Here’s a little sample of the kind of real estate booster piece that gets circulated among those "in the business," courtesy of NWREporter. (Emphasis theirs) According to CNNMoney.com, the forecasts for housing price growth are calling for booming values in the state of Washington. For the June issue of MONEY Magazine, Fiserv Lending Solutions and…
State’s Chief Economist Warns Of Slowdown
Despite the fact that wages have basically been stagnant while daily expenses such as gasoline have been, shall we say, upwardly mobile, the state continues to rake in record revenue. Chang Mook Sohn, the state’s chief economist, said today that his outlook for tax collections for the 2007-09 biennium shows ever increasing revenues that lawmakers…
Seattle Soft Landing: Do The Math
A while back, a commenter made the following claim: What history tells us will happen is that prices will level off, and appreciation rates will reflect your average inflation rates (on average) until wages catch up with home prices and the fundamentals start to match back up. As most of you know, this scenario is…
The Case For Condo Mania
In the interest of being even-handed, I present to you the case for downtown condo mania, courtesy of the Seattle Times. The more housing we build downtown, the more desirable downtown becomes for all — residents, workers, visitors and tourists. Many people who live downtown invest in downtown. They donate their time and resources to…
Local Real Estate Blog Talks Bubble
Over at the P-I’s Seattle Real Estate Professionals blog, Gregory Wharton (identified as an architect and developer) is in the middle of a very detailed series of posts tackling the subject of—you guessed it—a real estate bubble in Seattle. In the next series of posts on the subject, I’ll investigate Seattle housing prices and associated…