We spend a lot of time on here with posts directed toward helping home buyers to do their research and make smart decisions, but the housing market is made up of buyers and sellers, so let’s turn our attention toward home sellers. Just a few short years ago, the home-selling process went something like this:…
Category: Features
King County Home Prices & Affordability 1950-2009 Q1
A reader pointed out that I had not provided an updated chart of the long-term (50+ year) trend of local home prices since I originally posted my research in February 2008. So, here’s an updated look at the long-term trends in local home prices and affordability: So much for Steve Tytler‘s famous “stair step” theory…
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,…
The Biggest Real Estate Scam Of All Time
A reader sent me this excerpt from the Fraud Examiners Manual (2006 edition), published by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners: Real Estate Real estate scams are easily recognized. There is almost always an element of time pressure, with the victims being convinced they are participating in a “once-in-a-lifetime, now-or-never” deal. The investors are led…