Ever since I started (so long ago, I know) this blog I’ve been wondering—what does it take to get “mainstream” reporters in Seattle to sit up and realize that housing has gotten out of control around here? Well it looks like I finally got my answer. For Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat, it takes a…
Seattle Rents Predicted To Climb
Looks like at least some people are finally cluing in to the fact that jumping on the home ownership bandwagon might not be the best financial proposal out there and they’re better off renting. After several years of flat rents and high vacancies, the local apartment market is tightening, thanks to folks like Seattleite Matt…
Taller Downtown = "Affordable" Downtown
In case you missed it last week, the downtown building height / "affordable housing" saga finally came to somewhat of a conclusion. The repeal of the CAP initiative Monday was unanimous and underwhelming—an anticlimactic finish for a once-sacrosanct law that limited downtown building heights for almost 20 years. So uncontroversial was the new law, proposed…
Seattle A "FairValue"
A commenter pointed out this article on CNN Money a few days ago regarding overpriced coastal housing markets: Some of the most overheated U.S. housing markets did become a little less overvalued during the fourth quarter of 2005 — but homes there didn’t actually fall in price.Other factors, such as rising income, combined to increase…
Newsflash: Rapid Appreciation Not All Good
Peter Callaghan must have missed the memo. A local reporter actually covering the dark side of increasing home prices . Holy cow, I think I might faint. Homeowners seem to enjoy the breathless stories about superheated real estate markets. Pierce County, for example, saw an 18 percent increase in the median price in the last…