October sales data is in for Thurston County, and prices just continue to soar, posting a 34 percent year-on-year gain: The October median price of just under $250,000 is the latest in a series of consecutive monthly record highs. The $249,900 figure was 34 percent higher than last year’s $186,000, and was almost $14,000 more…
Forbes: Seattle 8th Richest City
A reader sent in this link to a Forbes story about the “Richest” cities in the US. In Forbes’ list of the 10 “richest” Seattle comes in at #8. However, I’m a bit suspicious of their methods though, since they list the Median Income of Seattle as $46,650, when the latest figures I’ve seen for…
Cashing Out On The Bubble
If you own property right now that you bought before the latest surge in prices, is now the time to cash out? That’s the question that this article tackles, starting with an example of a local couple who did just that. For Joan and Mike Whitney of Snohomish, Wash., outside Seattle, moving wasn’t in the…
Apartment Complex Sale Prices Soaring
As has been pointed out on this blog in the past, it isn’t just the personal residential real estate market that’s in bubble territory in Seattle. Huge corporations have been buying and selling entire apartment complexes at record rates, resulting in (of course) dramatically increasing prices: For anybody who’s lost a bidding war for a…
2,000 Acre "Mini-Cities" Debated In Snohomish
Snohomish County is considering a proposal to allow supposedly “self-contained” communities. The Everett Herald reports on a public hearing last night: The mini-cities – built as large housing and commercial developments – are called fully contained communities, and continue to suffer criticism for not being fully contained. Such developments would require at least 2,000 acres…