FYI, the site is having some troubles this morning. I'm working on it with my web host. # Site is back up! Thanks for the speedy response, @WiredTree! # Bankrupt developer still hopes to build out 350 acre development N. of Cabela's http://bit.ly/aBlfA8 # RT @urbnlivn: Olive 8 Condo Auction Results http://bit.ly/97TIm5 (avg. sale was…
Big Picture Week: Unemployment and Foreclosures
To close out the week, let’s have a look at a couple of factors that are continuing to drag the local housing market down: unemployment and foreclosures. From 1990 through 2006, the average unemployment rate in King County was 4.9%. The unemployment rate is currently 8.0% (63% higher than the 1990-2006 average). Over that same…
Big Picture Week: Price to Income Ratio
Like the price to rent ratio, it’s been over a year since we visited the subject of Seattle’s home price to income ratio, so let’s take another look. Here’s how the ratio stacks up when you use King County median household income data from the OFM: Not too different from what we saw in yesterday’s…
Big Picture Week: Price to Rent Ratio
It’s been over a year since we last checked in on Seattle’s price to rent ratio. Let’s see how that metric looks over the last twenty years [Update: I changed the chart below to reflect the annual rent. Here’s the original based on monthly rent.]: It is interesting to note that thanks to semi-flatening home…
Big Picture Week: Examining Home Affordability
In one of the first responses to yesterday’s look at Seattle’s long-term Case-Shiller Home Price Index Ross Peterson brought up a good point: So equivalent annual income increase did not keep up with the housing prices increase but did the buying power keep up with the increase? I think the interests rates have fallen in…