Here are a few relevant news stories that have popped into my inbox in the last few days: Associated Press: Wash. revenue down, but recession may be softening Seattle P-I: Housing recovery depends on jobs, banker says Associated Press: Wash. unemployment rate stayed same in April Tacoma News-Tribune: Turning little boxes into living space Everett…
Category: News
News, current events, etc.
PSBJ: Local Banks Feeling the Regulatory Squeeze
Over at the Puget Sound Business Journal, reporter Kirsten Grind posted an interesting story today on their recently-launched BizTalk blog: Crackdown on HomeStreet Bank comes as a surprise Washington state regulators don’t seem to have much patience these days for our struggling community banks and are increasingly slapping them with cease-and-desist orders to force a…
National Interactive “Stress Index” Map from AP
The Associated press published an interesting interactive map recently that is worth checking out. They took a handful of economic measures such as the unemployment rate, the foreclosure rate, and the bankruptcy rate, and calculated an “Economic Stress Index” for every county in the country. Here’s a snapshot of their March 2009 map (click to…
Failed / Stalled Mixed-Use Developments Around the Sound
From today’s Olympian: Housing project in foreclosure Thurston Highlands, one of the largest proposed mixed-use developments in the state, has emerged as the biggest example of how the economic crisis has had a corrosive effect on development. Through its trustee, the project’s primary lender, Frontier Bank, has started foreclosure proceedings on the 1,250-acre property after…
Economic and Real Estate Truth One-Liners
I saw this on BoingBoing the other day, and thought it was interesting… Debt is not a good product I just had a great hour-long phone conversation with an old friend, Will Dana (now editor of Rolling Stone), who has strongly encouraged me to come up with one-liners that tell the truth about the economic/banking…