Here’s something that should be fun to discuss. I’m interested in hearing everybody’s ideas about the types of scenarios that may play out in the Seattle-area housing market. Best case, worst case, and most likely case. Here are my wild-donkey guesses: Best CasePrices flat to +3% for ten or more years. Local economy keeps chugging,…
Robert Shiller: Fundamentals No, Psychology Yes
For those of you that are interested in more lengthy reading, a new paper by Robert Shiller (as in Case-Shiller) was released this weekend: Understanding Recent Trends in House Prices and Home Ownership (pdf). Here are a couple of money quotes: It does not appear possible to explain the boom in terms of fundamentals such…
Has Seattle Reached a new Plateau?
A reader going by the name Angie has been making some comments on a couple of posts the last few days that merit further discussion: …the fact is that in some places in the US all but the very rich have been priced out forever! NYC, coastal southern California, San Francisco, etc, etc. It’s been…
Say Hell NO to Government Bailouts!
Seriously. What the hell. August 9, 2007 – Bush: No bailout for pinched homeowners President Bush said Thursday concern should be shown those who’ve lost their homes but it’s not the federal government’s job to bail them out. “Obviously anybody who loses their home is somebody with whom we must show an enormous empathy,” Bush…
Case-Shiller Complete Graph
By popular request, here is a version of yesterday’s graph that includes all 20 cities tracked by Case-Shiller, with no time-shifting monkey business going on. Click the image for a super-sized version. Click to enlarge When I look at the graph, I see that Seattle and Portland—for whatever reason—seem to have arrived at the appreciation-spike…