local real estate news, statistics, and commentary without the sales spin.
With home prices nearing their 2007 peak levels in the Seattle area (and no doubt exceeding them in some neighborhoods), I thought it would be good to step back from the monthly stats and take a big picture look at what’s going on in the housing market.
To answer the question of whether or not we are in another bubble, let’s compare and contrast the present frenzy to what the housing market went through during the Great Housing Bubble…
An article published this week in Seattle Weekly titled A Letter to the Investor Buying Our Apartment Building pinned the blame for the lack of affordable housing in the Seattle area on investors and their dirty obsession with profits.
…Eve and Charles told us they were putting the property up for sale. Who could blame them? The building is a century old and so much work went into maintaining it, especially for a couple of people who, also, are aging. But it’s prime real estate, right on the water with a view that would make even Donald Trump drool. So we had a good idea of what would happen after the sale went through. Skyrocketing rents and a landlord we’d never see, much less ever know…
Blogs are great, but one issue I’ve run into occasionally is that once a post falls off the front page, it can be hard to find again later. This doesn’t really matter when the posts are about current events or the latest data, but some of what I publish here on Seattle Bubble is content…
Gene Balk posted an interesting piece on the Seattle Times last week that explores how the number of low, middle, and high income households have grown or shrunk around King County since 2000: Mapping King County’s disappearing middle class The map is cool (click through to the article for an interactive version), and Gene’s overall…
It’s time once again for the monthly reporting roundup, where you can read my wry commentary about the news instead of subjecting yourself to boring rehashes of the NWMLS press release (or in addition to, if that’s what floats your boat). To kick things off, here’s an excerpt from the NWMLS press release: Favorable weather…