that appear to be keeping with the spirit of the competition, I am withdrawing Seattle Bubble from the tournament. I have removed the poll from our sidebar and the vote links from the top of all our pages, and will no longer promote the contest on Seattle Bubble. It’s simply not worth putting this much effort into a competition that has clearly degraded into a cheat-fest, and would end up being decided by who has the most people pouring in multiple votes in the final hours of the contest.

Thanks again to Rain City Guide and Seattle Real Estate Professionals for their support, and thanks to everyone that voted in any of the rounds of this tournament. It’s been fun.

The post Seattle Bubble Withdraws from Blog Contest appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

As of this post, it’s a dead heat, with Seattle Bubble trailing by one vote, 924 to 925. Many thanks to everyone who has voted so far, and special thanks to Rain City Guide and Seattle Real Estate Professionals for the plugs.

The Lookout Landing crowd seems to think that they will get a surge of votes this evening surrounding the Mariner’s first game, so we need your vote now more than ever.

If you’re reading this on a computer that displays poll options instead of poll results over on the right sidebar, then click the little bullet next to “Seattle Bubble” and click “Vote.” I’m talking to you too, RSS subscribers. Take five seconds to load either Seattle Bubble or the contest page, and vote for us.

This concludes today’s episode of “Shameless Begging.” We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

[Update:] Seattle Bubble has withdrawn.

The post Blog Contest Update: Seattle Bubble in Dead Heat appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

To make it even easier to help us win this round, I’ve embedded the poll at the top of the sidebar to the right. You can also go to the official poll site here. Either way, I hope you take the brief moment to support the best real estate blog in town. Let’s win this thing!

The post Vote for Seattle Bubble in the Semi-Finals appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

The post Vote for Seattle Bubble Yet Again! appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

Here are some direct quotes from recent comments or emails:

• “…add more buyer support with consumer input.”
• “…take this blog in a new, constructive direction.”
• “…collect and publish some very useful statistics in King County that no one currently is putting together.”
• “…the mocking tone of most of the conversations here…how are you going to address that for new customers?”
• “Your site is rapidly becoming useless. Now that the repeatedly prognosticated fall has happened you have nothing to say of any value.”

Some of these are helpful, and in addition to this week’s poll, are helping me get a better idea of the direction people would like to see Seattle Bubble move. In order to solicit more feedback (hopefully of the constructive variety), I’m opening this post up for you to air your thoughts. If you just need to vent, that’s fine, but what I’m really interested in are your thoughts on how this site can become a better resource to anyone that is interested in real estate in the greater Seattle area.

If all you have is love and compliments, save those for another post, or feel free to express your gratitude in the form of a (non-tax-deductible) donation. Let’s keep the comments to this post on the topic of how Seattle Bubble can improve. Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

The post What do <em>you</em> want from Seattle Bubble? appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

If you have any problems, comments, compliments, or any other thoughts about the new layout, please air them here, or send me an email.

The post New Design for Seattle Bubble appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

Of course, I don’t want to go to a bunch of effort to plan something if nobody would even really be interested in showing up. So I’m posting this to gauge your interest in this sort of thing. If you would be so kind, I’d appreciate it if you would leave a comment stating whether you would come to a Seattle Bubble meetup, what day of the week / time works best for you, and any location suggestions you might have.

Depending on how much interest there is, I’ll try to throw something together for next month.

The post Seattle Bubble Meetup in February? appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

With that in mind, please take a few moments to look through the terms below and give us some feedback. If we left anything important out or got something wrong, please let us know in the comments below. Also, if you have any suggestions on ways to format it to make things easier to find, feel free to share that as well.

Please limit discussion on this thread to comments specifically related to the glossary. If you would like to discuss other topics, use the forum. Thanks!

80/20:	A home loan arrangement that was common during the housing boom, in which two loans were taken out by a home buyer: one for 80% of the value of the home, and another for the remaining 20%. While the terms on the 20% loan were generally not very favorable, this arrangement allowed the borrower to pay loan interest rather than PMI, which was not tax deductible.
affordability:	A way of looking at home prices relative to incomes and interest rates. Housing is generally said to be “affordable” if the monthly PITI payments do not exceed 30% of one’s gross monthly income.As an aggregate statistic for an area, affordability is calculated by comparing the median income to the median home price. An affordability of 100 or greater indicates that the median home is affordable to a family with the median income. The affordability of every region tends to vary inversely based on the desirability of the locale. For instance, Seattle’s affordability will be lower than Topeka, but higher than San Francisco.
adjustable rate mortgage:	A type of home loan in which the interest rate may change or “adjust” after some period of time, usually in the upward direction. ARM rates usually start off at a lower point than fixed-rate loans.
ARM:	See adjustable rate mortgage.
Aubrey Cohen:	The Seattle P-I real estate reporter. Mr. Cohen’s articles generally tend to be less biased than those penned by Elizabeth Rhodes of the Times.
bailout:	Refers to the possibility of the government intervening in the collapse of the housing bubble by providing financial assistance to distressed home buyers and/or financial institutions.
Ballard:	A north Seattle neighborhood that received a lot of media attention at the height of Seattle’s real estate boom throughout 2006. On Seattle Bubble, Ballard frequently was referred to in a sarcastic sense as a sort of mystically special place where the laws of real estate do not apply. See also: Pink Ponies
behind the cycle:	The observation that the real estate market in Seattle (and most of the Northwest) tends to lag the rest of the country by about a year. This phenomenon has been discussed at length on Seattle Bubble but no specific cause has been found.
Bill Virgin:	An opinion columnist for the Seattle P-I who occasionally addresses the local real estate market, generally agreeing with the sentiments expressed at Seattle Bubble.
Boeing:	As a major Seattle-area employer, airline manufacturer Boeing often comes up in discussions about the real estate market. Generally they are used as an example of the Seattle-area’s strong economy, and reason that the real estate market will not weaken. See also: Microsoft
bubble:	In general terms, an economic bubble is when the price of a commodity rises to a price much higher than what would be supported by the underlying fundamentals. For housing, these fundamentals would be things such as incomes, historic price-to-rent ratios, and mortgage payments.In terms of this site, the “bubble” can be seen as having dual meaning, also referring to an imaginary “bubble” of protection that separates the Seattle housing market from the rest of the nation.
Case-Shiller:	Karl Case and Robert Shiller have devised a way of tracking home prices by looking only at repeat sales of the same homes. Their index is referred to as the S&P / Case-Shiller Home Price Index, often CSI for short. The index is tracked for twenty cities across the country, of which Seattle is one. More information about the Case-Shiller Home Price Index can be found here.
CSI:	See Case-Shiller.
Devona Wells:	A writer for the Tacoma News-Tribune that frequently reports on the real estate market. She also maintains a real estate blog about the market in Tacoma.
Distressed Seller’s Index:	An arbitrary, non-scientific index invented by Seattle Bubble to track the general direction of the level of urgency in home listings.
DSI:	See Distressed Seller’s Index.
Elizabeth Rhodes:	The Seattle Times business reporter who writes most of their articles on the real estate market. Her articles generally cast the real estate market in as positive a light as possible, though she has frequently denied being biased by the fact that the clear majority of the Times’ income (and therefore her salary) is derived from real estate advertising (most often home and condo developers).
FB:	An abbreviation for F***ed Borrower. Presumably comes from a housing-specific re-application of the term popularized by the dot-com bust website F***ed Company.
FSBO:	For Sale By Owner – The process of selling one’s house without the assistance of a paid real estate agent. Also used to refer to the house itself that is for sale by owner.
Glenn Crellin:	As the Director of the WCRER, Glenn is frequently quoted in local articles about the housing market in Seattle and Washington State. Usually expresses a positive outlook on the market.
liar loans:	Usually refers to a type of home loan called a “no-doc loan” that was common during the real estate boom. “No-doc” refers to the fact that no documentation is required to verify income. The widespread misused of no-doc loans allowed people like Casey Serin to buy homes they clearly could not afford.
Mark Trahant:	An opinion columnist for the Seattle P-I who occasionally addresses the local real estate market, generally agreeing with the sentiments expressed at Seattle Bubble.
Matthew Gardner:	Seattle-area “land-use economist” who is frequently quoted in local articles relating to the real estate market. Generally has a positive outlook on housing.
Microsoft:	As a major Seattle-area employer, software and hardware maker Microsoft often comes up in discussions about the real estate market. Generally they are used as an example of the Seattle-area’s strong economy, and reason that the real estate market will not weaken. See also: Boeing
Mike Benbow:	A writer for the Everett Herald that frequently reports on the real estate market.
MLS:	See Multiple Listing Service
MOM (or M2M):	Stands for month-over-month, referring to looking at a data point in contrast to the same data for the previous month. Susceptible to seasonal fluctuations.
Moody’s:	A private data-crunching company that is frequently quoted in real estate articles by CNN, Forbes, and Fortune. Often provides predictions about the future direction of real estate markets, which may vary wildly from month to month.
Multiple Listing Service:	A privately-run fee-based database of real estate listings. Full access to the database is granted only to licensed real estate professionals who pay a regular fee for membership. The public can generally view the basic information about home listings within the MLS through individual brokerage (e.g. – Windermere or John L. Scott) or compilation (e.g. – Ziprealty, Estately) websites.
Northwest Multiple Listing Service:	The MLS which covers most of Western Washington State.
NWMLS:	See Northwest Multiple Listing Service
Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight:	A federal entity that studies housing and releases their own home price index, similar to the CSI. Their stated mission is to “promote housing and a strong national housing finance system.”
OFHEO:	See Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight
pink ponies:	A running gag / inside joke on Seattle Bubble that refers to the mistaken belief of many Seattle residents that the Seattle area is somehow special, unique, and immune to any of the woes that may effect the rest of the housing markets across the nation. The origin of the joke is a series of comments by an individual posting under the name Chris. The first of such posts was this: Remember, if there is a downturn in the nation’s economy, it will not affect Seattle. This is because Seattle is special, a magical place where all homeowners ride pretty pink ponies on streets made of crystal, and gumdrops fall from the sky… More information can be found on the forum here. See also: Seattle is special
PITI:	Principal, Interest, Taxes, and Insurance. Refers to the total payment one generally makes each month on their home loan.
PMI:	See Private Mortgage Insurance
priced out forever:	Refers to the faulty belief that home price increases will indefinitely outpace wage increases, thus leading individuals to become permanently unable to afford to buy a home. This concept is discussed in depth at the Seattle Bubble sister site Priced Out Forever.
Private Mortgage Insurance:	When a home loan is written for more than 80% of the value of the home (i.e. – the down payment was less than 20%), the lender generally requires the borrower to pay private mortgage insurance. The cost of this insurance varies based on a Risk Index calculated for individual cities by a company called The PMI Group, Inc..
Rain City Guide:	A Seattle-area blog focused on the local real estate market, written by a cooperative group consisting primarily of people directly employed in the real estate industry (e.g. – real estate agents, mortgage professionals, etc.). As of the most recent statistics available, Rain City Guide is Seattle’s second most-popular real estate blog, after Seattle Bubble.
real estate agent:	An individual that sells the service of assisting buyers and/or sellers of homes. See also: Realtor.
real estate professional:	An individual whose occupation is in some way related to the buying and selling of real estate. Examples include real estate agents, mortgage brokers, real estate lawyers, escrow officers, etc.
Realtor:	Technically, the term Realtor is only properly used to describe a real estate agent who is a member of the trade group known as the National Association of Realtors. However, in common language, much like the words Kleenex or Band-Aid, Realtor has come to be used in a more generic sense to refer to anyone acting as a real estate agent.
Redfin:	A web-based company that started in Seattle and offers discounted services to home sellers and buyers. Generally looked down upon and derided by traditional real estate professionals, often to the point that they will not even refer to it by name.
repartmenting:	The act of a condo project reverting to apartments. Usually referring to a building that was originally apartments, was being converted to condos, then went back to apartments. Also sometimes used to refer to new construction condos switching to apartments.
Seattle is special:	A running gag / inside joke on Seattle Bubble that refers to the mistaken belief of many Seattle residents that the Seattle area is somehow special, unique, and immune to any of the woes that may effect the rest of the housing markets across the nation. See also: Pink Ponies
Steve Tytler:	Occasional real estate columnist for the Everett Herald, also the owner of Best Mortgage. Steve is the most bearish regularly-printed real estate professional in the Seattle area, and has frequently predicted that prices will drop up to 20% off the peak, level off for “a few years,” then begin rising again.
Suzanne researched this:	A now-famous line uttered in a Century 21 commercial titled “The Debate” that has become the poster-child of the housing bubble. See the commercial on YouTube here. Also be sure to check out this related post.
Urbnlivn:	A Seattle-area blog focused on the condo market, specifically in Seattle proper. Urbnlivn proprietor Matt Goyer is presently an employee of Redfin.
Washington Center for Real Estate Research:	A group based in Pullman, WA at Washington State University that, as the name implies, researches the Washington State housing market. Portions of their funding for specific studies come from industry associations such as the Washington Realtors. Generally their outlook on housing is positive.
WCRER:	See Washington Center for Real Estate Research
Williams Marketing:	A condo marketing company that is frequently quoted by the Seattle P-I in articles about the local housing market.
YOY (or Y2Y):	Stands for year-over-year, referring to looking at a data point in contrast to the same data for the same month in the previous year. Factors out any potential seasonal effects that are common in looking at real estate statistics, but is slower to show change than MOM.
Zillow:	A free online real estate valuation estimate tool. Also a Seattle-based company.

The post Seattle Bubble Glossary appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

And just as a sadistic bonus, here’s the worst Christmas song you’ll ever hear. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Merry Christmas!

The post Happy Christmas! appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

The post Happy Thanksgiving appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

The post Merry Christmas! appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

Question: I have been seeing stories in the news about the housing bubble around the country, with some areas seeing a drop in prices now that the big boom is over. Do you think that will happen here in the Seattle area too?D.K., Lynnwood

Answer: …Last year at this time, I went out on a limb and said that I felt that the local housing market was peaking. I thought that home prices would max out during the spring home-buying season and then level off. Home prices actually continued to increase through late summer, but the housing market has definitely cooled off in the last three months, as I had expected.

This week, the Northwest Multiple Listing Service released home sale stats for November and you can see that a trend is emerging. There were 35 percent more homes for sale last month than there were in November 2005. At the same time, there were 11 percent fewer homes sold in November compared with November 2005.
…
So I suspect that next spring when most sellers put their homes on the market, we will see a big increase in the inventory of homes of sale. And unless there is a large pool of prospective buyers out there, we will probably see the home market swing toward a buyer’s market where there are more homes for sale than buyers. That’s good news for home buyers who have been frustrated by skyrocketing home prices over the past few years, but not such good news for homeowners who need to sell soon.

As I said above, prices will likely flatten out and possibly decline slightly, but traditionally we don’t have the kind of home price “crash” that happens in boom-and-bust housing markets such as San Diego, Las Vegas and Phoenix.

Of course, we also traditionally don’t have the kind of home price “spike” that we have had in the last three years, where the median home price shot up nearly 50%.

He goes on to explain the possibility that speculators fleeing the market will further drive prices down. Much to my amazement, rather than repeating the oft-heard (but never backed up) claim that the Seattle market doesn’t have many investors, he admits that their potential affect on the Seattle market is largely unknown.

I don’t recall seeing (and couldn’t locate) an article published “last year at this time” where he claims to have predicted Seattle’s housing market peak. If anyone knows where to find a link to that, please post it in the comments. [Update: Thanks to Megan the Librarian below for pointing out the November 2005 article Mr. Tytler references above.]

Kudos to Mr. Tytler for pointing out the obvious trend and its likely result.

(Steve Tytler, Everett Herald, 12.10.2006)

The post Seattle-Area Home Prices "Likely to Decline" appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

[2015 Update]

As of December 2015, I am 35 and now working at Moz. I still own and live in the same home we bought in 2011.

[End of 2015 Update]

[2011 Update]

As of mid-2011, I am 31 and working as a product manager at Redfin. For details about my other personal projects, visit Thatch Mound. After searching for over six years while I watched the housing market inflate and then crash, I finally bought my first home in May 2011.

[End of 2011 Update]

The following was written when I started this site in 2005:

Throughout early 2005, my wife and I spent some time “window shopping” for houses, and became increasingly discouraged as we watched prices become more and more unreasonable. In addition, as we window-shopped I did a lot of reading and research. The more I read about housing and real estate in general, the more stories I noticed speculating that there was a bubble. I decided to start this blog as a way to collect these stories for my own future reference as well as to generate discussion among other interested parties. I figured that in a region with over two million people, a decent number of them might be just as interested as I am in the subject.

Given all that I have read as well as what I have observed, I do believe there is a speculative bubble in real estate right now. I don’t know it for sure and I could be convinced otherwise, but that’s where I stand right now. I believe that the present real estate bubble is due to a combination of factors, among which are:

• lowest interest rates in history persisting for years
• lenders falling over themselves to hand out home loans to anyone and everyone
• people burned by the stock market moving to real estate as an investment

One thing I do know for certain is that the recent trend of rapidly increasing property values (double-digit increases year-on-year) cannot possibly continue indefinitely. If it did, eventually everyone would be priced out of real estate. There has to be a slow-down sometime, and I think it’s coming fairly soon (within the next 3-5 years). I don’t know if it will take the form of a leveling off of values, or a slow decrease, or a sudden decrease (bubble bursting), but I know it is coming.

Therefore, since the only way my wife and I could afford a home that is even halfway decent right now would be to make use of “creative financing,” and there is at least a chance that real estate is due for a “price correction” soon, we have decided that it is not in our best interests to “invest” in a home at this time. Consider these scenarios:

If we buy a decent house right now through “creative financing” and interest rates go up, we’ll be unable to afford to keep making payments, and forced to sell the house. No big deal if prices just level off, but we would be in a really bad way if prices drop.If we buy a house with 20% down and a fixed-rate mortgage, and interest rates go up and prices drop, we’re not in danger of not making payments, but we could end up essentially stuck holding onto a mediocre house until prices go back up.

If we hold off buying and prices just level off, we’ve still saved a bunch of money and are able to afford a lot nicer place than we can right now.

If we hold off buying during this real estate frenzy, and prices dramatically drop in a few years, then we’ll be able to take the money we’ve saved in the mean time and buy a nice house.

Given the options and the uncertainty of the current market, not buying right now seems to be the best choice for us. So that’s where I’m coming from. What about you? Do you currently own property, are you holding out, or just not interested? Have you recently bought a home, or are you buying properties as investments? What do you think about the possible risks?

The post About the Blogger appeared first on Seattle Bubble.

• Does a real estate/housing bubble exist?
• If not, why not?
• If so, why?
• If so, when/how will it end?
• etc…

Many other informative blogs and sites exist to discuss the bubble in general or specific to other locales. I highly recommend you educate yourself through the links in the sidebar. To be honest, the main reason I’m starting this blog is to collect information for my own interest, and I just figured that if I’m this interested in the subject, maybe some other people in the area are too. I hope you find this to be a useful resource.

The post Welcome to Seattle Bubble appeared first on Seattle Bubble.